Trekking through the backstreets of Changi, our path lit up by a row of hanging drip lights, we were half certain that a vengeful spirit would pounce on us before we found Bunker. Located on the heritage site that is the Johore Battery (a giant gun from WWII, not the AA sort), the chic garden setting with cozy rattan furniture and water features made it look promising. “Ni ke yi jiang hua yi ma?” asked our waitress, before trying to explain something to us in Mandarin. We eventually figured out that she meant to say it had rained earlier, so most of the seats were wet. Never mind, there were a couple of covered areas. We started with mushroom and cheese fritters ($12.50)—battered, medium-sized button mushrooms stuffed with cheese. They were crisp and succulent while they were hot, but they soon began to taste like something out of a microwave. Moving on, we tried the crab and avocado salad ($14.50), with egg mayo, celery and fish roe. It was pleasantly light, provided an interesting palette of flavors and actually included real crab meat, unfortunately the egg mayo emerged the dominant taste. For mains, we had a Hawaiian Mahalo pizza ($15.50) and a char-grilled striploin steak ($28). The thin-crust pizza turned out to be the highlight of the night—a gourmet Hawaiian topped with generous amounts of capsicum and onion. The steak was a disappointment however; we ordered it medium-rare, but parts of it were too raw. It was accompanied by a decent red wine jus, but for the price, it was underwhelming. When a side of boiled vegetables outshines your meat, you know something’s not right. Before we even had a chance to order dessert, the staff started closing up. Bunker scores full marks for ambiance, but the dining experience is just mediocre (a shame, really.). Considering its remote location, this really isn’t good enough. So just stop in for a beer—happy hour ends at 8pm.
