TUCKSHOP, a minimalist, blue-walled sliver of a shop space in Tanjong Pagar, is the sort of eatery you would want to write, call or SMS home about.

Except you might not know what to start with.

Should it be the steak sandwich - a real steal at $12.50? The truly excellent fish and chips ($6.50)? The Kate Moss-thin pizza ($8)? The simple, sleek look of the place? Or those lovely, lovely fries ($4)?

I shall start with the fries. When two friends and I lunched at the two-month-old eatery the other day, we got three servings of fries with our orders.

Although one portion might have spent a few seconds too long in the fryer, the other two were just perfect.

The test of a good fry: It should still taste terrific cold. Tuckshop's lightly salted fries had a slight chewy resistance to the bite after they cooled but were beautifully mushy inside.

So low-carb diet or not, I couldn't leave any of my fries uneaten that afternoon.

The other things we tried boasted the same, sure touch of turning simple recipes into gold.

The steak sandwich - a big cut of juicy, grilled beef, caramelised onions and a portobello mushroom on crusty focaccia - was highly succulent. One friend would have liked the flavouring more robust though.

The other friend tried the chicken sandwich ($6), a barbecued chicken chop sauced with a mix of mayo and barbecue sauce. These juiced up the slice of chicken breast, making it sublime.

We also tried the patata pizza, which was small discs of potato on a larger, pleasingly thin disc of bread.

But my fave was the fish and chips. The pacific dory was lightly flavoured, lightly fried and still creamy inside. It was a dream to eat.

Besides food, Tuckshop also has live music. Singaporean folk-country band The Bandits rock the place on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Jazz nights are on the cards too, says manager Brandon Lau, 27.

Food-wise, the 12-item menu is a work in progress and will be expanded, he promises.

Well, how about desserts? That, in my book, would make this the place to chase weekday blues away.

Tuckshop
21 Tanjong Pagar Road
#01-05
Tel: 6534-9287
Open: Mondays to Thursdays, 11.30am to 2.30pm, 5.30pm to midnight; Fridays, 11.30am to 2.30pm, 5.30pm to 3am; Saturdays, 5.30pm to 4am. Last orders at 11pm.
Rating: ****