There’s something immensely comforting about tucking into home-cooked food. It has to do with the familiarity of the space. Another aspect is intimate conversations between diners and the host.
In her new private dining spot, Sandra Sim hopes to recreate the feeling of being in one’s cosy abode. Housed in a black and white landed property along Beng Wan Road, Lady Boss Dining Club has all the makings of a fine venue for soirées.
Behind matte black gates lies a lush garden with a swing, a relaxing spot for guests to mingle before entering the house. Inside, you’ll find an open-concept living area with leather seats, a coffee table, and a grand piano with a Kowloon Road sign displayed on top—an ode to her Hong Kong home. On the floor, Peranakan-style tiles add a touch of local heritage.
An elegant marble-topped sideboard separates the living room from the pièce de résistance: the dining area, featuring a long wooden table, vibrantly textured paintings, and hanging lights, that can accommodate up to 15 people.
Sim runs a tight ship, interacting candidly with her staff through a window that separates the kitchen from the rest of the space. She tells me with pride that Lady Boss Dining Club had humble beginnings in her own home in 2020 when she began hosting small groups in accordance with pandemic guidelines.
Of course, there were also a lot of challenges associated with Phase 2 (Heightened Alert), especially when guests had to reschedule their bookings because of tightened restrictions.
Thankfully, the F&B veteran is no stranger to the difficulties of running her own business, having opened concept bars, including Cantonese tapas bar Sum Yi Tai and mod-sushi highball bar Chi Kinjo under Coterie Concepts, launched in 2014.
On her new venture, Sim says, “This year, I entered unfamiliar territory with an industrial kitchen, a team of professional kitchen staff, and a full-course menu designed with my creative input.”
She acknowledges the pressure she feels, particularly when serving a larger group. “A lot of anxiety goes into the process, as I wonder whether people will enjoy my food. Their genuine reactions are what I look forward to and it brings me joy when I see my guests enjoying themselves.”
With this new space, she wants to make her guests feel right at home. She encourages them to bring their own wine so she can craft a menu that complements its flavour profile.
Innovative Chinese cuisine is at the heart of what Sim does, with much of her signature dishes heavily influenced by Cantonese and Shanghainese cuisine. Thanks to a childhood spent in Hong Kong and over seven years working in Shanghai, her menu at Lady Boss Dining Club is a playful amalgamation of the culinary influences from both destinations.
Sim fondly recalls her days there, when she explored different restaurants and street food stalls in her free time. These dishes inspired her menu creation. “Some of the local dishes and hospitality were so mind-blowing that they struck a chord with me, not because of how opulent or how premium the ingredients were, but because the dishes were so simple yet perfectly executed. They gave me joy and comfort in a foreign land.”
Besides creating bespoke menus for special occasions upon request, Lady Boss Dining Club offers two signature omakase sets for $238 and $298. When I asked about her favourite dish, Sim’s eyes lit up. “My proudest is claypot rice, a simple and humble dish in Chinese culture.”
This classic uses everyday ingredients such as Chinese waxed sausage, chicken and pork belly. “I loved claypot rice so much that I learnt to make my own waxed sausages, created a sauce for the dish, and incorporated seasonal ingredients to complement it.”
A modern riff on the traditional Shanghainese soup dumpling is the Ladyboss Special XLB, which uses Yangcheng Lake hairy crab roe drizzled with Chinese vinegar aged for 20 years. The result is a luxurious appetiser that’s rich, savoury and tart. With sesame jellyfish, morel truffle rolls, king prawn crystal buns, and delightfully charred Iberico pork jowl char siu, the small plates are equally impressive.
What’s Cantonese cuisine without its nourishing soups? Sim’s Hainan-style black chicken soup, double boiled in young coconut, is a crowd favourite. As a blessing for good skin, she adds bird’s nest to the soup for female guests.
To spice things up, there’s also a la zi (Mandarin for chilli pepper) seafood dish featuring abalone, Boston lobster, and maitake. Inspired by the famous tongue-numbing dish from Sichuan, the dish uses strongly flavoured peppers imported from the Chinese province as the ones found in Singapore, she tells me in Singlish, “cannot make it.”
The omakase menus also include poultry dishes such as Canton-style smoked Australian quail, whole fish such as grouper, and seasonal desserts.
As Sim notes, the private dining industry grew during the pandemic as a result of people not being able to travel and gather in large groups. It allowed guests to spend quality time with friends over comforting and delicious food without the distractions of eating in a restaurant.
With the restrictions having been lifted, she is even more optimistic about what the future holds for private dining in Singapore. Innovation and creativity, she says, is one of the best ways to retain regular clients and attract new ones.
“Private dining will thrive when chefs can tap into guests’ sense of nostalgia and emotion. Food is really about the experience, the senses, and the memories,” she muses.
Lady Boss Dining Club is at 29 Beng Wan Road. Bookings are available on Instagram
(@ladybossdiningclub).
