Looking for a new place to eat at this month? Here are 10 places worth checking out in Singapore.
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The cooking boasts full, complex flavours that titillate the palate and yet, you can still pick out the individual ingredients.
Ready or not, the food is impressive, with a selection of Peranakan dishes from her other restaurants and new offerings of satay and grilled items.
The decor is similar to National Kitchen’s, with the same dark wood panels, hanging lamps and rattan blade fans. But there are differences too. The restaurant is more spacious, with a bigger bar and counter seats.
And the kitchen is visible behind a glass wall, allowing diners to see the food being grilled on wood and charcoal fires. There is even a row of counter seats right in front of it, for those who want to glue their eyes to the action.
Like at the other Violet Oon restaurants, prices here are not low. For example, a serving of three sticks of Chicken Satay costs $14. But the meat is chunky, not the tiny pieces you get at hawker stalls, so you do not feel like you’ve been ripped off.
The satay also comes with the best gravy I’ve tasted. Topped with grated pineapple that gives it a zingy vibrancy, it is a well-balanced blend of spices, herbs and peanuts. It is also not very sweet, unlike the generic versions most hawkers serve.
The marinade for the chicken is less original, however, and tastes much like what you find elsewhere.
Tripe Satay ($15) is something you do not find easily in Singapore. The marinade for this is more coconutty, which goes well with the tender beef tripe. But the gravy has a strong nutty flavour which, compared with the meat satay gravy, is more banal.
#01-18,Clarke Quay, 3B River Valley Road
Text: Wong Ah Yoke/Straits Times
Located at the new Hotel G in Middle Road, Ginett is run by the team behind the Scarlett restaurants in Bangkok and Hong Kong.
It offers European cuisine in a relaxed setting.
The relaxed part is ably aided by the huge range of French wines — currently 70 labels — with some going for as low as a $6 a glass.
There are many French choices on the menu too.
Do consider the La Joue de Boeuf ($32).
The braised wagyu beef cheek is tender and retains all the flavours. The mashed potatoes it came with could have used a touch more butter, though.
Another beef option comes from the Charcoal Grill menu. We ordered the Australian Angus beef rib eye ($42 for 300g). The accompanying wedges looked uninspiring, but they were actually crispy and fluffy.
The delicious Scampi ($26) benefitted from a great seafood sauce that highlighted rather than hid the scampi. Get this if you are looking for something light.
200 Middle Road
Text: Yeoh Wee Teck/The New Paper
This place is a blink-and-you- miss-it featureless eatery beside a Subway sandwich shop in technopark surroundings – the kind of industrial commune where working drones wearing identity tags eat, drink and pick up their laundry in a convenient one-stop location to save the hassle of going to town.
It’s a place for sustenance, not joy, and can hardly qualify as a dining destination when it lacks both greenery and charm.
Chef Lerouy’s Alsace roots makes its presence felt in the menu but in a light, modern manner that is inventive and honest. There’s nothing flashy about it, but it displays good technique and creativity.
Beef tartare Asian-style features fresh meat lightly seasoned with a touch of sesame oil, topped with a savoury beurre blanc ice cream with a cold richness that plays off the silken meat very well.
You also get to play with the condiments he’s added – pickled cucumber, ginger puree and daikon puree cooked with soy which is almost a dead ringer for miso.
Foie gras is served two ways – cooked in red wine for a slight alcoholic punch, and a whipped, aerated version, unexpectedly paired with coffee jelly and sour passion fruit jelly to balance off the richness.
#01-01, Infinite Studios, 21 Media Circle
Text: Jaime Ee/Business Times
The highlight of this restaurant was not the much-promoted Spicy Chilli Crab Tendon, but the Mille Feuille Katsu Don ($12.80).
It does not look extraordinary from the outside, but this is actually a patty made out of 14 slices of thin pork loin layered one on top of another, like a savoury kueh lapis.
It is coated with a batter made with breadcrumbs, then deep-fried.
The patty is moist and light, going perfectly well with the runny omelette under it.
You will not even want the rice.
This is not to say that the Spicy Chilli Crab Tendon ($14.80) is not worth eating .
The sweet and spicy sauce is what you will get with any chilli crab dish at the zi char stall.
The sauce is also filled with chunks of snow crab, which adds to the flavour.
This is not one for the traditionalist, but a delightful attempt at integrating local tastes.
Bugis+
Text: Yeoh Wee Teck/The Straits Times
The Korean seafood tower concept seems to be catching on among diners here. Besides House of Seafood’s two outlets in Upper Serangoon Road and The Punggol Settlement, Captain K – which opened in Prinsep Street in March last year – has just opened a second restaurant in Middle Road.
There is a new player too – K- Tower, which opened in Amoy Street in December with the promise of better quality in the form of live seafood.
A seafood tower now comes in tiers of three to nine steamers. Each steamer holds different items and at the bottom is a pot of broth. With the broth kept on a simmer, the steam wafting up ensures the food stays warm, while the juices from the seafood drip down into the pot.
At the end of the meal, you can order more ingredients to add to the soup, turning it into a steamboat.
K-Tower offers four types of broth: seafood, which is complimentary, kimchi (add $10), army stew (add $10) and ginseng chicken (add $20).
Couples can start with a three-tier tower ($58), containing the soup base, prawn, scallop, oyster and shellfish (clams and mussels). And those in groups of three to five can get the $128, five-tier set, while bigger groups can go for the $198 one with seven tiers . Vegetables such as broccoli, corn and sweet potato are included in all the sets.
The tallest is nine tiers ($298) and it comes with lobster, mud crab, oyster, fish, sea cucumber, prawn, scallop, squid and shellfish. For an additional $90, you get abalone as well. This can feed seven or eight people, or more if you pad it up with a la carte orders.
74 Amoy Street
Text: Wong Ah Yoke/Straits Times
Who would think that Japanese-style pizza and skewers go well together? Have your fix at eGrill & Piza at The Cathay, which offers both options at affordable prices.
The restaurant uses RoboQ, a special machine from Hong Kong used to grill skewers in two minutes, with no oil. Prices start at $3.90, with items such as teriyaki pork belly, salmon belly fin and Beef Kottbullar (Swedish meatballs).
From the pizza menu (from $9.90), pick from salmon mentai, Parma ham and seafood, among other options. Add side dishes to your meal, such as truffle fries with truffle salsa ($8.80), potato salad ($2.80) and ebi tempura ($6.80).
#B1-01, The Cathay, 2 Handy Road
Text: Eunice Quek/The Straits Times
Head to SBCD Korean Tofu House at Tanjong Pagar Centre for its “soontofu” or Korean soft tofu soup. The tofu is made in-house daily and comes with four levels of spiciness for the broth. Ingredients for the soup (from $17.90) include seafood, ham and cheese, or dumplings.
Besides the usual side dishes, or banchan, of kimchi, seaweed, pickled green chillies and spicy squid strips, the restaurant also offers whole fried croaker fish.
Other mains on the menu include hot stone bibimbap ($19.90), spicy grilled chicken ($25.90) and spicy baby octopus ($29.90). Combo options – a main course and the tofu soup – are also available.
#B1-01 Tanjong Pagar Centre, 7 Wallich Street
Text: Eunice Quek/The Straits Times
Local actor Shane Pow has opened his first food venture, Mojo. In the day, the eatery sells protein salad bowls and, at night, it serves yakitori and drinks.
The protein bowls cost $14 each, with one protein, one carb base, three vegetable items, one topping and one sauce. Protein options include Norwegian salmon, chicken thigh and shrimp. Add $1 for beef. Carb choices include brown rice, soba and quinoa.
For sides, have your pick of miso eggplant; glazed carrots and pumpkin; Thai papaya salad; and cherry tomatoes with pesto.
The dinner menu features yakitori options such as foie gras ($14) and pork belly with leek ($6). Sharing plates include uni soba ($38, above), Manila clams ($20) and hotate crudo ($18).
204 Telok Ayer Street
Text: Eunice Quek/The Straits Times
Burger restaurant chain Fatboy’s has launched a new 45-seat halal outlet called FatPapas, with new business partner and local rapper Sheikh Haikel.
While the menu remains similar, new dishes include Chili Chicken Boners ($11.50), Papas’ Beef Ribs ($22) and a special Singapura Black Pepper Burger ($13). Other burger options include Wimpy ($15, above, either beef or lamb) with turkey bacon, cheddar and barbecue sauce; and The Elvis ($11) with turkey bacon stuffed beef patty, grilled bananas and peanut butter.
Diners can also customise their burgers.
Fatboy’s locations include Holland Village, Upper Thomson Road and Orchard Road.
17 Bali Lane
Text: Eunice Quek/The Straits Times
Po is a new restaurant which has nothing to do with a kungfu fighting panda or a creepy crimson Teletubby. But like the panda whose adoptive father is a noodle-selling goose, and the fuzzy plush-covered alien, the story behind Po is an equally tall tale.
Essentially, it’s about two Po’s. Popiah – the restaurant’s signature dish; and Popo – the fictitious, cheroot-smokin’ grandma who cooks the popiah and leaves you a 4D number with your bill.
Clever, sassy. But it’s just another urban spin on the now-tired heritage tale, conjured up to make hawker food sound trendy and therefore, more expensive.
Regardless of what you order, the popiah is served first – priced at S$28 (classic); S$38 (with prawns); and S$58 (flower crab). That makes it at least S$7 for each of the four edible bolsters that you roll yourself, adding condiments such as julienned egg, bean sprouts, crumbled dried fish and peanuts.
Since we vote Nonya rather than Hokkien, we’re caught off guard by a filling where the bangkwang (turnip) and bamboo shoots have gone AWOL. We’re left with a claypot of over-shredded cabbage, carrots and other non-turnip vegetables, not braised in a rich prawn and pork stock with a hint of taucheo (preserved soy beans) but simmered till quite dry with dried prawns for just a hint of brininess but none of the savoury richness we expect.
The mixture still makes an acceptable roll with generous sprinkles of dried fish and peanuts, but how much you like it depends on which way you lean in the popiah equation.
Text: Jaime Ee/Business Times