Many international brands have picked Singapore for their first outpost

Co-working spaces are popping up everywhere in Singapore, some boasting sophisticated designs, while others take pride in their own F&B offerings. This upcoming one from Hong Kong combines the best of both.

The Work Project from Hong Kong is making their first overseas venture to Singapore on Jun 1, calling the prime Raffles Place area their home. It will be called The Work Project Downtown, and will take over the fourth floor of the OUE Downtown Gallery, an exciting new retail mall opening soon, and which is connected to the OUE Downtown office tower. Expect a staggering 230 private workstations, 100 hot desks and 120 collaboration spaces at The Work Project, which, when open, will likely be the biggest co-working space in Singapore.

Guenpin Fugu

Fugu, or pufferfish and dishes made from it, is coming to Singapore in a big way with Guenpin Fugu, the largest fugu restaurant chain in Japan, setting up shop here at Maxwell Chambers. It boasts a whooping 96 outlets in Japan and has been around for 30 years. Their first overseas outlet in Singapore is a cozy and intimate 32-seater restaurant.

They specialize in torafugu and snow crab cuisines. Torafugu is the most premium grade of fugu available in the market and at Guenpin, it is prepared in a variety of ways such as thin sliced sashimi, thick sliced sashimi, sushi, grilled, hotpot or cooked with porridge. Sake is served here as well. Classic options remain but for the more adventurous, there’s the more unusual choices like fin sake and tsugi sake; a cup of heated sake with grilled fish fins.

Menya Sakura, a popular chain in Nagoya City, Japan, has opened its first outlet right here in Singapore. This comfortable 68-seater ramen house serves Nagoya-style ramen, sides and a humble variety of whisky and sake. Excluding Singapore, the group has 22 restaurants under its belt; 15 of which are in Japan and seven in Indonesia.

This first Singaporean outpost is unpretentious and features minimalistic designs, wooden furniture, black wallpaper and white paper lanterns throughout the establishment to emulate typical downtown Japanese sake houses. The kitchen is helmed by chef Sho Naganuma, who used to cut his teeth as the executive chef at MBS’ Hide Yamamoto for five years.