NOTE: we typically share our meals. That makes a big difference in the cost of our meals and the expansion of our waistlines. We don’t have the kitchen split the meals because Audre doesn’t eat as much as Dimitri. We just ask for an extra plate and Audre takes what she thinks she should eat. In Singapore, this time, we ate many set menus so we got two. Audre just ate what she could.
ALE and DM discussed
adding ratings to our restaurant reviews and we compromised on the following
ratings:
HR: Highly recommended
R++: Recommended almost as much as HR
R: Recommended
NR: Not recommended
A: Awful
1. Restaurants
1.1 HR: JUMBO Dempsey, 11 Dempsey Rd, #01-16, Singapore 249673, www.jumboseafood.com.sg, +65 6479 3435. We had a perfect dinner of mud crab in Singapore Chilli crab sauce (S$118.80 for 1.1 kg). The sauce was velvety, spicy (but not too spicy), thick, and copious. The crab was perfectly cooked and delicious to the last morsel. With our crab, we had rice (S$1.50) and asparagus in garlic (S$20). It was our favorite thick and crunchy asparagus; very tasty. Our server was attentive and very nice. We chatted with him and we enjoyed it. The outdoor patio area was great for us and the hostess found an area without a ceiling fan to bother us. For dessert, we had the Cheng Tang hot double-boiled peach resin (S$6). With our meal, we drank Pu Er tea (S$3). We even bought some Chilli Crab Paste (S$8.60) to take home. We spent S $ 185.61/US $141.60 and were very happy.
1.2 HR: Thevar, Two MICHELIN Stars, Indian Innovative, 9 Keong Saik Road, Singapore 089117, +65 9750 8275, https://thevar.sg/. At our dinner at Thevar, we had our most delicious, innovative, and interesting food of our stay in Singapore. We both had the Chef’s Menu (S$576 for the two of us). The restaurant is small and we were in the back. When we said we were cold, the staff made it warmer and that was very much appreciated. The service was very good and informative. Dimitri had a bespoke Lassi that he liked very much (S$18). Chef Mano Thevar came to say hello which we really appreciate. There were four courses, each including multiple small dishes. The first course included an idli, a tomato the likes of which we have never tasted before, a pork sambal in a betel leaf, and a pani puri. There was nothing traditional about them but they were all extremely tasty and very Indian. The second course had 4 dishes. The rogan josh velouté served with the Hokkaido scallop was excellent (but a more local scallop should have been used), and the Boston lobster was good but again we felt that a more local shellfish would have worked just as well. The chicken roti was very good as was the Kokum Spiced Gujiya. The next course included a fabulous Mysore Spiced Sanchoku Wagyu Beef Short rib. In the case of this wagyu, we applaud the selection from Japan—it was super tasty and tender—like eating delicious beefy butter. The fermented cabbage and the beef biryani were excellent but the biryani was too much food. The rassam – yuzu was very good too. We liked the desserts—light and full of flavors. We were very happy with the meal and spent S$705.67/US$538.68.
1.3 HR: Candlenut, One MICHELIN Star, Blk 17A Dempsey Road, Singapore 249676, # 1800 304 2288, https://www.comodempsey.sg/restaurant/candlenut. The room was lovely. Our server, Chole, was delightful, informative, and attentive. We had the 9-course set lunch menu called “Taste of Candlenut” for Lunar New Year. It was very tasty and very, very good—an excellent introduction to Peranakan food. With our meal, we had Candlenut Bespoke tea (S$10): oolong, butterfly pea flower with notes of jasmine and pandan. Audre liked it and thought it had taste. Dimitri didn’t. The starters were fun and yummy. We were introduced to candlenut and to the poison nut, pangium. The A5 Wagyu beef satay was tasty and tender. Of the six main dishes, our favorite dish was Udand Nanas--the pineapple curry—and it was delicious in the lemak sauce with laksa leaf. The other favorite was called Kay Batok a charcoal grilled Teoh Thyme San chicken marinated in spices and coconut milk with belimbing sambal. Just to name two favorites does not do justice to the excellent meal. YUM! The desserts were very good too. Audre really liked the ginger espuma and the coconut cream. We spent S$268.49/US$205.72 and were very, very happy.
1.4 R++: Nouri, One MICHELIN Star Innovative, 72 Amoy Street, Singapore 069891, https://nouri.com.sg/. We had a very enjoyable and delicious meal with Chef Ivan and his team. The restaurant is small—maybe 30 seats and Chef Ivan is “everything, everywhere all at once” and a genial host to boot. We each had the chef’s tasting menu (S$ 328 x 2) and we had a very fancy Raw Pu Erh tea (S$21). The meal started with “snacks” and they were excellent, complex bites with an explanation of the origin of each of the dishes. Chef Ivan is a food historian, food archeologist, and teacher. We enjoyed his visits to our table. It is difficult to choose a favorite of the succession of dishes but the “Turkic dumplings, confit chicken skin, beef consommé, wagyu ‘nduja roll, jambú” were excellent and very original. Audre really liked the Afro-Brazilian fritter and the A5 wagyu ribeye with white kimchi and pressed beef jus. The desserts were very enjoyable as was the entire meal. We spent S$804.28/US$613.95 and were very happy.
1.5 R: Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew (or Teochew or Teochow) Cuisine, One MICHELIN Star (ION Orchard), Orchard Turn, #04-12A ION Orchard, 2, Singapore 238801, tel. 6636 9339. The room was lovely, the service by Karen Chan was excellent and the food was hot when it arrived. Our problem is that Teochew just doesn’t have enough zing to it for us. The cashew nuts were good (S$4). The first dish we wanted was Crispy E-Fu Noodle with Fish (S$38) but they didn’t have it. The substitute had crispy noodles swimming in a brown sauce (and didn’t look at all like the dish that attracted Audre). Dimitri thought it was good; Audre didn’t like it. Dimitri liked the Fish Maw Soup with Chinese Herbs and Minced Pork (S$20). Fish Maw is fish bladder and has the texture of jellyfish. Our main course was very good: the signature pomfret fillet in plum sauce (S$44). The sauce was tasty with ginger and other vegetables and had a slightly sweet, slightly spicy taste. The assorted vegetables in Teo Chew style (S$32) was okay but not exciting. For dessert, we had Tao Suan soup pudding with water chestnut, gingko nut, and corn (S$8). With our dinner, we had Pu Er tea (S$7), rice (S$1.50) and we were charged for pickles (that were good) S$3, and towelettes (S$.60). We spent S$187.82/US$143.37 and were happy enough. We did vow not to have Teochew food again in the future.
1.6 A: Waku Ghin, Two MICHELIN Stars,
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, L2-01, Atrium 2, (Same level as Imperial
Treasure restaurant), +65 6688 8507 https://www.tetsuyas.com/waku-ghin. For this US $1000 meal, we provide two reviews both concluding
that this meal was awful. Dimitri’s: Absolutely NOT recommended. Very
uncomfortable seating. Very cold room even after we complained and they offered
a shawl. Ingredients came from far away and therefore must be expensive. Only
10 people for a single seating per evening with 2 chefs and much staff - adding
to the expense. As soon as you sat down, they tried to upgrade you from the S$
550 that you reserved to a premium ingredient menu at S$ 750. Very
off-putting. The food was nice but with no WOW factor. Too many ingredients in
a single dish: uni is great by itself, why do you need Oscietra caviar with it,
and also some shrimp? By the way, the uni is not fresh - it is flown frozen
from Hokkaido and then defrosted in Singapore. Why do we have to move to a
different room for the dessert? That room was also very cold although we had
been told it would be warmer there. Definitely not worth the price!
Audre: we had been looking forward to sampling Tetsuya’s food since we missed his restaurant in Sydney in 2005. So, about 20 years later we decided to spring for the US$1000 meal and experience what people were raving about. This was not a meal by a great chef. This was a meal in which the price charged was being justified by adding fancy ingredients on top of fancy ingredients. No dish exalted the ingredients. Whatever happened to creating dishes to permit the flavors of the main ingredient to shine? Whatever happened to providing comfort for the guests: even little Audre had her knees up against the back of the counter (in order to be close enough to the counter to eat). Even Audre was freezing in the room. The chef on our side of the counter, Che Meing, was catty and fun but he had only been working 10 years. Maybe Chef Tetsuya is no longer cooking, but we would have been more impressed with a veteran chef. Instead of listing all of the dishes, this will highlight a few: the Avruga Flan was a take on chawan mushi. It was an okay substitute but we asked ourselves: “why substitute—just make a sublime chawan mushi?” The dish described as “purée of potato with soft poached egg, winter black truffle and Oscietra caviar” was ludicrous. Why have truffle and caviar? Oh, because the black truffle was tasteless! The pan-seared Korean Abalone, from Jeju no less, was tender and good but was too huge a piece for that stage of the menu. The dishes that followed were Canadian lobster and Japanese Wagyu beef. The dishes for dessert were not outstanding. We know how expensive Japanese strawberries are but the ones served were not tasty and were not red all the way through. The menu called for a “Paris Brest” as one of the desserts. We had to ask because we couldn’t find it on our dessert plate. It was smaller than a thimble and was nothing special. The Shencha tea was tasteless. Oh man; we were so disappointed and we spent S$1306.80/US $997.56.
We think that the entire concept of the restaurant needs to be re-thought. If the only way to keep the chefs from melting is to have the guests freeze, then this arrangement of having the chefs cooking behind the counter where the guests eat must be changed. The sourcing of the ingredients should also undergo assessment. And the mounding of expensive ingredients on top of expensive ingredients should be eliminated. In addition, the reservation process was excruciatingly painful and annoying.
1.7 A: Putien Kitchener, One MICHELIN Star, 127 Kitchener Rd, Singapore 208514, www.putien.com +65 6295 6358. Putien was not our only awful meal. With 1 Michelin star we expected at least a good meal. Instead, we had food that we didn’t think was even good, service that was bad (by Hazel, a trainee) in a space that was dominated by a TV showing repetitive ads that were at best annoying. We had two of their signature dishes. The first was the Starter Platter (S$19.80) that included braised pig intestine (good but not special), seaweed with mini shrimps that was tasty, a chilled jello with sea worms that had good taste but the worms were so tough as to be inedible and a small amount of bamboo shoots that were not distinguished in any way. The other signature dish was the stir-fried chili clams (S$16.80) that were okay. The braised bitter gourd (S$14.80) was also okay. The Putien cabbage rice (S$14.80) was nothing special. For dessert, we had the deep-fried durian puree (S$7.80) that did actually taste of durian. We were brought the lotus seed with white fungus soup as an offering and it was not worth eating. Aside from the horrible TV in our faces, the bantering by Hazel with her colleague that was awful, Hazel delayed putting in our order for the clams/bitter gourd/cabbage rice. We waited and waited, finally asked, waited some more and then finally got the rest of our meal. All in all, it was our second worst meal in Singapore and we spent S$100.50/US$76.71.
2.
Hawker’s
Centers/Food Centers
2.1 HR: Old Airport Road Food Center Hawkers Center, 51 Old Airport Rd, #01-116, Singapore 390051. Wow! It was just as good as we remembered from twenty years ago. We found a table eventually and the first dish we had was Albert St. Prawn Noodle (since 1963) prawn noodle. The soup and noodles were really delicious and the prawns were good too. That cost S$6. We followed the soup with Xiang Ji Lor Mee (zha jiang mian) lor mee for S$3. It was great. At that point, we had eaten (too much) lunch for S$9! We also had a delicious tao pho (sweet bean curd dessert) for S$1.50 and a sugar cane juice.
2.2 R: Raffles Food Junction, Raffles City Shopping Center, 252 N Bridge Rd., Singapore. ShenXi Imperial Soup: Chicken Soup Wild Monkey Mushrooms with Jin Chong Cao Ceps. The broth and mushrooms (including Jin Chong Cao Ceps) were good; the chicken was tough and terrible. We had wanted a light lunch so it did the trick. The vendor was very nice about answering my questions about the mushrooms. We spent S$10/US $7.60 and were happy.
2.3 R: Huat Huat at Rasapara Marina Bay
Sands, 10 Bayfront Ave., Singapore 018956. We had items that we don’t remember ever having. One was
a Peranakan dish of Rojak which was a combination of pineapple, green apple,
turnip, cucumber, fried fritter, bean curd, and shrimp paste with a delicious and
slightly sweet, thick sauce. The other dish we had was Popiah which is a
Fujianese/Teochew-style fresh spring roll filled with an assortment of fresh,
dried, and cooked ingredients. We were happy with both dishes. Audre can’t
remember what we spent but it wasn’t expensive and we enjoyed our light lunch.
Audre can’t remember what we spent but it wasn’t expensive and we enjoyed our
light lunch.
A map of the spots we visited
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