Tanjong Beach Club (Sentosa): where we got our beach fix in the Lion City

Every time I go on holiday and find myself relaxing on a beach during a schoolnight, I try my hardest to refrain from singing "Is this the real life? / Is this just fantasy?" out loud for Freddie Mercury, I am not. Truth is, I do feel a teensy bit guilty for abandoning work emails which ends up with me taking a peek at them longer than I should.

Then again, when I'm back at my desk, all I ever want to do is escape to sunnier climes and live the island life as a fire-dancing sea gypsy.

During my recent trip to Singapore, Plaid Boy went to work during the day and left me to do my own thing. After a few days, I started feeling a bit too antsy and started checking work emails. When I got the "You shouldn't be working!!" email from my boss, I realised I needed to relax. I missed the peacefulness of the beach from our mini-moon and felt the need to escape from yet another concrete jungle. 

Thankfully my former colleague and favourite local, S, was also missing the beach life and needed to escape. So she drove us to Tanjong Beach Club in Sentosa, an urban retreat hailed by Conde Nast as one of the best beach clubs in the world.

Tanjong Beach Club is a beach-front restaurant and bar in Sentosa island, 20 minutes away from central Singapore (well, everywhere takes 20 minutes in the Lion City anyway). It has sand, sunbeds, and (if you're lucky) sexy people. Needless to say, I totally forgot about work and managed to relax. 

Armed with bellinis (SG$19) and blessed with a pleasant storm of sunshine, S and I chatted about our recent holiday highs including her 5-day Tao Trip exploring the islands in the Philippines (she went after our wedding). It sounded absolutely amazing and I'm so glad another foreign friend got to learn about the Philippines in such a fantastic way. 

We both ordered the octopus salad (SG$24) which was pretty scrumptious. I absolutely adore octopus, and I really missed having decent salad in Singapore; there's a considerably huge gap in the market (and no I'm not talking about your usual salad-to-go shops) and even DIY home kits aren't very impressive.

The octopus itself was great: seasoned enough to have a decent smoky flavour and charred enough for good texture.

As we were on the beach, oysters (SG$12 for 6) were necessary. Quite frankly, I found them tiny. They may be no match from Richard Haward oysters in Borough Market but it was still lovely to slurp these bad boys on the beach.

The gazpacho (SG$19) was quite hearty and flavoursome but whoever prepared it was a wee bit heavy-handed with the salt.

We closed the arvo with absolute smiles and another round of, er, refreshments. S had a responsible raspberry basil fizz (SG$10) made with raspberry juice and soda (she was driving!) whilst I had a naughty Summer Cup (SG$17) made with earl grey infused gin, ginger ale and some cucumber. Kinda like Pimms! 

As I write this post, I am munching on a salad box from the local Pret-a-Manger in the confines of an air-conditioned room. It's March, and I have a woolly scarf wrapped around my neck and four layers of clothing to keep warm.

Take me back to bikini weather, where I can dig my toes in the sand and scream "Hallelujah!" to the sun. This is the real life, that is my fantasy.

Tanjong Beach Club
120 Tanjong Beach Walk, Sentosa Island, Singapore 098942 | +65 6270 1355

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