Singapore Cocktail Bar: Nutmeg & Clove's Singlish Menu

Nutmeg & Clove pours every cocktail on its 2026 menu at S$26 from a shophouse at 8 Purvis Street, and its daily Social Hour drops six drinks to S$16 until 7pm. Founded by Colin Chia in 2014, it is ranked No. 38 on The World's 50 Best Bars 2026 and No. 12 in Asia for the same year. For anyone typing cocktail bar near me between Bugis and the Civic District, this is the bar where the menu reads like a Singlish dictionary and opens at 5pm every day.

Purvis Street is a short lane of conservation shophouses running off Beach Road, a block from Raffles Hotel. Bugis and City Hall MRT stations are each about 500 metres from number 8 in a straight line, so either works for the walk in. Nutmeg & Clove takes the main room, while its sister bar Last Word occupies unit #02-01 upstairs in the same building, which matters later if the downstairs room is full.

Doors open at 5pm daily and the official site lists closing at midnight, with last orders called 30 minutes earlier. The team uses pink on its walls and on staff jackets, a look introduced for the bar's tenth anniversary in 2024 along with a new logo printed on the glassware and crockery. A Burpple reviewer in 2024 also mentioned outside seating, which is where walk-ins land when the room is packed.

The name comes from geography. Nutmeg & Clove first opened in May 2014 on Ann Siang Hill, which was a nutmeg and clove plantation in the 1800s when the land belonged to Charles Scott. Founder Colin Chia, who also co-founded Bangkok Bar Show, built the bar around Singapore's journey from colonial outpost to modern city, reworking classic cocktails with local ingredients and a Singaporean accent rather than imported trends.

The rankings followed. On Asia's 50 Best Bars it went from No. 36 in 2022 to No. 7 in 2023 and No. 6 in 2024, its highest placing, then No. 24 in 2025 and No. 12 in 2026. Globally it reached No. 28 in 2024 and sits at No. 38 on the 2026 list. In May 2026 the bar turned twelve and celebrated with a Nutmeg Cocktail Fiesta, inviting guest bartenders from Rome, Mexico City, São Paulo, Tokyo and Seoul.

The current list, launched in January 2026, is titled Singapura, Oh Singapura after the national song and is laid out like a comic book, with illustrations by A Good Citizen beside each drink. Twelve new cocktails are named after Singlish expressions, from Shiok to Jialat to Bojio, and every one costs S$26. Each page gives a pronunciation guide, a definition and three flavour notes, so first-timers can order by mood rather than by spirit.

Alamak is the house answer to the Singapore Sling, built on Roku gin with soursop, passionfruit, pomegranate, kirsch and clarified milk, then carbonated. Die Die Must Try is the savoury one: blanco tequila and mezcal with green papaya, tomato, roasted garlic, gula melaka, shrimp, peanut and fish sauce, a nod to the funk of shrimp paste. Lobang turns Teochew porridge into a spirit-forward sipper with shochu, amontillado, braised peanut, preserved olive leaf and white pepper.

Atas is the menu's espresso martini, made with Grey Goose, Pedro Ximénez sherry, butterscotch, saffron, rose, coffee and Darjeeling tea, served in Japanese glassware and finished with edible gold. Can Lah reworks the Manhattan with bourbon, Daiyame shochu, red wine and baking spices, swapping the brandied cherry for canned peach. Bo Ta Bo Lampa is the playful one, a whisky drink you spike yourself with a shot of apple, beetroot and carrot juice.

A second section, the Hall of Fame, collects twelve crowd favourites from menus since 2014, also at S$26. The namesake Nutmeg & Clove mixes Ron Zacapa 23 rum with nutmeg, clove, gula melaka, cream, egg white, lemon and ginger beer. Stylo Milo blends Maker's Mark, barley shochu, Milo, almond milk and a houjicha foam, and a 2024 reviewer was surprised it arrived warm. The bartenders credited for Bojio include Vijay Mudaliar of Native, a neat link between two Singapore bars.

Social Hour runs every day until 7pm with six cocktails at S$16, including a Yuzu Highball on Kakubin whisky, a Lychee Martini, a Negroni and a Pandan Chu High with Iichiko shochu and coconut. Beer, wine and prosecco are S$14, and crispy chicken sandwiches with sambal mayo and achar come free, with a vegetarian option. All menu prices are subject to service charge and prevailing taxes, so the S$16 round is the best value of the night.

The kitchen leans on hawker memories. Rendang Mac & Cheese with braised beef cheek is S$20, Fried 'Carrot' Cake with Asian bacon jam is S$18, a crisp Papadum is S$8 and the Chilli Crab Dip with a baked mantou bun is S$25. Skip the Truffle Fries at S$16, because they are the one plate that could be in any bar, and order the Mala Sweet Potato Fries at S$15 with Uncle Chilli mala dressing and a crispy sunny-side-up egg instead.

Tables are booked through SevenRooms, linked from the official site, and walk-ins are seated when there is room. Friday is the night that fills. One Burpple reviewer turned up for a last-minute Friday catch-up in 2024, found the room packed, and drank outside, promising to reserve next time. Arriving at 5pm also catches Social Hour pricing and the emptiest room of the night.

If both the room and the outdoor seats are full, go upstairs to Last Word at #02-01. Time Out described it in February 2026 as dimly lit with candles and dark wood, pouring classics such as the Last Word at S$30 and a Forbidden Fruit at S$28, with a 12-seat bar-within-a-bar called Last Stop serving lighter tea-based drinks at S$26. It opens from 5pm to midnight, so the fallback costs you one staircase.

Reviews sketch a few regular types. A 2022 Burpple review describes friends unwinding after a long work day over Roses & Lychee and Garden City, and a 2019 post notes that 9pm was still good for quiet conversation before the room got crowded later. Then there is the industry: the twelfth-birthday fiesta in May 2026 brought guest shifts from Drink Kong in Rome, Hanky Panky in Mexico City and Service Bar in Washington, so that week regulars shared the counter with bartenders from three continents.

Purvis Street makes a short walk worthwhile. Raffles Hotel at 1 Beach Road is a block away, and its Long Bar calls itself the birthplace of the Singapore Sling, which makes ordering the original there and Alamak here a fair comparison. Raffles also runs Writers Bar, a quieter room named for the authors who stayed at the hotel. Afterwards, Bugis MRT is about 500 metres north for the trip home, and City Hall is a similar distance south-west.

The address is 8 Purvis Street, Singapore 188587. Group and event enquiries go to Hello@NutmegClove.com. Hours on the official site run from 5pm to midnight, Monday to Sunday, with last orders 30 minutes before closing. Reservations are taken online through SevenRooms, and Social Hour applies daily until 7pm, so a weekday arrival at 5pm gives the widest choice of seats.

Budget S$26 per cocktail before service charge and taxes, or S$16 during Social Hour. A Mandarin edition of the menu is also published for Chinese-speaking guests. Last Word upstairs is a separate bar with its own bill. For a first visit, start with Alamak to taste the house style, follow with Lobang if you like savoury drinks, and leave room for the namesake Nutmeg & Clove, which has survived every menu change since 2014.