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Sque (pronounced as “skew”) is the latest addition to Emmanuel Stroobant’s chain of restaurants. In the chain are Saint Pierre, The French Kitchen, Brussels Sprouts, Rocks Urban Grill & Bar and Picotin. Opened in July, Sque has a total seating capacity of 256 with a small indoor dining area.
This casual dining joint overlooks the Singapore River at The Central. It took over the waterfront space that previously housed the Sun with Moon Japanese restaurant.
Sque is a “no frills” type of eatery. The flooring is not carpeted, just plain cement. The décor is simple with the chairs and tables resembling Ikea’s light pine wood furniture. Overhead fans are provided for outdoor dining.
The simplicity feel is carried over to the menu, which is a folded sheet of paper and you order your food by ticking the boxes against the items. The food items are divided into sections – starters, salads, sandwiches, rotisserie items, mains, sides and desserts. This certainly removes the hassle of ordering especially for diners who are undecided about what they want to eat.
Under the starters, we tried the snails with mushroom and garlic bread (S$18/-) and chilli crab cake. The snails were disappointing as the taste was flat. As a result of being sautéed with the mushrooms, the snails came shrivelled. We would have preferred them to be baked in garlic sauce. The other starter ‒ chilli crab cake, or spanner crab meat with chilli sauce
(S$18/-) ‒ also did not live up to Emmanuel Stroobant’s reputation. The crab cake had more flour than crab meat in it. If not for the chilli sauce that was served separately as a dip, the taste would have been quite bland.
We ordered pork rib under the Rotisserie items. This is baby back pork rib, sque London pale ale glaze (S$36/-). The pork rib was well marinated, succulent and tender. This was the highlight of the meal.
For mains, we opted for homemade fish fingers, which was lemon sole, French fries, and tartare sauce (S$29/-). This was a commendable dish as the flour coating the fish fillet was crispy. When sliced, the fish inside was not dry.
Sque serves good desserts. The serving staff recommended their two popular desserts. We had the chocolate-beer pie, which was dark chocolate ganache, kriek beer, and chocolate ice cream (S$15/-). There was no distinctive taste of the beer in the pie. Instead, the dark chocolate tasted rich and creamy, and was not too sweet. The chocolate ice cream blended well with the pie – just the right combination.
The second dessert was Belgian chocolate mousse, which is spicy caramel, chocolate mousse with vanilla ice cream (S$9/-). This came in a glass with the caramel and mousse at the bottom and the vanilla ice cream sitting on top. The caramel was a little sticky and sweet. The addition of vanilla ice cream helped to smoothen the concoction. When you stir hard, it is like a very thick and sticky chocolate milk shake.
There were hits and misses at Sque. For the kind of ambience, we found the price on the high side especially for the starters. On that particular Sunday when we were there, there were not many serving staff around and we had to wave to get their attention.
This is one place where you can go in your casual wear and flip-flops. If you are the type who likes alfresco dining with a glass of beer to watch the world go by, this is the place to be. One of the highlights of Sque is its list of over 200 international beers from Belgium, Germany, the UK and even Asia.
Address: #01-70 The Central
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
Singapore 059817
Opening Hours:
Sundays-Thursdays: 11:30 am-midnight
Fridays-Saturdays: 11:30 am-1 am
Tel: +65-6222-1887
