Who'd think that Frederick Yap, the entrepreneur behind fashion blogshop, Love, Bonito, would be somewhat of a lobster expert? The brains behind this crustacean-besotted restaurant and bar in Duxton, Pince & Pints is a comprehensive effort by the first time restarateur. The lobsters served in the tight menu of just three dishes ($48 each) are sourced and flown in twice a week from Boston, Maine and Canada, kept happy in chilled tanks in a warehouse near Changi and bussed to the restaurant daily.
While the level of spice in the claypot of lobsters in a too-mild chilli sauce will always be a point of contention between diner to diner, the simply grilled 500 to 600-gram crustacean paired with a clarified herbed butter proves that with meat this fresh, simple really does it. Given the restaurant's American diner-esque interiors and obsession for the clawed creature, there's naturally a lobster roll on offer too, which at $48, seems a little pricey, but the kitchen justifies the bill by packing a full lobster's worth of meat between its uncle baker sourced butter buns from a hawker in People's Park Complex.
To pair, Pince & Pints pulled together a tight menu of reasonably priced summery-sweet 'modern' cocktails. Try its spin on the classic favourite mojito, 500 Days of Summer ($18), a gin with fresh lemon and lime, homemade melon soda, and mint. For something stronger, get Fat & Old Fashioned ($14) with bacon bitters made in-house. Wong Pei Ting