Brian Kennett
Amateur Chef and Foodie Extraordinaire
Noka by Tippling Club best Japanese menu review 2023
My sister-in-law is in town from Brunei and she is a lover of Japanese food. It was a no-brainer, we have to treat her to the best Japanese food in Singapore, and that means a trip to see Chef Ryan Clift’s crew at Noka by Tippling Club, the very best option for dining at Funan Mall.
You know we love Chef Ryan and his crew so much, remember the last trip I did with Jude Jude. A boy’s lunch at Tippling Club, likely one of our all-time favourite restaurants in Singapore. It is truly up there in the top restaurants of Singapore, in my humble opinion. But today we’re on for Japanese.
Boy, did we perfectly time our lunch trip today? We sat down and were advised that they had just had the box of fresh fish delivered from Japan. Game on chaps, let’s be having it. We were then exposed to the incredible array of fresh fish and shellfish that was now on the menu today. From uni to massive clams, oysters, sushi, and sashimi options. Oh, boy this is going to be one incredible lunch at Noka by Tippling Club.
BREAKING NEWS FOR FEBRUARY 2023 - THERE WILL BE A NEW NOKA BY TIPPLING CLUB MENU 2023, LAUNCHED IN A MONTH
The Noka by Tippling Club recommended a visit to the Funan Mall Rooftop Garden after we had our lunch. I am so glad we did. It is amazing. The first time it has been open in 3 years due to Covid. I am so writing to Funan Mall to ask them how to rent this BBQ pit. What you see in the front of you is the actual dining table, with fresh herbs growing from it like, dill, Thai basil, water-cress and so on. I love it.
To the food of Noka by Tippling Club this day in 2023 - and boy did we graze well
Japanese fruit tomato, sea salt $ 12.
I said to my sis-in-law, yes it is just a tomato. Try a piece alone, and try a piece with salt. This will blow your mind. Hurry up though as they are in season now hence being on the menu. The best tomato you’re ever going to eat. Sends my memories flooding back to being a child in my grandfather’s greenhouse, plucking organic toms from the vine and eating them then and there with salt.
We get a call from Chef. “Come and see what we have had delivered this morning from Japan…” He then opens up these three boxes of sea urchin GOLD. This is the very best Uni you’ll have to touch your taste buds. It literally flew in from sea to market, to our table, and in the mouth in less than 24 hours. Stunning. My wife was now dribbling!!!
Then the bugger shows off the three-types of clam they also had shipped in this very day. Now I had to order that monster, how could I not? It’s the size of a small child, I have to have it. Bring on the sashimi course…
Seriously look at that. Who says size doesn’t matter? The clams are the size of a cricket ball. Monsters. Fresh in from Japan. Let’s be having you.
This is a break from the catch that was flown in today, to show off the sake options. Accompanying that is likely the very best selection of sake glasses I have ever seen. Just beautiful.
A5 Kagoshima wagyu steak tartare, confit egg yolk, fermented soy & chilli dressing, sesame, Japanese milk bread $32
Oh my goodness gracious me. This one blew me and Jude away. One of the very best tartare dishes we have ever eaten. Flavour pops happening all over the place. Stunningly plated with edible flowers, spherification, micro-tomatoes, dill, and that confit egg yolk. Incredible. Plus, all those fresh bits and bobs are all from the rooftop garden, ingenious!!!
Fan Clam Sashimi $65, Uni Sashimi $55 with micro-tomatoes.
OK, the girls didn’t rave about the Fan Clam sadly. A little too big and have some too funky textures for them. But, the Uni Sashimi went in the blink of an eye accompanied by many oooohhhs and aaaahhhhs. Winner!!!
Japanese Cucumber, Moromi Miso, Myoga Flower $14
This is again the best version of this dish I have ever experienced, adding more weight to my argument that Noka by Tippling Club is the best Japanese restaurant in Singapore. This is super-fresh and savoury. It’s so simple but complex in the bite. Love this.
Seasonal Clam Soup, Daikon, Shimeji, Junsai, Yuzu Zest $ 18
OK, the girls loved this. and then loved it even more when the Maitre D explained it was loaded with Collagen and was going to be good for their skin. I asked do they need to rub the soup in or just drink it. The girls raved about this. Very fresh clams, super-sweet in an extremely refreshing broth that was so ‘clean’ as you’ll see in the photo. Winner!!!
Wagyu Beef Sushi $30, Foie Gras Uni Sushi $36.
Jude and I had to order two of the Wagyu Beef Sushi, it was just too good not to have more. The girls just went goo-goo ga-ga over the uni with foie. Decadent, umami, and unctuous all in one. WOOF!!!
Kagoshima pork belly, dashi noodles, fermented cucumber $44
We had this last time we ate here. It is truly one you must have whenever you visit here. 24-hour slow-cooked pork belly in amazing marinades. Served with fresh coriander, and crispy noodles and then drizzled with seasoned vinegar. Just a stellar pork dish. Incredible and a must-try.
BREAKING NEWS - THESE ARE DESSERT OFFERINGS ON THE NEW NOKA BY TIPPLING CLUB MENU 2023, LAUNCHING IN A MONTH
Shiso Choux, Oba Chantilly, Craquelin, with Shiso & White Chocolate.
Wowser. We shared this, but I think could have had one each. It’s just wonderful. The Shiso gives a unique flavour that left us all saying it tastes like this. What I mean by this is that it tastes like nothing else. It is unique. I had overtones of licorice from the Shisho. Just a stunning dessert. Amazing!!!
Yuzu Tart, Yuzu & Japanese Orange Base, Japanese Orange & Yuzu Gelatin, Sponge Cake infused with Umeshu, home-made Vanilla Ice-cream, and Mikan Foam.
Oh my. This will blow your socks off. It’s like a light and airy palate cleanser. One of the very best desserts ever to cross these hairy lips, and some. It is a stunner, and you know that desserts are not my favourite thing. Well, this one surely is. It’s EPIC!!!
Our conclusions of Noka by Tippling Club best Japanese menu review 2023
Yet again the crew at Noka by Tippling Club deliver what we personally view to be the very best Japanese food in Singapore. The location, the service, the staff, the ambiance, and of course the incredible food just stack up to something sublime. It is an experience not to be missed. If you are living here or just visiting from overseas this is THE place for your Michelin * grade Japanese dining.
We leave you with a picture of the amazing views from the Funan Mall rooftop - the supplier of veggies , herbs and edible flowers to our BFF's at Noka by Tippling Club
Back to Noka by Tippling Club in 2022
I love the new sign / logo. Maybe you need to know Tippling Club to know why I love it so? The flower of the ‘o’ of Noka has Tippling Club’s logo in there making it look like the stamen of the flower. This is Chef Ryan’s quirkiness coming out again with the horizontal line being the menu and the vertical lines being food and wine pairings… GENIUS!!!
Could this be the best Japanese food on Red Dot? I think it could be. Chef Ryan Clift has always been influenced by Japanese fair and ingredients and I love this new concept of his and we simply had to visit and complete a feed and a Noka by Tippling Club Review in 2022.
You kind of think… Funan Mall??? Why Funan Mall??? Funan is more ‘mall food styles’ where Chef Ryan Clift is exquisite and quirky fine dining, up there in the $ (but you absolutely get what you pay for). But, when you get to the 7th floor you realise it is the rooftop, and it is neighbours with an incredible rooftop urban farm with fresh herbs and vegetables galore. What a superb partnership.
Ryan Clift, chef and owner of Noka by Tippling Club, has created a style of contemporary Japanese cuisine that is lighthearted, fresh, and playful. The dining experience is elevated to the level of theatrical performance through their plating, and some of the table-side serving, like the video of the pork belly, as a result.
The food is just so fresh and plated to perfection. We went al la carte this day because the Omakase menu is too loaded with our piscatorial friends for Jude Jude and me, but what an al la carte menu they have on offer as you will see below.
Noka by Tippling Club is a must-try for you if you like Japanese food Singapore, but it is not the same old run-of-the-mill Japanese food that you’ll sometimes eat. This is up there with a new lens on style and pairing of ingredients and booze!!! Hail the new Emperor of Japanese cuisine, Chef Ryan Clift!!!
Funan Shopping Centre
Noka by Tippling Club really is in Funan Mall, which has also had a massive facelift from its rather dated and boring past. It’s cool in here. Make sure you find that lift lobby and don’t try to get to 7th floor on the escalators.
Operation food truck...
There is even one restaurant / cafe that has the very food truck I am crying out for. The shell of a VW Camper converted to a food truck, even with lift up roof to allow you stand and cook in comfort.
The crying shame is that the restaurant is not even using it… man oh man what a waste!!! I WANT IT!!! It’s criminal to have that beauty sat there not being used…
Noka by Tippling Club Interior & Exterior...
The interior of Noka by Tippling Club has such clean lines and is so airy and light (although bring a top as it was on the chilly side). We had this fantastic sofa seat, but you could also sit at the counter-top to watch the chef action. That’s so very Tippling Club.
And then you walk outside to greenery. Smack back in the middle of an urban area is their neighbour, an urban farm. I wonder if this is where my local produce is sourced from when I buy my Singaporean-grown mushrooms. Every green thing you see is pretty much edible on the right hand side of the photo.
A picture paints a 1,000 words, so watch our Noka Review 2022 Vlog
Let's check out the 2022 Noka Menu by Tippling Club
The 2022 menu at Noka by Tippling Club is a belter and just an incredible demonstration of how Japanese food could be. It’s simple by the number of options, but complex at the same time with those ingredients.
For those not piscatorial inclined it has a great balance of other options. On occasion, you might need to get Google to help you with a few of the items on the Noka by Tippling Club menu, but trust me all work in such balance and harmony. It really is up there as one of my favourite Japanese restaurant menus on Singapore.
Let's hear from Chef Ryan Clift & the crew at Noka by Tippling Club
I am adding everything they say about themselves here. It’s all absolutely ON THE MONEY. It’s SHIOK here, believe me. Never a truer word has been said than the words below. Chef Ryan Clift and the Noka crew are absolutely rocking it.
We simply have to go back one day and get stuck into that Omakase menu and other delicacies we simply could not squeeze into our massively full tummies today. What a feed.
Experience NOKA; Housed at the 7th floor of Funan's rooftop, NOKA by Tippling Club is a modern-Japanese restaurant serving spirited small plates bursting with flavour and Omakase with a sexy arsenal of Japanese whisky highballs and artisanal sake. Helmed by award-winning Chef Ryan Clift of Tippling Club, known for its ultra-progressive cuisine and cocktails. Modern with a side of quirky; Stamping the menu with Tippling Club's brand of playful gastronomy, NOKA by Tippling Club turns Japanese cuisine on its head into an innovative ingredient-focused dining experience. One that still undertakes a profound love and appreciation for Japanese produce and provenance. A love song to Japan; Fuelled by a fascination with Japan's produce, dishes at NOKA are refreshingly romantic and fun. It's us singing praises of ingredients through elevated creations. Less is more; With a focus on seasonality and pure Japanese produce, the mantra remains: bring to life existing flavours instead of masking them. The art of minimalism as a guide. The attention to detail as a compass."
Don't take my word, or their word for it? Let's look at the food we consumed this day at Noka by Tippling Club. Pictures can't lie, right?
I love to have this cucumber dish, Morokyu, when I visit Japanese restaurants, but Chef Ryan has taken it up a level. The freshness and intensity was the best I ever experienced, almost akin to a Japanese palate cleanser. This is Japanese cucumber, moromi miso, myoga flower. Savoury, sweet, salty and then crisp with the cucumber – bring me another beer please!!!
@ $14
I am just going to give this a WOW and massive thumbs up. You’ll probably cringe when I tell you the price of this for one tomato, but believe me this is a tomato on steroids for flavour. And then try it with a little salt and you’ll likely fall off your chair with just how insanely good a tomato can taste. Japanese fruit tomato, sea salt.
@ $12
Oh my… up next is a potato. Yep, a sweet potato. I mean how can you write a review about a potato, right? Well this is where the whimsey and creativity of Chef Ryan Clift kicks in.
Check out what he does to a potato to make it likely the best you’ll ever eat as a stand alone dish. Sweet potato skins, black truffle sour cream, ebi sakura, wasabi. Like off-the-charts good. The skin was a piece of crispy heaven we were all fighting for, and the potato pieces were like super-savoury fluffy clouds.
@ $12
I have to call this one out. Jude Jude ordered a lemonade, and this bad boy rocks up. I had to ask… They use blue pea flowers to make this lilac hue for the fresh lemonade. Best you’ll ever have.
@ $8
Another one I simply cannot comment on I am afraid, apart from how absolutely divine that looks plated up. Uni on toast, nukazuke morokyu, oba chimichurri, fermented green kombu hot sauce.
It disappeared and I was very lucky to get a photo before it did. Wifey calls out the freshness of everything, in between chomping.
@ $50
Now we’re back in my wheelhouse with this fatty, unctuous thing of beauty. I literally only managed to commandeer half of one, because Jude Jude snaffled the rest. Damned-fine food.
I seriously could have order another portion, but we had so much still to come. What a beauty!!! Wagyu Beef Sushi.
@ $30
To the big boys now...
When someone says this has been sous vide for 36 hours you just know something is going to be rather special. Not that I like sous vide, but rather the low and slow approach of cooking. And yes, this pork belly was just up there with the gods of pork belly.
You even have a table-side serve of some dressing (which I have completely forgotten what it was). This is touch and fall apart, fatty, ever so unctuous and just delectable pork belly. Kagoshima pork belly, dashi noodles & fermented cucumber.
@ $44
And saving the biggest of the servings to last is this umami big boy. Woof!!! OK, Moo!!! What a steak. Touched by the flame, but such a perfect char and smoke for this butter-steak. I call it that because you put it in your mouth and it melts.
Then you see this beauty of a Burrata cheese topped with blanched Japanese Fruit Tomato and hiding a secret Kampot black pepper paste to jazz it all up. Add to that the crisp fresh salad with a beauty of a mustard salad dressing. I did ask for a little salt for the steak, it’s a me thing with steak especially with Wagyu. This was lusciousness!!! A5 Kagoshima wagyu sirloin, burrata, fruit tomato, mizuna salad.
@ $150
Our conclusions of Noka by Tippling Club
It has to be called out that it is up there on the $$ at $500+ for the three of us for lunch today, but I’ll caveat that was our choice through what we ordered. And we ordered top-end of town. How could we not when you start to thumb through that menu.
A special shout to the staff at Noka by Tippling Club as exceptional. They were so friendly, engaging and really knew their product on offer to the nth degree. They made it such a pleasure to dine here – worth noting @ChefRyan and #BeProud.
We sat on the most comfortable seating for lunch today, so comfortable you kind of regretted it when the server came over to say they were closing, because we had literally put roots down.
Noka by Tippling Club is now our family favourite and best Japanese restaurant in Singapore. It is truly wonderful. You cannot beat the freshness of the ingredients, the plating is to die for, it’s literally art, and the flavours take you on a food journey to heaven and back. It’s first class all the way on that journey.
Chef Ryan Clift and his ever growing crew always rock my foodie world, and long may that continue. Next it’s a trip to Bali in October to visit The Cave by Tippling Club, something I just can’t wait for. Bring it on!!!
Arigatō gozaimashita Emporer Ryan Clift.
Chef Ryan Clift & Tippling Club Reviews
We’ve been to Tippling Club now quite a few times, both with mates and for my Wifey Wedding Anniversary.
It really is such a special place. Incredible cocktails and wines pair the stunning food. I say stunning absolutely on purpose because you get food theatre to entice your eyes, aromas wafter around you to hit those nasal senses and then the taste and textures literally smack you in the mouth.Read on for some reviews of Chef Ryan Tippling Club;
- 2022 Tippling Club Review a recent trip with the boys whilst I was on work gardening leave. What an incredible set lunch
- Here’s our 2021 review from the time I took wifey for our anniversary after we had a staycation at Naumi Boutique Hotel
- CLICK HERE to go back in time for a 2019 review and Islifearecipe’s first review of Chef Ryan and the crew at Tippling Club
- And during Covid I even managed to have a Tippling Club Cooking Masterclass when sadly all restaurants were closed. What an experience this was
How about some ISLIFEARECIPE-dia for some FAQs and answers...
| Sunday | 11:30am–2:30pm, 6–9pm |
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 11:30am–2:30pm, 6–9pm |
| Wednesday | 11:30am–2:30pm, 6–9pm |
| Thursday | 11:30am–2:30pm, 6–9pm |
| Friday | 11:30am–2:30pm, 6–9pm |
| Saturday | 11:30am–2:30pm, 6–9pm |
Indeed they do – simply place your orders here; Order: noka.sg
Have a little look below and all your questions will be answered
Address of Noka by Tippling Club
Funan, 109 North Bridge Rd, #07-38 (Lift Lobby A) Singapore 179097
Make sure you find that lift lobby because the escalators don’t go to the 7th, only the 4th. Basically don’t do what we did.
