Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

With the opening of Mercure ICON Singapore City Centre comes a new French restaurant in La Table d’Emma. With a wealth of culinary experience, Chef Michael Muller’s curated menu includes paying homage to his life events and inspirations over the years.

From the tasting menu that we have sampled, the Tarte Flambé is a great starter with 4 flavour options before moving onto the restaurant’s signature of Bouchée à la Reine, butterfly-shaped puff pastry served in a veal, chicken and mushroom veloute. The Seafood Bun with Comté Crust is my favourite savoury, a cheese crusted bun with a surprise within of creamy scallop, prawn and crabmeat paired with a clam chowder. We thoroughly enjoyed the desserts and I recommend the Le Riz Au Lait Caramel Beurre Sale, a unique dessert of Japanese rice slowly cooked in a vanilla milk that gives it a nice sweet richness topped with butter caramel and crunchy nougatine for another layer of texture.

If you have not heard of YY Kafei Dian, then I will recommend you try out their kaya butter toast that they make in house and if you are lucky you will be able to order their sugared doughnuts which is unlike your neighbourhood kind. The doughnut has a nice bite to it, and it is neither dry nor dense. The sugar coating gives it a nice sweet finish but it’s all about the texture. The wifey also loves the claypot ee-mian while it’s the first time for me to try their dry hor fun which is at best decent.

Located in the nondescript Fook Hai Building, which has seen better days, lies a Vietnamese eatery that was recommended by a fellow foodie, and it was the perfect moment for me to be enjoying a hot bowl of beef pho during a cool rainy evening. Broth was very beefy and herbaceous, unlike the usual clean clear broth as this bowl of pho might be inspired from another region in Vietnam. Bun thit nuong was excellent too if you are craving for dry noodles as the bone-in pork was nicely marinated but special mention goes to the deep fried spring rolls which were made in house and filled with a chock full of ingredients.

There are many hidden gems that people don’t tell you about but I’m not going to gatekeep this restaurant because it is truly one of the best new openings for the year. Went back as a paying customer on a separate occasion after the media tasting session and the quality standards have not dropped since, despite the restaurant being fully booked due to a concert happening nearby. Though the food might have a bit of waiting time due to the crowd, be patience and you will be rewarded with good food that’s worth the buck.

From now to 30 April, The Black Hole Group celebrates the efforts and innovativeness of the chefs with the Chef’s Lab series. Over at Tipo Strada at 1KS, Chef Joey has launched a dinner-only 3-course set menu starting with the smoked salmon waldorf salad that has a lemon aioli dressing before the main of Tuscan chicken pasta. I chose the mafaldine, a ribbon-shaped pasta that is able to latch onto the rose sauce well. The dessert is a chocolate panna cotta with a berry compote.

Artichoke will be moving into a new home soon, and the last day of operations in the current Middle Road restaurant will be on 22 March. If you have a reservation from now till then, good on you! If not, shame on you but they will continue slaying with the New Bahru community from May. Till then, peace out and see you on the other side of Singapore!

Opened a few months back, Berlin65 is one of the newest restaurant openings offering German classics, Asian street food and Middle-Eastern dishes. Each of the dishes aim to bring a piece of Berlin to Singapore such as the Bahn Mi in a döner kebab and the iconic Currywurst, pork sausages with German-style curry powder, tomato paste and ketchup. It is finished with mayo and a dusting of cumin and parsley.

Available from now to 24 February, one of my favourite Singapore heritage cuisine restaurants, Rempapa, has a lineup of 5 CNY-exclusive dinner dishes and we ordered 3 of them to try. Being a Teochew kia, the steamed red grouper is my favourite which comes with a tangy broth of salted vegetables cooked with chicken stock, and as the CNY greeting of 年年有鱼, this is a must order. The vegetable dish of stir-fried king is a Cantonese inspired classic of garlic chives, pickled celtuce and jumbo dried shrimp among the other ingredients. This dish is all about the wok hei and flavour. Lastly the mandarin orange steamed kueh comes in cute bite sized pieces for you to huat in the new year.

Chef Back has launched the 5-course omakase dinner experience at $148++ per pax and the meal starts with the Umami Hokkaido Uni, beautifully topped with gold flakes. The New AB Sashimi features delicate slices of kanpachi with a tomato citrus sauce, with the additions of crunch and refreshing pickled radish providing the nice flavour balance. The next Halibut dish comes with a clam ang-sauce and the apple puree is a nice surprise to cut through the richness.

The main is a “Sanchoku” Ribeye that is cooked to a medium rare and if you are still feeling hungry at this stage, you can add on the Lobster Claypot Rice at $65++ per pot. I will highly recommend it as this is such a comforting dish with a bowl of miso soup and a side of banchan to go along with it. Dessert is a matcha tart with hazelnut chantilly and barley ice cream, a nice creamy end to the meal.

Popular Taiwanese cafe, Abundance, has recently launched 4 new dishes into the menu. The two mains of Golden Chicken Mee Sua and Herbal Braised Pork Rice were clear standouts, difficult to choose a favourite between the two as both were equally yummy. The former contains tender chicken thigh cooked with sesame oil, shaoxing hua diao jiu and ginger while the latter has pork belly simmered in a herbal concoction. The lu rou fan is elevated into another level with the poached egg and pickled cucumber. There are also the Empress Sprouts with Crispy Garlic and Taiwanese Garlic Sausage to round up the new additions. The core menu also has the popular Red Hot Chilli Dumplings that are hand-wrapped daily and the Peanut Ice Cream Roll to round up the meal.

It is only early in the year, but Song Yue Taiwan Cuisine is probably one of the top contenders for best new restaurant opening. The homely flavours and comforting dishes is a topic that you don’t normally talk about when there is a conversation about Taiwanese food as we usually associate it more with the night markets fare. Dishes such as Farm Chicken with Spring Onion is something we don’t commonly see in restaurants and here at Song Yue, they did a wonderful plate of it, with local kampong chicken lightly poached in a superior broth and paired with a fresh spring onion and ginger sauce.

Seemingly simple dishes such as Crispy Eggs with Black Sesame Oil are usually overlooked at, but these are the kind of foods that usually tastes the best. Good food need not be overly complicated and this egg dish brings back so much memories of how fried egg with dark soya sauce should taste like. Give me this dish with rice any day.

Despite the recent GST hike, Takagi Ramen remains true to their mission and did not increase any of their menu prices. Two unique ramens from their crab series are the Salted Egg Crab Ramen and Chilli Crab Ramen, two modernised comfort food that many people are familiar with the flavours. There is even a Salted Egg Sauce Gyoza for all salted egg lovers.