To truly enjoy a restaurant’s culinary skills, try their tasting menu. Check out these four affordable options, each offering a diverse array of cuisines
Lô Quây
88 Amoy Street | Tel: 3129 7556
Explore the latest in Vietnamese cuisine at Lô Quây (pronounced “Lo Kway”), a fresh dining concept by The Dandy Collection, which is known for its contemporary Indian restaurant Firangi Superstar, modern urban izakaya Neon Pigeon, and modern Middle Eastern restaurant Fat Prince.
Helmed by Vietnamese chef Quýnh Brown — who has over 14 years of experience working at various Nobu branches as well as outposts for contemporary izakaya restaurant Zuma — Lô Quây is a bold iteration of traditional Vietnamese cuisine elevated with contemporary presentation and techniques.
Guests enter a stylish dimly-lit 54-seater space — formerly California Republic by The Dandy Collection — that is part mid-century contemporary dining room and part art gallery, warmed with earth tones and natural wood. On the walls, a collection of for-sale art draws you in. These pieces will change occasionally, lending a different vibe to Lô Quây each time.
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Although Lô Quây presents an a la carte menu for convivial dining, newcomers should consider the Discover Menu ($138++ for 12 dishes), available for dinner, which is a curated exploration of Brown’s vision of New Vietnamese cuisine, filled with fresh ingredients, unexpected flavour juxtapositions, and artistic presentation. The menu is best enjoyed with a wine pairing ($98++), which offers a regular rotation of French, Spanish and Italian vintages.
The dinner begins with a tasty selection of hot and cold starters that draw influences from land and sea. One that stood out was the oyster with bone marrow and caviar — an indulgent appetiser that’s steamed, sliced and flavoured with slow-cooked bone marrow, then blanketed in a homemade Hollandaise sauce and topped with a dollop of Caviar Colony Kaluga caviar.
Throw out what you know of pho. Here, it is presented simply as an aromatic broth with a medley of Wagyu beef — raw brisket, deep-fried honeycomb and omasum tripe, and bean sprout jelly — warmed through with an intensely flavourful Southern pho-style broth that is poured tableside. Perched on the bowl’s rim is a crispy cracker made from fried beef tendon, offering a textural crunch between the collagen-rich broth sips.
Banh mi is also reinterpreted as a bite-sized puff pastry filled with grilled Iberico pork jowl, pork crackling, house-made pork liver pate and kombu butter. It is baked and then served with Maggi demi-glace and pickled Japanese cucumber.
Even Brown’s version of a Vietnamese salad is dainty and refined, featuring thinly sliced pieces of kohlrabi, endive, red chicory red, orange, baby gem lettuce and shallots, tossed with fresh calamansi juice and tamarind miso dressing. Some crushed peanuts give it more authenticity.
Although not technically a Vietnamese dish, I highly recommend the succulent Australian lamb chops marinated in a housemade belacan and gula melaka mixture and served with pickle salad. The contrasting layers of flavours give it that kind of Asian heat that we all know and love.
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Khiri
15 Hamilton Road | Tel: 8686 6169
If you love Thai food and want a more elevated dining experience, you have to check out Khiri (formerly Restaurant Chedi). Located in the sleepy district of Jalan Besar, the shophouse restaurant showcases down-to-earth authentic flavours of Thailand in a refined tasting menu curated by head chef Miller Mai.
To mark its rebranding, the restaurant showcases Khiri from a different perspective with a revamped eight-course degustation menu ($148++). Here, Mai deepens his exploration into Thai dishes and ingredients, carefully balancing the heady attraction of hot, sour, salty and sweet while maintaining the ethos of “serving food from the heart, made for the soul”.
Every meal here begins with Miang Kham, a betel leaf wrap filled with moreish dried shrimp and ikura. It comes with a deliciously sweet-sour tamarind drink to awaken the palate. For snacks, Mai serves street-style snacks in the form of tender skewers of deep-fried Argentinian red prawns wrapped in tofu skin (inspired by the classic shrimp cake) and charcoal-grilled lemongrass chicken.
One of my favourite dishes is the Hokkaido white corn soup with scallop mousse — a unique spin on mild curry. Here, the scallops and corn are battered into tempura and served over a spicy-sweet corn soup that tastes as bright and beautiful as it looks.
Inspired by Thai crispy fish green mango salad is the Yum Phonlamai Ruam Pla Grob, which features a cold salad of starfruit, two kinds of mangoes, red onions, hazelnuts and seeds, plus a side of crispy tilapia fish floss. The tamarind salad dressing balances out all the flavours, and chopped red chilli is served on the side if you need a fiery kick.
For the mains, I enjoyed Pla Kra Pong Daeng Yang featuring dry-aged barramundi. The skin is the perfect crispness from being pan-fried first, then finished over a charcoal grill. It’s served with grilled garlic sprouts, ladyfinger and baby spinach and rounded out with a delicious housemade Thai seafood sauce.
Diners can also indulge in the lusciousness of other grilled cuts for their mains. The Kaeng Massaman Sikhrong Kae Yang (add on $18++) is a lamb rack that has been cured for six hours and then grilled over charcoal until medium rare. The Kaeng Massaman Sikhrong Nuea Thoon (add on $22++) features Angus beef short ribs from Australia, brined for 12 hours and slow-cooked for another 12 hours in massaman paste, resulting in a meltingly tender texture.
The perfect ending to the meal is Khiri’s signature salted fish fried rice, an irresistible add-on at $14 per bowl (minimum order two bowls), made with six-month cured threadfin, crab meat and tobiko. The brininess from the seafood and the wok hey aroma is a marriage made in heaven.
We enjoy Kaeng Buad Phueak Chor Pha-Ga for a sweet finish. Inspired by the royal Thai dumplings served to King Rama II, these steamed dumplings are stuffed with palm sugar, hand-pinched, with housemade coconut ice cream on the side to complete the indulgence.
Shin Terroir
80 Tras Street | Tel: 9656 0654
A new dining concept by the Miru Collection, Shin Terroir offers an exclusive, ten-seat omakase experience with a deeply satisfying Japanese grilling adventure, backed by an impressive inventory of sake and top wine labels from Burgundy and Champagne. Here, Singaporean chef Nicholas Lee and Hokkaido native Takeshi Nakayama showcase their culinary skills using a custom-made three-tier grill from Osaka, fuelled by hot Kishu bincho coals made from the prized Japanese oak, Ubamegashi.
The dynamic duo — both of whom honed their craft under the guidance of a yakitori master in Osaka — have curated a tantalising 15-course prix fixe menu ($198++) that traverses a spectrum of flavours, offering delightful surprises along the way. For instance, a soothing chawanmushi made with Japanese eggs is flawlessly smooth and brimming with umami, thanks to the trinity of snow crab, slices of steamed Japanese abalone and a luscious sauce made with premium kombu dashi.
An innovative take on charcoal-grilled onigiri, Negitoro Yakionigiri presents a toasty mouthful of nanatsuboshi rice topped with finely chopped fatty tuna belly and Iranian caviar for a burst of briny goodness. And for the soup dish, we enjoy clear broth with a braised daikon topped with a delicious piece of grilled red kinmedai (splendid alphonsino fish).
What follows are quintessential yakitori cuts made from fine French poulet. The Otoukome Skewer is an incredibly juicy chicken breast with shiso, enveloped in chicken skin and enhanced with ume kosho. A signature creation, the Mille Feuille, boasts intricate layers of chicken gizzard and chives draped over a single piece of chicken skin crisped to perfection during grilling.
Another Shin Terroir specialty, the homemade sweet tare-glazed Tsukune — a blend of finely minced chicken and pork with mountain yam — is paired with a soy-marinated egg yolk for dipping. One of my favourites is the Reba (chicken liver), seared to the customer’s desired doneness and finished with a sprinkle of sweet spiced cookie crumbs.
Ending the carnivorous experience is a generous serving of grilled Miyazaki A4 wagyu with asparagus in a homemade Hollandaise sauce and ikura. Then, just when I think the meal has come to a close, I am presented with a bowl of ramen steeped in a robust, collagen-rich chicken broth and topped with buttery chicken breast and a soft-centre quail egg.
We finally round off our meal with dessert — a locally inspired delight devised by pastry chef Aleka Yaw featuring a kaya mochi enriched with Japanese brown sugar and a toasty hojicha custard and azuki.
Bacatá
182 Cecil Street #03-01/02 Frasers Tower | Tel: 9618 5303
Celebrating Latin America’s fiery and flamboyant culture, Bacatá transports diners to the heart of Colombia with its manly interiors decked in black and red and filled with splashes of colour from handmade indigenous masks and vases.
Helmed by chef-owner Fernando Arévalo (who also owns the Italian restaurant bar Capasso), Bacatá is the ancestral name of Bogotá, where he was born. Trained in the kitchens of award–winning chefs Daniel Boulud and Bill Telepan, Arévalo moved to Singapore in 2018 to open the modern European restaurant Preludio. He rebranded it to Bacatá this year to honour the tastes and experiences of his native Colombia.
Here, Arévalo’s creations remain rooted in traditional Colombian principles but are re-imagined to suit the modern palate. Featuring a wide selection of dishes, the a la carte menu allows diners to curate their meal, making communal dining fuss-free.
Diners can also embark on a tantalising exploration of Colombian cuisine with the Chef’s Tasting Menu ($158++). It begins with a trio of addictive seafood-forward snacks like the Tiradito Bacata, featuring torched Spanish mackerel with smoked cod liver cream served on a homemade walnut tart. We also sample Arévalo’s Empanada injected with tomato paste and topped with succulent slices of otoro.
More seafood dishes appear, to our delight, such as the Chipiron, a cuttlefish seasoned with chimichurri, nduja and house-cured egg yolk sauce; Chuleta de Pescado, a Patagonian toothfish swimming in a green coconut cream sauce blended with Aguachile traditional chilli, avocado, and cucumber; and Langosta, an add-on featuring chunks of Boston lobster, grilled white corn and avocado, in a white bisque-like soup made with three kinds of potatoes.
Next is the crowd favourite, Arroz Caldoso — a Colombian take on risotto made of fragrant Arborio coconut rice mixed with bits of smoked eel, fish cubes and white asparagus. It’s soaked in a rich base of smoked eel broth and uni cream and topped with puffed rice, nori and N25 caviar.
To end the unique Colombian experience, we enjoy Plantanitos Con Queso (a sticky date pudding adaptation) featuring a mini tower of roasted sweet plantain, a sponge cake made from dates soaked in rum with a drizzle of toffee, pecan brittle, and Buratta ice cream made from stracciatella cheese.
