Punch Room Singapore at The Singapore EDITION is the newest outpost of the EDITION’s signature bar concept, and the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.
No prizes for guessing what’s the signature cocktail serve at the Punch Room, one of the newest bars to open in Singapore. A cosy and intimate, almost speakeasy-like little cocktail haunt tucked in the bowels of recently-opened The Singapore EDITION, it focuses pretty much exclusively on punch.
Punch Room Singapore is actually an offshoot of the original Punch Room in the London EDITION that first opened in 2013. Today there are others in various Edition Hotels across the world including Rome, Tokyo, Barcelona and Shanghai. Singapore is its eighth.
As with its sibling concepts around the world, Punch Room in Singapore draws on the same design DNA. You’re looking at a beautifully designed 30-seater bar positively dripping with refined luxury. It’s clad in a mixture of oak and bronze and stone, but the most striking feature is a signature shade of blue that swathes the space like an opulent velvet cloak.
Now for those who aren’t familiar with the punch, it is widely considered to be the grandfather of all cocktails. It can be made from almost any combination of spirit, wine and other liqueurs, and then topped up with fruit juices as well as any kind of sparkling wine (but usually champagne). This allows quite a lot of flexibility, especially under the ministrations of a particularly talented bartender, which thankfully the Punch Room here in Singapore has a few of.
Its debut menu offers a plethora of signature punches, each of which tell a specific story around Singapore’s history and identity. It’s a well-trodden trope among Singapore cocktail bars. But none have done it in full punch form.
You have, for example, Tempest Punch, a gin-rum-sherry led concoction that alludes to the storm experienced by Sang Nila Utama who later founded Temasek, which he named Singapura. There’s Straits Punch, which combines gin, whisky, and ruby port. It is a tribute to Singapore’s first British resident commander William Farquhar, an avid botanist who compiled an entire compendium of drawings of the flora and fauna native to the Malay Peninsula.
Or Merlion Punch, named for Singapore’s iconic mythical half-lion half-fish creature, that’s made with single malt Scotch, tea, and plum.
The list goes on.
Punch Room also offers an afternoon tea menu on Fridays and Saturdays, an enchanting experience of delicious savoury bites and sweet confections inspired by its punch-focused theme.
Now it must be said that you need to a fan of this particular style of cocktail in order to really endear yourself to Punch Room. Which, I have to confess, I am not. But I do appreciate the artistry that go into the cocktails here, the truly stunning setting, as well as the lovely hospitality.
[Photos courtesy of The Singapore EDITION]
Punch Room (The Singapore EDITION)
Address 38 Cuscaden Rd, The Singapore EDITION, Singapore 249731 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 6pm to 12am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 6pm to 2am on Thursdays; 2pm to 2am on Fridays and Saturdays; closed on Mondays and Sundays
Tel (65) 6329 5000
Web www.editionhotels.com/singapore/restaurants-and-bars/punch-room
Facebook TheSingaporeEDITION
Instagram @punchroomedition
Reservations book here
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