Sunset Grill & Pub (Seletar)

So the legend goes that Jerry, a retired aeronautical enginner, decides to start up a texan bbq, all american restaurant, and creatively calls it, yes you guessed it, Jerry's. After a few years, the chain becomes so successful, he sells it off, and then sets up a new restaurant at Andrew's road, called buckeroos. This also becomes successful, so he sells that one off, and then decides, you know this time, I'm going to put my restaurant so far off the grid, nobody's going to find me.

We'll they keep on finding him, and they keep on driving the lengths of Singapore to eat at this place. This is one of my favourite places. Its a place which, after a while, pops back into your mind as a place to come and visit to eat. The anticipation then becomes the first part of the fun, when you drive to seletar airbase, head up to the end of seletar airbase.....

then turn down a small slip road to drive AROUND the army base.....

then drive through the golf course .......

then drive through the airplane hangers .......

And by this time, all your guests are thinking, he's turned into a chainsaw murderer cos there can't be a restaurant out there.... and you park next to the end of the seletar airbase airstrip.....

And you finally reach the mecca of American bbq food.

The food is undoubtably great. The standard Jerry's meal would be his hot buffalo wings, ribs, a salad and lots of beer. The rest of his food is well executed, but the real prize is his buffalo wings, because man are they hot! Jerry can dial these things in to level of hotness, from level 0 to level 10. If you are an amateur, please do not go above level 3, cos they will kill you already. I've been eating at this place for years now and I still don't go above level 3.

Well with that said, say hi to Jerry, and you will meet someone with one of the biggest hearts on this earth. Needless to say, he still says he does not want anyone to know about his place, and rightly so, I'm not going to give you any more directions to this place less all you web crawling food fanatics crowd his place and I can't get a reservation anymore.

If you want to know where this place is, you'll just have to work for your dinner.

That's exactly what you can do at Seletar if you want to get a probational pilot's license (PPL). If not, you can choose to steer clear of those pilot lingos (Mayday, Pancall etc etc) and sit down, relax and watch pilot wannabe taking off in the cute Cessnas, which I did.

Hell of a place to get to. Located at the East Camp, superb navigation and track-gripping maneuvers are needed to reach destination Sunset Grill for Mission: Dinner. It does not help that the co-pilot by my side gave this pilot 'hollanded' instructions and we ended up at West Camp instead (no MayDay, just need GPS). Somemore track grinding later, we finally reached Sunset ready for our mission.

It was near dusk when we arrived, the sun slowly setting in, giving a nice hue and a certain romanticness about the place. Many tables were already filled with those empty ones placed with a 'Reserved' tag. Luckily the mission leader (me) called in advance to RESERVE a nice corner for us to sit down and relac. Food are the normal American fare that even the oldest war veteran would be proud of. Between the 2 of us, we gunned down the Fish n Chips and Pork Ribs. The appetizing clam chowder served to subdue our hunger for kills before the agonising wait for the mains (almost 30min to be exact). Several tables were all having a tough one-on-one with the Hot Wings from Buffalo. You may wish to progressively upgrade your levels or jump straight into the dogfight at level 10!

With 1.5 kills between the 2 of us, we went back satisfied with our mission success.

deep inside the old Seletar Airbase is Sunset Grill, a real hidden gem. Google Earth: 1°24'57.70"N, 103°52'17.40"E

if you've never been, it's not easy to find. even cabbies who've never been get lost going around Seletar in circles. streetdirectories online, including SLA's map.gov.sg, don't reflect the new roads.

directions are at the end of the review ...

this used to be a simple snack bar, a canteen for the SIA flying college and youth flying club pilots and others in the area of East Camp. about three years ago, it became Sunset Grill with a full menu. it's still housed in the Singapore Flying Club building, but has no affiliation with it. I've two brothers flying with SQ, and my parents have fond memories of chilling at this snack bar watching them fly as cadets. brought them there, they loved it.

the hours vary quite a bit day to day, call them to find out.

*****

FOOD:
quite normal. western fare, chicken chops steaks and buffalo wings. there's even wagyu steak on the menu at over $50, mains are about $20. the famous buffalo wings are pricey, half dozen at around $20, and the gimmick is the spiciness: levels 1 to 10, all in increments of 50 cents for each half dozen. the fish and chips were good, very sizable serving. my brother asked for his steak rare but it came medium, they did a new one -- like in most places here in Singapore, you gotta ask for it bloody if you want rare, rare if you want medium. next time, will tell the waiter specifically: 15 secs on either side, no more.

AMBIENCE:
superb. best if you get there 6.30pm to watch the sunset, hence the name. it's fantastic. the place looks west out over the airstrip, watching the sun go down over the hangars in the distance is breath-taking. the alfresco area is really the only place to sit, indoors is just a bit twee. and no worries about mosquitoes, the restaurant helpfully places mosquito coils under the tables. and just getting to the place, driving past the Lear Jets, Cessnas and Pipers is an experience in itself.

VALUE:
not that cheap, but you're paying for the ambience of course.

SERVICE:
attentive, polite, homely. the waiter who served us was eager to please. the steak issue was handled fine, no balking on their part.

*****

DIRECTIONS:
the old main entrance to the airbase is at the northern end of Jalan Kayu near the TPE expressway. just inside the entrance, which no longer has sentries, is a roundabout. don't take the first two turnoffs, go straight along Picadilly, who will see an abandoned driving range on the right, and pass the Orientus "resort" on the left. the road ends at the new security checkpoint, and there is a huge carpark on the left of that. go around the car park, turning left from Picadilly and then 30 metres down turn right, 30 metres more you will come to at T-junction, the road is Old Birdcage Walk. turn right and left, you will come to this steep slope, a road's been built to run over a fairway of the abandoned golf course. down the slope, take the next right where the sign says "East Camp". go all the way in to the end of the hangars, past the planes. the runway is on the left of all this, Sunset is just at the edge next to the fence. at night, just look out for the fairylights.

*****