By Deborah Goldman
Issue 80 - March 2009

The Pump Room
3B River Valley Road, 
The Foundry, Clarke Quay
#01-09/10
+65 6334 2628

Brunch details: $98 with free-flow Louis Roederer champagne; $48 with free-flow microbrewery beers; $38 with free-flow soft drinks. Sunday, 11.30am to 2.30pm

If you don’t feel like glamming up in your Sunday best but still want to experience the joy of free-flow champagne, this is the ideal spot. My family and I rocked up to The Pump Room in shorts and flip-flops, and got stuck into some serious eating and drinking.

The restaurant was mainly filled with families with young children, lured there no doubt by the promise of good grub and the Clarke Quay fountain, out of which several tots emerged sopping wet during the course of the afternoon.

The fountain that caught my attention, however, was made of chocolate. Unfortunately this one isn’t big enough to dive into in your underpants, but its contents have the advantage of being delicious when served with strawberries.

Starters and desserts are served buffet-style, but main courses have to be ordered separately. Four of us enjoyed the hickory-smoked barbecue baby back-ribs in a special beer marinade, while my twelve-year-old brother got stuck into a plate of gnocchi with mushroom, asparagus and blue cheese.

The Pump Room’s brunch is well priced, for drinkers and abstainers alike.