New Asia Bar

This is my favourite place to chillout. Lean on a sofa by looking at as far as Orchard and enjoying a bottle of Dom Perignon ($450) with freshly shucked Oysters Tomato-Cheese pizza is really relaxing. This place is always packed during the happy hour.

 

 

 

After 2 hearty meals (oh the calories!), I proceeded to New Asia Bar to join yet another group of friends for another birthday girl's surprise celebration. Taking the lift up to the 70th floor was instantaneous and you can hardly feel your ears "popping". Makes me wonder how those people who attempted the Vertical Marathon feel when we took less than a minute to reach the top!

View from the top was beautiful as it was a bird's eye view of Singapore's skyline. We were so high up that the Singapore Flyer seemed minute! Music played was a mix mash of trance and house. Nothing I really fancy.

The area upstairs is usually meant for Members but we were given the liberty of staying up there because we opened 3 bottles of Moet Chandon. I would say that it's a nice gesture on the part of the service staff, as we didn't need to jostle with the crowd (yes there was) below. Crackers served were yummy according to the rest of my friends (didn't have any as I was seriously exploding from the amount of food in me) as the spice packed a punch.

It's an okay place I guess. Might not be somewhere I would visit again, but it's a good place to take in the scenery. Digressing a little, Swissotel has a gingerbread house at the lobby and we think that it's made of real gingerbread because it smells heavenly! (and because my friend nibbled on the icing and proclaimed it edible :/)

http://niccolechan.com/2009/04/champagne-anyone/

Celebrated my good friend's birthday at New Asia back in April 2009. Moet(Brut)'s at a very reasonable price - under 90 bucksa bottle! (can't exactly remember the price now)

The staffs helped with the little birthday surprise I had for my friend. Anyhow, love the ambience, definitely recommended if u're looking for a place to hang out after work.

A point to note, there's a cover charge during weekends.
Photos of the pizzas here - http://niccolechan.com/2009/07/new-asia-baragain/

Luckily I was in a pacifist mood on Saturday night, otherwise I would I have kicked up a fuss here. Firstly, I had called a couple of days earlier asking if I could reserve a small table for around 6 ppl. Given that I was going to open a bottle or two, I thought this request was reasonable. Instead, the person told me "sorry, we don't take reservations." I asked how I could be guaranteed a table so my night would'nt get off to a bad start. She replied "don't worry, we got many tables"

Ok, so I go there at around 8.00pm, very early to choose the best of their "many tables." It turns out that all their tables are full and the ones that aren't full have a "reserved" sign on them. I asked how come they are reserved if they don't take reservations, the waitress replied, "we only take reservations for parties of over 16." Well, firstly, these tables could hardly accomodate 16 ppl, and secondly, I didn't see a party of anywhere near 16 ppl that night. What a daft thing to say.

In the end, I managed to squeeze in on a sofa next to some kind tourists who were clearly on their last drink and about to leave. Then I would inherit the whole space. Fine.

The second very irritating thing is the service. It took me at least three tries to get the waitress' attention, and, like in many tourist joints, she seemed more focus on serving the hapless ang moh tourists who were loaded up for a holiday and couldn't instantly grasp the cost of a $25 drink in their local currency. Once I got her attention, and she understood I was ordering a bottle, her mood softened and the service was quite prompt thereafter. Fine.

At the end of the night, however, when I checked my bill, I found they had overcharged me one bottle of champagne, which my friend had settled for me. I complained nicely, but the waitress started sulking and looked pissed off. The cashier kept his head focused on the floor pretending like he was too busy to care. Had to drag my friend through the crowd to prove his payment by showing the receipt. The waitress muttered a few words to the cashier, who then deducted the extra bottle from my bill and then handed back to me - without even looking up at me or apologising! He then proceeded to carry on looking at the floor and pretending to be busy and the waitressed disappeared somewhere into the crowd. Truly extraordinary, and as I say, lucky for them I was not in a bad temper. On another day, I would have brought the management down.

This place does, of course, have a unique selling point which is the view from the 70th storey. It is also reasonably comfortable inside. But I think clearly, it survives for its much touted view and the hoardes of one-time tourists who patronise it every weekend, just to check-off their to-do lists whilst in Singapore. No wonder then there aren't many locals there at all. Kind of like Newton Circus seafood I guess. Don't think I will be returning anytime soon unless something dramatic changes.

Dedicated to SC / MN / Panerai / PG / ice

Beer taste the same anywhere you go...ANYWHERE...so why should someone drink from place A rather than place B? For New Asia Bar - it is definitely the view

So i made my way there with this someone (no one of significance currently) and showed her Singapore from 70 storeys up

Grabbed a Kilkenny as usual...and my date wanted some champagne. No Dom Perignon for her!! I got her the alternative, more cost effective Moet Chandon...

The view is beautiful...truly if one wants to appreciate the pretty things on this island...THIS is it. I'm very proud to be a taxpayer when i look at how our island turned out to be. And now i have an excuse to go to New Asia Bar more often...

JWNY

If I could give a -10 for service for this place, I would. Went there on a Friday after much deliberation.

Nonetheless at the ground level, you pay $22 to get your first drink which includes housepour (incl juices), beer or wine.

So alright, reached the top level and went to the first drink station to redeem my drink.

Me: Can I have a Screwdriver and a Seabreeze, please.
Bartender: HOUSEPOUR ONLY

I'm like thinking WTF a Screwdriver is Vodka with orange juice and a Seabreeze is Vodka with cranberry juice; that's HOUSEPOUR, aint it?!? So ok nevermind, since you're so clueless about 101 Bartendering I guess I have to shout out VODKA ORANGE JUICE AND VODKA CRANBERRY over the damn whistle and crowd.

So ah ok, he finally understands. So I finish my drink and I want another but he keeps looking at his feet and here I am trying to get a drink like Hello, are you being paid to look at your feet?

My bf complains that I expect too much from service staff but my rationale is this:
1. You are paid to do a service and I will return your service in kind with a hearty thank you, a warm smile and a tip. That is why you are in the service industry, yes? If you hate serving people then quit!
2. You're a bartender and you work in a bar. If a waiter doesn't have the basics of drinks, it's fine but a bartender should at the very least know a basic like this. Not a competent bartender? You deserve to be fired or the very least do your homework.

I think Singapore should do away with the compulsory (most places) 10% service charge and make people in the service industry work for minimum wages plus tips. Yes, it's tough to be tipped in Singapore but what could be agreed upon is, if the service staff has not reached a certain cap (of tip) then the organization will top that up from its own till.

Bah, I'm digressing here but seriously this place suxs in terms of service and music-wise? I can't tell because the DJs spins from hardcore retro to current top 40 in a blink of an eye .... so half the time I'm in Mambo the other half at One Night Stand. Go figure if you like a confused DJ.

On the contrary (to the review by wanker banker), I had a pleasant experience at New Asia Bar (NAB). Perhaps, it was the difference in time that mattered. My visit to NAB was on a weekday evening, and there was not even a crowd! Drinks were half priced (U.P. $18 for cocktails) though I'm not sure if the promotion is still on.

It's a nice place to chill-out and have a nice chat over alcohol. On second thought, there was no loud blasting music, or that infamous whistle-blowing service crew; perhaps the whole routine only starts at night. The service was prompt, with our drinks served in less than 10 minutes after we placed our order.

The view is fantastic (that DHL balloon is just a small speck of yellow in the sky), but let's just say the view doesn't really matter after all that boozing.

Nevertheless, if you are in for cheap alcohol (yes, Ladies' Night offers free alcohol, but that's beside the point), NAB is the place to go to.

Just what is it with clubs / bars and service these days?

So New Asia Bar. On the top of the tallest hotel in the world (at some point in time lah, i think the tallest one now is the 7-star Dubai one right?) and used to be a place to see and to be seen. Popular with the young yuppy crowd who just finished work in the Raffles City, Raffles Link, and Raffles Place area.

But home to some not so friendly bar counter staff. Firstly, you stand at the bar and the guy behind the counter tries his utmost best not to look at you nor acknowledge your presence. He punches the cash register, busies himself cleaning glasses, but doesn't bother at all to ask if you wanted to buy a drink. I mean like HELLO, if i were to build a financial model for New Asia Bar, one of my key assumptions behind the revenue line would be DRINK SALES. That's right, you need to sell some drinks to make some money. Obviously that thought was pretty obscure.

And when you try to get his attention by calling out "excuse me?, please can i get a beer," he looks at you like you are speaking greek. Very reluctantly it seems, he takes my cash and brings me my beer with a grunt.

Going back to the bar to get drinks seemed to painful to want to repeat. So you try to wave down one of the waiters running around frantically - i think they were trying to serve drinks. If you were lucky, you would get their attention, and they may bring you your drink. I say may because mine never came. He forgot i thought, so i went back to the bar and asked if i can get the drink i techincally already ordered. But instead, i get told off by another waiter (whom i most erroneously thought took my order) that this was the service counter and i could not order drinks from here.

So i go back to my seat and wait for my drink to be brought to me, which finally came after 15 minutes. And during the 15 minutes, i sit and watch patrons after patrons buying their drinks from the "service counter." Hmmmmm, i wonder......... And get this, when the guy behind the bar counter is not serving drinks, he is blowing that whistle he has hanging round his neck like its a welcomed addition to the bananarama song playing in the background. Till today, i still don't get what that blowing was for, but i gather it's to get the attention of his waiters who were running everywhere around the bar. Hey, if that whistle worked, i think the customers should each get one first.

OKOK, but its not all bad stuff in this place. Nice music (only coz i'm a retro and pop junkie) and awesome view.

Overall, a so-so bar, no longer feels like the place to be seen anymore, add on the wanting service, i think i would need plenty motivation to pay the $22 cover and take that 60 storey elevator ride up there. There are just better places to go nowadays.