Bee’s Knees – Squid Ink Fiery Shrimp Pizza & Spicy Duck Loaded Fries (Singapore Botanic Gardens)

Dine in lush greenery at Bee’s Knees, a casual bistro and bar hang-out spot. Located at the first storey of The Garage within Singapore Botanic Gardens, Bee’s Knees offers elevated cafe dishes with a touch of Southeast Asian flavours. Helmed by Chef Sujatha Asokan and team, they draw inspirations from asian palate and recreate a dinner menu boasting hearty portions and familiar tastes.

Dig into the Spicy Duck Loaded Fries $17 – a sizeable amount of thick fries under a blanket of melted mozzarella, mayonnaise and sriracha cream. As if the combination of addictive sauces is not enough, the chunky sautéed smoked duck added in, gives it a satisfying, meaty lift.

You might want to pair the above dish with the refreshing (and healthy) Oriental Salad $18, neatly assembled with couscous, cherry tomatoes, wolfberry, scallions, mandarin orange and spinach. Opt for either the Smoked Duck or Chicken Breast slices too. It also comes with peanut sprinkles and tangy plum dressing, probably inspired by our Chinese New Year Yu Sheng.

The Heart Attack Burger $26, as its name suggests, is a double beef burger made with 70:30 ratio of minced fatty and lean meat, then slathered with Emmental cheese and garlic aioli, and topped with homemade confit onions and bacon strips. The combination would have worked wonders if only the beef patty is not so tough and dry. Nevertheless, I love the honey oat buns they use.

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The star dish of the night is the Fiery Shrimp Pizza $30. Everything is made in-house, from the pizza dough, to the squid ink garlic aioli and spicy chilli dressing.

I like that it’s not one dimensional; there are layers of flavour and texture. Biting into the chewy bread, you get the stretchy, savoury taste of cheese and earthy-sweet squid ink sauce, followed by bits of that fresh crunchy prawns before the heat of the chilli spice hit the back of your throat. I am not even a fan of prawns, but this? I would definitely go back for seconds.

Bee’s Knees’ Seafood Stew $28 is not your typical Marinara seafood stew. Instead, the sauce resembled a thick orange gravy, made from simmered clam juices, shallots, garlic, red chilli, Aix rosé and cream. The sauce is tasty on its own though I find that it lacks a punch.

Beneath the seafood (Tiger Prawns, Snapper and Squid) is a bed of mashed potato – an interesting touch but I think it overlaps the taste of the sauce.

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There is also an ongoing promotion for selected cocktails at two for $25.

The desserts we had were Fluffernutter In A Jar $9 and Macadamia Brown Butter Blondie $5 (add $4 for a scoop of ice cream). The former is served in a jar, layered with charcoal cookie crumb, chocolate sponge, hazelnut namelaka, hazelnut praline and marshmallow meringue. Think nutty, creamy, peanut butter cake.

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Bee’s Knees

50 Cluny Park Road, Singapore Botanic Gardens, Singapore 257488

Tel: +65 9815 3213

Daily: 8AM – 10PM

Website: https://www.thegarage.sg/bees-knees/