Raw Kitchen Bar Restaurant in Singapore

Raw Kitchen Bar and Restaurant is located at an old fire station at the Upper Bukit Timah Road in Singapore. Run by couple Javier Perez and Sharon Lee, this Japanese, Italian and Asian restaurant in housed in one of the older single story brick bungalow with an open back courtyard which in turn is stunningly beautiful to dine at. Somewhat like visiting a friends house for dinner, Raw Kitchen brings you back into the 70s in this well decorated house-restaurant.

Getting to Raw Kitchen Bar is no hassle as upon arriving at the old Bukit Timah Fire Station entrance, just drive in till the end of the road and you will see this cozy little white house with a tiny signboard no larger than a shoe box mounted on the entrance wall.

Raw Kitchen Bar has two dining sections, indoor and outdoor al fresco. Usually the outdoors would fill up quickly so the best to book ahead or make reservations before coming here on weekend. From the looks of the Raw Bar Kitchen, it is a perfect place to host small parties or celebrations and the outlet would easily accommodate about 50-60 people.

Inside the Raw Kitchen Bar, there are many tasteful pieces of furniture placed all over the premises. A small bar cum cashier counter greets you while a piano sits against one of the walls it feels like you are in someone’s home. On entering the indoor seating, there are various types of tables and chairs where no two are alike. From tables of two for the romantic couple to family tables that can seat about 6 to 8 people.

Decorations are minimal and tastefully selected where you see unfinished walls and 70s style large framed window louvers on one side of the hall and on the opposite are 2 main door ways to the outdoor area. The mood of the music is pretty different too as when I was there, Bob Marley was playing with a mix of other modern lounge and club tunes.

Al fresco dining outside the Raw Kitchen Bar should be tried as colourful lanterns hang above the area which is partly covered with part of the Bukit Timah greens.

Taking a look at the menu at Raw Kitchen Bar, I couldn’t help notice that there was no raw food served here so it was rather catchy to use that name for a restaurant. Back to the menu, it was a simple one paged menu serving from starters till desserts.

We had 3 starters as none of us were very hungry, the Chilli-Lime Grilled Pork Salad was simply awesome with generous portions of pork tossed with fresh greens.

Zucchini Pancake with balsamic goat cheese and prosciutto, this was one of my favourites as it was just tasty and was perfect sized portion. The trick here is to put the prosciutto in between the zucchini pancake like a burger. If you are a big eater, go for two starters here.

The Salt and Pepper Squid was a nice touch as it was lightly marinated so you could taste the overall favour. This dish comes with 2 additional dips.

Off the menu, we were recommended the special which was Barbecued Chicken Drummets served on a bed of fresh greens.

The Mozzarella, Basil and Rosemary Pizza was pretty tasty as you could taste the flavours of the herbs used. Note the pizzas here are all thin crusted and not over marinated. Best ordered to share as all the pizzas here are large portions.

One of my favourites here was the Prawn and Chilli Pizza, as usually it is hard to find this kind of pizza around. A generous portions of fresh prawns was topped as you can see in the picture above. The crust, thin as I always like my pizzas, was perfect. However, if you are expecting more to the topping, don’t. The menu says it all, prawns and chilli. Also note that the chilli can get a tad spicy for the non chili eaters.

For the meat lovers, the BBQ Pork Ribs with Parmesan Roasted Wedges was excellent. Though the portion looked small with 6 finger sized ribs, the prok was really tender. Your knife would just fall through when cutting it. A great dish to share. However, I found the apple sauce that came along with this was a bit over as the ribs had that sweet touch to it. So we used the apple sauce as a dip for the wedges.

The menu of Raw Kitchen Bar. Excuse the poor photograph for the menu, but do click on the picture to see it in full size for details.

My conclusion to Raw Kitchen Bar – This is an excellent place to entertain, throw a small party may it be a wedding, anniversary, birthday, visiting guests or just for no reason. The food is excellent, staff good and overall ambiance perfect. Of course, it is also recommended for a nice dinner with your loved one or families.

If you are from the breed of huge eaters, give this place a miss as the portions are not your typical hawker sized dishes. You may have to order two mains to fulfill that appetite of yours. Women will find the portions perfect here and groups will have a field day with ordering various dishes.

If you haven’t had enough of drinks, you can just walk next door to the Firestation Hillside Gastrobar which is more on the trendier louder side.

Prices: Surprisingly cheaper then I expected, we are looking at about SG$50.00 (US$34.00) per head without wine.