Time Out Singapore: Best Pub Quizzes in Town

Best for East Coast know-it-alls

Picotin Express

Monthly
Quizmasters Simon Burrows and Mark Reeve, who occasionally host other trivia nights around town.
Format Six rounds, covering current affairs, TV and film, an alphabet round, stick or bust, connections and a picture bout.
Maximum team size Eight.
What to expect Held on most first and third Wednesdays of the month, Picotin continues its trivia nights from its nowclosed Horse City branch at its newish outlet out east with experienced quizmasters Burrows and Reeve. Its location deep in Opera Estate makes it a little harder to reach and therefore might appeal more to smarty pants living in the neighbourhood. Teams here are smaller groups of threes and fours, despite the eight member maximum, and tables are more than sufficiently spaced out that it’s easier to murmur speculated answers to your team mates. Questions, even in the current affairs category, leant more towards film and pop culture covering everything from 1930s crooners to 1980s horror trilogies, and our picture round was a challenging guess of film stills with its humans cleverly photoshopped out. The quiz is also quite generous, conducting mid-quiz name card draws to reward attendees with bottles of wine, and games of virtual golf at Urban Fairways.
Sample question ‘What do Robin Hood, Leonardo da Vinci and George Best have in common?’
Prize $100 dining voucher for Picotin, and a $50 dining voucher for the runners up.1 Figaro St (6445 5590, www.picotin.com.sg). Take a taxi. 8pm, check website for dates. Free.

Best for a casual tourist crowd

Prince of Wales

Every Tue
Quizmasters Colin Chamberlain, aka the Quiz Master, who also hosts quizzes at Molly Malone’s and Lazy Lizard (check out his site here).
Format Six rounds including ‘fictional dogs’, geography, music, science, connections and picture.
Team size No limit.
What to expect Colin Chamberlain isn’t known as the Quiz Master for nothing – he runs three separate trivia nights around town every week, and tailors his questions to suit his audience at each venue. As the crowd at POW is largely older expats, the songs in the music round, for example, are mostly hits from the 1960s to ’80s. We liked the alfresco setting by the river underneath a covered tent, but some technical aspects could have been improved: the PA system was pretty terrible, and while the reusable laminated answer sheets is a great idea, our marker pens kept running out. Those minor issues aside, however, this is a solid quiz night that can be enjoyed by everyone.
Sample question ‘Who was Hamlet talking to when he was describing “a fellow of infinite jest”?’
Prize A bucket of Heineken.

51 Boat Quay (6533 6296, www.pow.com.sg). Clarke Quay. Tue 8pm. Free.

Best for local trivia

SG Tipsy Trivia

Final Thu of every month
Quizmasters Founders Christine Chong, Lucas Ho, Lynnette Kang, Laremy Lee, Huiran Leong, Gabriel Seah and Eisen Teo, who started SG Tipsy Trivia in December 2012.
Format Six rounds, with themes like ‘Bukit’, ‘More than Words’, ‘Thievery’, social media and a picture round. Maximum team size Six, though up to two extra players can be added on for a 3.5 point penalty each.
What to expect Billed as the city’s only Singapore-themed quiz night, this is a roving event that takes place at restaurants and cafés around town every last Thursday of the month (past editions have taken place at Earshot Café, A for Arbite and the nowdefunct Via Mar at the Singapore Art Museum). Calling it Singapore-themed is a bit of a stretch though, as only 60 percent of the questions fielded cover life in the city, but questions like ‘What does NETS stand for?’ and ‘What is the motto for the Jurong Bird Park?’ are enough to make you face palm at all the things you wished you took more note of living in Singapore. Other questions in the more generic categories can sometimes be needlessly difficult, covering niches like linguistics, law and dead white men in the picture round, though the teams in attendance with deliciously punny names like ‘Team Ho Wan’, ‘Cereal Killers’ and ‘Merlion Sushi’ did add to the fun atmosphere by putting in random, funny answers, which the quiz hosts sportingly read out for comic relief.
Sample question ‘Which 1956 novel by British novelist Anthony Burgess borrows for its title the advertising slogan of a Singaporean beer?’
Prize 50 percent of the pot of registration fees for the winners, 30 percent for second place.

Various locations. 7.30pm, every last Thur of the month. $5.

Best for CBD dwellers

The Bank Bar + Bistro

Tue every fortnight
Quizmaster Magazine editor Ranajit Dam, who’s been there for a year.
Format Six rounds, with themes like mixed bag, TV & movies, sports, ‘Odd One Out’, plus either a music or picture segment and a connections round.
Maximum team size Eight.
What to expect Located right in the heart of the Marina Bay financial district, The Bank makes for a perfect post-work haunt for the white-collar CBD crowd. There’s usually a solid mass of punters occupying the bar’s outdoor seating, with the action inside also highly visible thanks to the venue’s full glass exterior. The questions cover a mass-market range of news and history, celebrity gossip, politics, and popular genres of music and Hollywood films – plus a few brain teaser questions that simply rely on logic. It’s great for a fun night out with dinner – there’s no entry fee and their burgers, pizzas and mains offer more solid fare than your typical pub grub. There’s also a lucky draw offering a brunch voucher for two.
Sample question ‘In 1963, which Englishman became the first Honorary Citizen of the United States?’
Prize $200 dining voucher.

#01-01 One Shenton, 1 Shenton Way (6636 2188, www.thebankbar.com). Downtown. 7pm,second and fourth Tue every month. Free.

Best for pop culture

Urban Fairways

Tue every fortnight
Quizmaster Azmul Haque and guests.
Format Six rounds including medley, sports, audio, advertisement taglines, connections and picture.
Maximum team size Four.
What to expect The website states that a maximum of ten teams is allowed at the trivia night, but we needn’t have worried the evening we went as only five teams showed up (including an Urban Fairways staff team), and the quiz started more than half an hour late. Still, it ended up being a fun evening as the questions are a good mix of popular culture and general knowledge – not golf-themed as one might expect from the selfproclaimed ‘inner-city golfing oasis’ – and not too niche or technical. Even the music round included hits by artists ranging from Shaggy to Owl City (with a connecting theme of artists who have come for the F1), so there really is something for everyone here. This is also the only quiz we tried where the picture round could be used as the joker, which we took full advantage of.
Sample question ‘What do you call a triangle where none of its sides are the same?’
Prize $500 golfing voucher for four people for first place and a $100 dining voucher for second place.

#01-07 Capital Tower, 168 Robinson Rd (6327 8045, www.urbanfairways.com). Tanjong Pagar. 7pm, second and fourth Tue every month. Free.