This stretch of North Bridge Road is known to house many trendy Halal-certified and Muslim-owned eateries of various cultural origins such as The Dim Sum Place, Tipo Pasta Bar, The Ramen Stall and Motherdough Bakery.
Joining the ranks is ASAP & Co, a steakhouse & dessert café at 774 North Bridge Road.
The café is co-founded by two home-based business (The Smok Hous & Brulee) which focuses on serving their core strength – premium smoked meat and decadent dessert offerings.
This is not so commonly seen in our local food scene as the process of meat smoking is a time-consuming and tedious affair.
However, by exposing meat to indirect heat and smoke overtime, the cooked meat can possess unique flavour and tender meat texture.
I was particularly drawn to the premium smoked meat selection of Black Angus and Wagyu Beef, available in various beef cuts like striploin, ribeye and porterhouse.
For rough price point indication, a 300g serving of Black Angus ranges from $28 to $58, and 300g serving of Wagyu ranges from $58 to $88.
I ordered the 400g Hanger Steak ($58) served with two slabs of smoked meat rubbed with herbs, salt and black pepper.
The slab was accompanied with serving sides such as grilled spiced corn of cob, roasted potatoes and mesclun salad.
My choice of steak doneness is usually medium and I was quite impressed by its warm pink firm yet juicy meat texture, each bite bursting with alluring smoked aroma and palatable spices flavour from the meat rub.
The only qualm I had was that both steaks had different doneness which should not be the case, but also managed to serve as a good comparison.
I would say just go for the medium or medium rare as the medium-well steak evidently had tougher bite texture due to the loss of meat juices.
The scene stealer turned out to be the accompanying Grilled Spiced Corn of Cob which used pearl white corn (naturally sweeter than your average corn), seasoned with house-made rub and grilled for the charred essence.
Also available for order as sharing sides at $8.
Other than steak, there were also mains and sharing options such as Ricebowl, Burger and Pasta.
I had the Salmon Lemak Api Ricebowl ($18) which came with smoked salmon, drenched with creamy coconut cream sauce on a generous portion of short grain rice.
While the sauce dressing was good on its own, the ricebowl could probably use a little more variety of ingredients to add more varied depth to its flavour.
The Sambal Chilli Fries ($12) was also a good change from usual fries offerings.
Tossed in sambal chilli and topped with grated parmesan cheese, the spicy kick actually came with subsequently mouthful and left a fiery lingering sensation.
From their decadent dessert selection, some of the familiar favourites were like Valrhona Chocolate Tart ($8), Lemon Meringue Tart ($8) and Blackout Seasalt Brownie ($8).
I was enthusiastically recommended to their signature Cempedak Crème Brulee ($9.50).
As promising as it sounds, it was layered with cempedak fruit, cream custard and finished with a layer of caramelized sugar flame-torched till golden brown.
I liked how its natural sweetness from cempedak fruit complemented well with creamy custard and further enhanced by the caramelized sugar.
Point to note, they serve 3 sets of menu throughout the day – Breakfast (9am to 12pm), Lunch (12pm to 3pm) and Dinner (5pm to 10pm). Most of the steak items are available on dinner menu and some are available for lunch.
Also due to their overwhelming demand and limited dine-in capacity, they will be only serving strictly reservations and no walk-in till they iron out their operational kinks.
ASAP & Co
774 North Bridge Road, Singapore 198742
Tel: +65 9456 5181 (Whatsapp only)
Opening Hours: 9am – 10pm (Tue – Sun), Closed Mon
Other Related Entries
The Corner Grill (Ann Siang Hill)
Meat & Greet (Henderson Road)
Chug Chug (Tanjong Pagar)
Lad & Dad (Tanjong Pagar)
Morganfield’s (Orchard Central)
* Written by Lewis Tan @juicyfingers, a self-proclaimed coffee addict. DFD paid for food reviewed unless otherwise stated.