These days, a hidden location far from the city is no longer a deterrent to a restaurant’s success.
Partly due to a surge in the car population here in the past few years, places such as Rochester Park and Dempsey Hill were instant successes.

Hidden from busy thoroughfares and surrounded by verdant landscapes, they offer diners a reprieve from the concrete jungle.

The owners of the week-old Firestation Hillside Gastrobar on Upper Bukit Timah Road are obviously banking on the same reasons to make it work.

Converted from a small, three-storey building that was part of the disused Bukit Timah Fire Station, its lit sign can just be seen from the main road peeking above a cluster of trees.

Not much has been done to the original building other than to fit in a kitchen on the ground floor and a wine cellar on the second. The rest of the place is left in a rather raw state, which I actually find appealing because it exudes a casual, relaxed vibe.

Seating is mostly alfresco on a wooden platform in front of the building, and a small area at the back where tables for two are set out. There are only eight tables indoors, in two narrow rooms flanking the kitchen in the middle. Private rooms upstairs are not ready yet.

The menu is typical cafe fare: heavy on tapas and pizzas plus a small selection of salads, soups, pastas, main courses and desserts.



The best bet is to go for the pizzas. I tried one called The Big Five ($24), with toppings of chorizo sausage, salami, BBQ chicken, onion and mushroom – a combination that works well. The pizza base is thin and crisp, and I like that the salami is not overly strong and does not overpower the other toppings.

The potato gnocchi ($28) is also worth trying. The soft nuggets of potato pasta are tossed with a generous amount of shredded duck confit, wild mushroom and garlic in a sourish pomodoro sauce. A few drops of truffle oil give it a distinctive aroma.

I also like the sauteed prawns with chilli ($8) that I have as a topping for the Caesar salad ($12). The shellfish is tasty and has a nice crunchy texture. The salad, however, is rather run-of-the-mill.

Also rather ordinary is the steak tartare on toast ($12) that I pick out from the cold tapas section. The bread slices are topped with what tastes more like a meat pate than steak tartare, but I have to say that the amount is generous.

What the chef needs to work on are the deep-fried items. Both the mussel fritters ($16) from the hot tapas section and the Hoegaarden beer battered fish ($28) from the mains are over-fried. They come to the table brown when they should have been golden.

The mussels are tough and dry as a result. The batter for the fish, while crispy, tastes slightly bitter – which may have come from the beer.

Desserts are rather unusual. What is called warm carrot cake ($12) turns out to be unlike any carrot cake I’ve seen. It’s covered with a ganache and mint-flavoured chocolate crisps.

The cake itself, however, is disappointing: It is too wet and sticks to the palate as a result.

The food at Firestation is no gourmet fare but it is decent as a whole. Prices are reasonable and the ambience is appealing. For a gastrobar, all that is good enough to draw a crowd.

Firestation Hillside Gastrobar
274 Upper Bukit Timah Road
Tel: 6465 0600 
Open: 5pm to midnight (Tuesdays to Sundays), closed on Mondays
Food: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Ambience: 3.5/5
Price: Budget about $40 a person, without drinks

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Nov 9, 2008.