Whether you’re on the hunt for a healthy lunch bite or in the mood for after work cocktails, Crackerjack is a top pick in Tanjong Pagar
It’s tough eating clean in Tanjong Pagar when you’re fighting the temptations of delightfully greasy local hawker food (we’re a fan of Maxwell Food Court) and the slew of Korean fried chicken joints in the area. But if you still need a little push towards a healthier lunch in Tanjong Pagar, here’s a spot for you!
Bar, restaurant, café, and a “third space” away from work and home, Crackerjack aims to bring together great coffee, food and even cocktails. Its all-encompassing menu includes breakfast (9am-11am), lunch (11.30am-3pm), and dinner (from 6pm). Eager for a taste, we popped by to try one of Crackerjack’s lunch plates – a balanced meal and a freshly baked cookie to round things off.
It’s not easy to find a good scotch egg in Singapore, so I went straight for Crackerjack’s rendition of the scotch egg. But this take on the classic offers a vegetarian-friendly twist – the customary crumbled sausage is swapped out for lentils and mushrooms. The dish comes served with slices of flatbread as well as lemon hummus. While the dish won’t fool anyone into thinking its meat, the rich hearty mix of lentils and mushroom, paired with the soft egg beneath will fuel you up for the rest of the day.
If you’d rather a more meaty lunch offering, tuck into the chermoula chicken instead. The richly seasoned chicken came served with greens, marinated zucchini, and Moroccan millet “cous cous”. Sure, chicken breast and cous cous is hardly a groundbreaking approach to a healthy lunch, but the Moroccan spices do a swell job at ‘jazzing up’ the dish.
I figure it was happy hour somewhere, so I decided to grab quick drink after my lunch. My first pick was the classic negroni, albeit with a rather curious twist. Instead of the gin base, Crackerjack’s negroni uses Mezcal for its distinct smokiness. It’s not a drastically different cocktail for the change, but it’s a rendition that works.
But cocktails for lunch might not be the most responsible decision for health-conscious white-collar warriors, so I made a point to try Crackerjack’s coffee, sourced from 2degrees North and other craft roasters. If you want to be adventurous and try something more offbeat than latte’s and long blacks, opt for the breakfast of champions – a playful blend of espresso and fruity pebbles steeped in milk.
With a range of offerings from breakfast, lunch, and dinner to intriguing cocktails and stellar coffee, there’s really no reason not to hit up this newcomer to Tanjong Pagar’s buzzy dining scene.
Crackerjack, 43 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore 088464.
Want to indulge in good ol’ hawker grub instead? Check out our guide to Maxwell Food Centre, or grab a drink with our guide to the best happy hours in Tanjong Pagar.
