Cuisine: European
Address: 200 Middle Road, Singapore 188980
Nearest MRT: Bencoolen (Downtown Line) or Bugis (East-West/ Downtown Line)

Ginett is my next favourite place for some good wine in Singapore. Ginett Restaurant & Wine Bar is located on the first floor of Hotel G, a boutique hotel located at Middle Road. It is a buzzy bistro-style restaurant and wine bar in the heart of Singapore’s Arts District making it the ideal spot to mix and mingle and make new friends in the city. The cosy venue serves happy hour prices all day, where patrons can choose from more than 90 varieties of wine, sparkling or champagne by the glass, all starting from a pocket-friendly price of just $6++ per glass and $30++ by the bottle.

Update: Nov 2021

In Nov, I went with another friend to try out their weekday set lunch. This is the Grilled chicken breast, with root vegetables and corn with poultry emulsion. Yes, the white broth covering the food is the chicken emulsion, which adds some flavour to the dish but it is not as thick as I envisioned it. I still prefer a simple grilled chicken breast with some spices.

Instead of having the main course and dessert as I always used to order, I decided to try out the starter this time. The soup of the day is Minestrone soup with croutons which was tasty and suitable for a cold, wet day. The other starter of the day was watermelon salad with feta cheese but it didn’t appeal to me because it felt weird to be eating watermelon and cheese in the same dish.

Sept 2021: I had the opportunity to try out the set lunch menu at Ginett. You can choose a two-course meal, either appetiser and main course, or main course and dessert. For the price of $15++, it is really worth it to try out their set lunch if you are around the area on a weekday afternoon.

This is the pan seared sea bass fillet, lightly salted and served with charred cabbage and baby potato. It may seem little for those with a huge appetite, but the potatoes served at the side do help you to load up on the carbs. I liked the simple sauce for the sauce without the use of excessive seasoning.

For desserts, we had coconut mango mousse cake. It was soft and spongy, while the layers of the mousse were done perfectly. The mangoes on top were slightly sour, so it did not go down well with my friend who does not like tangy stuff.

Aug 2021: I went to Ginett for the weekday set lunch and selected their seafood pasta, the pasta used is orzo, which looks like small grains of rice, and with the tomato based seafood sauce it was really delicious. I liked the generous portions of squid and mussels used in this pasta dish.

As for dessert, I had the bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. The warm bread pudding complemented the ice cream and every bit of the dessert was polished clean off the plate. As you can see, I am more of a desserts person so for both times that I visited Ginett, I chose the main course and dessert combo. Overall, it is really worth it to go for the set lunch combo. You can even pair it with a $6 glass of wine. Judging from the lunch crowd, Ginett remains really popular for office workers and housewife ladies who are here for a catch up over a relaxing lunch.

Ginett is a bistro-style restaurant and wine bar in the heart of Singapore’s Arts District. A go-to destination for guests looking for a relaxed yet buzzy escape, it is the ideal spot to mix, mingle and make new friends in the city. The cosy venue serves more than 20 varieties of French wines by the glass at pocket-friendly prices. Hearty European favourites, imported cold cuts and cheese, quick and easy set lunches and high quality weekend brunches are all part of Ginett’s wide-ranging offer, making it a memorable and accessible experience for everyone.

Me and my friends had a dinner reservation at 6.30pm on a Saturday evening. As usual, I was the first to arrive and I was ushered to the reserved table by the waiter. He got me a glass of water and passed me the menu.

This is not my first time at Ginett, the previous time I was here to celebrate the first year anniversary with my girlfriend. The interior is beautifully decorated with many wine glasses hanging neatly from the shelf, within easy reach for the bartender. The main attraction at Ginett is the $6 per glass of wine and their cheapest wine bottle here is $30. There is a wide variety of French, Italian and other countries’ wine, so you would be spoilt for choice. If having a bottle of wine is too much, then you can order as many $6 glasses of wine while getting to try the various types of wines on the menu.

After my friends had arrived, we ordered a Merlot (Château Haut Mondain Grande Réserve, Bordeaux $40) to share first.

For mains, I had the Kurobuta T-bone pork chop $34 served with pepper sauce and ratatouille by the side. My friends had the Confit de Canard $32, La Joue de Bouef $36 (beef cheek) and Kurobuta chop $34.

The Kurobuta T-bone that I had was slightly tough and not so succulent. The ratatouille was delicious and the portion of pork was just nice for me.

The duck leg was equally good too, with a fine balance of sauce and tender duck. It was served together with pommes rissolees.

The beef cheek is made from Wagyu beef, apparently braised for 12 hours, served with sautéed mushrooms and mashed potatoes. The consistency of the mashed potatoes is so smooth and creamy. Lastly, the Kurobuta chop was not as tough as the T-bone, but the blue cheese dip that my friend ordered did not go so well with the pork. The potato wedges were good though.

After dinner, we decided to order another bottle of wine and decided to go with the white instead. We asked the staff who were very knowledgeable about the wines, they recommended us a white that is semi-sweet and not so dry. I like it that they even had a sample portion for us, which shows their excellent service. In the end, we settled for the Sauvignon blanc (Domaine de la Seigneurie des Tourelles, Saumur Blanc). It was smooth and not too dry.

Overall, we had a good meal and a fun time catching up. We also planned for my bachelors party (most likely in Bali) and also talking about our various jobs in the civil service. After 9pm, the music in the restaurant suddenly became louder so we had to speak up more in order to be heard among ourselves. There were many people at Ginett for drinks only and the ambience was really nice. It’s a relaxing place to hang out with friends after work or over the weekend, to have engaging conversations over some good wine without burning a hole in the pocket.

Update: October 2020

This time round, we went to celebrate our friend’s birthday. Since it was Monday night, we ordered the Signature Meat Platter $49 which was super worth it. It was served on a one metre board, with grilled pork, chicken and beef, served with fries and 3 types of dips on the side. Among the 4 of us, we had more than enough proteins to last the night.

Another new dish that we tried is the La Quenelle de Brochet Gratinee $30. I was expecting a few pieces, but this came in one big piece. The dumpling was made of pike fish, with chardonnay sauce and mushroom duxelle. The dumpling was soft and tasty, we finished this dish within minutes. It is very different from the Chinese dumplings that we are familiar with.

Next, we had the Fresh Olio Scampi $26 to ensure that we had enough carbs for the night. I thought scampi was a mini crayfish from my previous dining experience, but over at Ginett it was served with prawns. The bacon and chilli added a slight spicy twist to the dish, and with the sufficient serving of linguine pasta, we also enjoyed this dish greatly.

Last but not least, it was birthday cake for the boy. The kitchen gave us complimentary desserts to make up for the long wait time for our main course.

The molten chocolate cake $18 was the best, served with vanilla ice cream and when the cake was cut open, the Valrhona chocolate eased out perfectly. Paris Brest $18 was made of choux pastry with hazelnut praline cream. We loved this too and this was recommended by the waitress. The praline cream was not too sweet and not too rich. The last dessert was the Mille feuille $13 which is another traditional French dessert, layered with Madagascar vanilla cream. It was a sweet end to our enjoyable night, as we finished two bottles of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon Saumur Champigny $35 and the Merlot Chateau du Cavalier $40) along with the food. With such affordable wines by the bottle and the delicious food, I will definitely be back again.