Here are three splurge-worthy restaurants for the last quarter of the year that you’re going to want to revisit over and over again.
Tenshima
At Tenshima, tempura is given a carefully considered kaiseki approach, elevating the dish that’s often enjoyed casually by most diners. This new fine dining concept that’s discreetly hidden in Millenia Walk is helmed by Chef Takahiro Shima, who quietly flexes his kaiseki and tempura know-how behind a beautiful, custom-made wooden counter.
Here, he returns tempura to its classical roots, where each seasonal ingredient is prepared by hand, one piece at a time, and fried with precision, resulting in tender morsels embraced by a light, crisp batter.
The choice of oil for deep frying is important at Tenshima, where Chef Shima opts for sunflower oil because of its light, clean taste. As for the batter, it is carefully prepared with low gluten flour, egg yolks, and filtered water, which results in a delightfully crisp texture. The meal begins with a trio of cold and hot starters, featuring seasonal ingredients like hairy crab and anago.
As for the main event, Chef Shima starts the tempura course with Japanese tiger prawn head, fried to crackling perfection. What follows is the rest of the prawn, as well as other luxurious bites like shark’s fin, white and yellow Japanese corn, A5 Miyazaki tenderloin, plump scallops, and seasonal fish. Each bite is accompanied by instructions on whether to eat it with sauce, flavored salt, or lemon juice. Here, even dessert is given the tempura treatment, where Japanese sweet potato is dry aged, battered, fried, and finished with a scoop of milk ice cream.
Tenshima is at 9 Raffles Boulevard, Millenia Walk, #01-09, Singapore 039596.
Born
Chef Zor Tan’s restaurant, Born, burst onto Singapore’s dining scene a year ago to much fanfare. To no surprise, it clinched a double win at this year’s Michelin Guide Singapore and Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, which was then followed by the launch of a highly anticipated second menu.
If chef Tan’s first chapter told the world who he was through a menu inspired by episodes in his life, this second menu tells diners about his relationship with flavors and how they helped frame his understanding of food.
The nine-course menu is a journey through Chef Tan’s food memories – from snacking on canned fruit to discovering the magic of sweet and savory pairings. It’s a fairly ambitious menu, starting with five snacks, each one technique-heavy – like the Beef Tongue on a spiced cracker topped with pickled daikon or the pig stomach-stuffed Chicken Wing paired with a pepper gel – and strong enough to stand on their own as individual courses.
Knife skills and flavour balance come into play in the first course of Kanpachi, watermelon radish, and green chili. Meanwhile, a play on texture and varying levels of savouriness is front and center in the Foie Gras custard course paired with a buttery brioche with toasted buckwheat.
And what might look like a bowl of gelatin strips in the Squid course are actually paper-thin strips of raw squid, which dance and curl when a soothing broth of squid trimmings, dried cuttlefish, leeks, and chicken stock are poured over it. For a strong finish, sweet potato is puréed, steamed, fried, dehydrated, and then beautifully assembled together for a multi-layered experience with the humble tuber.
Born is at 1 Neil Road, Singapore 088804.
The Astor Grill by St. Regis
Helmed by new Chef de Cuisine Angelo Sergio, The Astor Grill by St Regis showcases an expanded menu focussing on heritage breeds of beef from farms around the world with artisanal cuts of bone-in, dry-aged and full blood wagyu steaks.
But more than just offering a meticulously sourced selection of signature cuts hailing from the U.S, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom, The Astor Grill delivers a bespoke experience built on the heritage and spirit of St. Regis.
Described as “steak with a touch of ceremony”, the meat is prepared on a custom-built parrilla grill with charcoal and vulcan stones to introduce distinctive flavours during caramelisation with a slightly charred crust.
Highly recommended is the MB 9+ Full Blood Autumn Wagyu where cattle grazing by the beach in Tasmania brings about a natural saltiness from the botanicals of the island. Another new cut is the Bone-in New York Striploin – a crossbreed wagyu from Australia and Japan.
Secondary cuts include the Hanger Steak, an exclusive Black Angus cut from Victoria, Australia, that offers a subtle sweet aftertaste. For sharing, consider the 800-gram Dry Aged Bone-in Shell Loin from the United Kingdom where cattle are 100 percent grass-fed and dry-aged for 45 days. It comprises three cuts – Bone-in Striploin, Bone-in Ribeye and the T-Bone.
Every order of signature sharing, primary and secondary cut is presented with a choice of specialty salt, house mustard, choice of sauce and a selection of steak knives.
A version of this article first appeared in Portfolio.
Additional text by Nida Seah.
