SINGAPORE — A man walks into a bar. He isn’t offered only one menu, but receives a few — and now he has to spend a good amount of time deciding not only what to drink, but also what to eat.

Indeed, the days of mixed nuts, soggy fries and chicken wings on bar snacks menu are long over. Salty bar snacks aren’t only there to make you feel thirsty any more. They’re the reason you go to a bar in the first place.

And the offerings are becoming more avant garde. Fancy a clam sphere with crispy bacon and parsley oil? Or confit salmon and roe? Perhaps a “street-style” hotdog to go with your craft beer? Wait a second — is there any other style of hotdog?

As bars elevate their cocktails with made-from-scratch tinctures and house-aged spirits, it’s hard to throw a hand-cut ice cube without hitting a joint with a bar snacks menu that reads like the appetiser list of a fine modern restaurant.

Case in point: Fairmont Singapore’s lobby bar Anti:dote. At its open kitchen, head chef Carlos Montobbio moves about adroitly, turning out a unique selection of modern European tapas with an Asian spin. Think Shigoku oysters topped with cucumber, wasabi cream and passion fruit jelly, or a gleaming black truffle bao with braised veal cheek, foie gras, caramelised shallots and Madeira.

Montobbio enjoys a symbiotic relationship with head craftsman Tom Hogan, who creates Anti:dote’s modern cocktails.

“When I create a new dish, Tom is usually my first judge,” said Chef Montobbio. “For example, with a suckling pig dish that I am looking to launch, I had intended to include cherries in the marinating process, but Tom suggested I use Luxardo cherry liqueur instead. I tried it and it tasted great.

“Similarly, there are times when Tom shares his ideas for novel cocktail creations with me and I share culinary techniques that he could use in them.”

At the recently opened Nutmeg & Clove along Ann Siang Road, the bar food was the redeeming highlight of a recent visit. Determined not to let the seeming disdain the head bartender had for us leave a bad taste in our mouths, we returned for Chef Tryson Quek’s menu of contemporary yet soulful offerings on a separate occasion. Happily, the food was quite delicious. The 26-year-old has learnt well from his stint at Swissotel and Fairmont hotels, where he worked across their 18 establishments including Anti:dote, where he served as the opening team’s sous chef.

Quek reinterprets classic comfort dishes such as har cheong gai (prawn paste chicken) by removing the first joint of the upper wing and stuffing the meat into the wing itself to make for easier eating. In his rendition of wu xiang or five-spice prawn fritters, he chops pork belly and water chestnuts for the filling and mixes them with whole shrimps before wrapping it all in delicate dried bean curd skin. These are deep-fried and served in a cute metal basket with sweet plum sauce on the side.

“We want to attract a young crowd, but we also want to serve the classics, so I decided that I would imbue the food I serve here with a distinct Asian touch,” explained the youthful chef. “In that way, the food can also reflect the history of the location.”

At Argentinian bar BoCHINche, the robustly flavoured food inadvertently coaxes diners into drinking more, with dishes such as tender braised pig’s head croquettes crusted in crisp panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) and gooey melted provoleta cheese with almond and honey. For dessert, there’s an addictive milk cake with passion fruit sorbet and toasted almonds, but what you’ll want, every time, is the dulce de leche creme brulee, if only for a shot at the delicious banana split ice cream that comes with it.

“The dining habits of Singaporeans have evolved,” observes Cynthia Chua, managing director of the Spa Esprit Group, which owns BoCHINche. “It’s all about more social and casual dining. Having a menu of small dishes allows us to better showcase the diversity of Argentinian produce and cuisine.”

At the ever-popular bar at CUT by Wolfgang Puck at Marina Bay Sands, guests get complimentary steak sandwiches with their cocktail or wine on Mondays between 5.30pm and 8.30pm. What began as a celebratory offer to commemorate the establishment’s third anniversary last year has become a regular affair.

On any other given day, the bar’s mini wagyu or Angus beef slider — comprising a lovely brioche bun, confit tomatoes, smoked shallot marmalade, garlic aioli, red onion and butter pickles — is still the crowd favourite thanks to its complex depth of flavour. Also on the bar bites menu are crisp French fries served with spicy garlic bearnaise, and tuna tatare with wasabi and Japanese cucumber between slivers of togarashi powder (Japanese chilli pepper) toast — all of which make for a happy time lingering at the bar.

“Bar-goers are looking for originality and a complete experience,” explained CUT’s general manager Wes Guild. “Our culinary team is heavily involved with our bar programme, creating different infusions, juices, elixirs and syrups on a daily basis, as well as creating a bar food menu that will complement the cocktails. We would like to think that our original, handcrafted cocktails contain many of the fine ingredients that go into our food and make the two go hand in hand to provide guests a balanced and full experience.”

Certainly, cocktails no longer have to precede or succeed dinner at a different establishment. These days, one could eat at the bar for weeks without subsisting on mixed nuts. As BoCHINche’s Cynthia Chua puts it: “Great drinks with sub-standard food are no longer acceptable.”

In other words, for a bar to prevail, truffle fries are as de rigueur as artisanal whiskies.