Marmot, glad to hear you enjoyed your experience at Iggy's. Reliable rumor has it that they are leasing more space from the Regent in order to expand, so perhaps it will be a bit less difficult to get a table there in the future.

A Singaporean friend who is a major foodie tried Summer Palace at the Regent, the other night when she could not get into Iggy's. She is normally very critical of Chinese restaurants here, but she was raving about the food there.

Meanwhile another new place that is getting lots of buzz is Brussels Sprouts, Emmanuel Stroobant's new restaurant at Robertson Quay. (He is the chef behind St. Pierre, a much respected French restaurant here.) It features 14 kinds of mussels and a large assortment of Belgian beer. I'm having lunch there on Thurs and will report back.

Sorry to hear that Les Amis is slipping...so often the case with a restaurant that has been at the top for a long time and then starts resting on its laurels. It may be due to the fact that Justin Quek, one of the founders is no longer around...he has opened a new place in Taiwan.

I will look forward to your report on Flutes or LaStrada. Both good choices. Don't forget about Embers (in Hotel 1929) and the Majestic, both in Chinatown. Both very hot right now.

Yvonne, thanks for all that good info about noodles and dumplings. Somehow I missed your original post during the chaos of Christmas week. Will keep that on file for future reference.

Very sad to hear that Les Amis is slipping. It was one of our favorite places for a special dinner in Singapore.

Marmot -- Iggy's was closed for a private party when we were in Singapore. We did go to the Cantonese restaurant at the Four Seasons one night. Had the waitress order for us and did it with small dishes like a tasting menu -- we really enjoyed it.

I'll post the rest of the Singapore part of our trip once I'm done describing Bali. This was the first time I've spent any time there and enjoyed it much more than I would have thought.

Glad you got to go to Iggys. Also re the one in the park, we heard they had a new chef. Maybe that was part of the problem.

Enjoyed reading the reviews on restaurant guide and feedback (most importantly!)

Anyone can recommend a place for good steak and/or foie gras?

Tried a new restaurant a couple of weeks ago. Awesome food. It is an Indian Chinese restaurant called FIFTH SEASON and is located at Race Course Road near the Little India MRT.It has Chinese food cooked in the Indian style - a great fusion which is existing in India for a very long time. This was the first time I had this in Singapore . They have very good sea food as well as checken and vegeteranian dishes and the ambience is also great.A must try for all food lovers.

In the end I only made it to one restaurant meal with my buyer. The rest of the time was spent working late at the Four Seasons. (Could have been worse foodwise.)

We had a very good meal at the Long Bar Steak House at Raffles. I had a "mixed" group of eaters and decided to go conservative. I was pleasantly surprised both by the food and service at the Steakhouse. My past experiences there had been high on atmosphere, low on quality.

Marmot,
You just have to come back again soon to resume your SG restaurant tour.

I've been to Brussels Sprouts twice in the past 2 weeks and enjoyed both visits. The Thai style mussels (sauce made with coconut cream, coriander, chilis) were so good we almost licked the plate. Excellent steak tartare also. Nice atmosphere....very casual, located on Robertson Quay...indoor/outdoor set up right on the river, but without the touristy craziness of Clarke or Boat Quay. That whole Robertson Quay area is just loaded with trendy new restaurants and "foodie" shops....chocolate, coffee, wine, etc.

I'm headed to Raffles myself tomorrow night....wedding party at the Bar and Billiard Room, which I think serves THE best lunch buffet in town.

Esta, try St. Pierre for their foie gras....it's totally decadent.

Thanks for the new ideas. My "to try" list is growing faster than the available nights, especially since there are several that merit repeat visits.

Lindsey, We are definitely heading to Brussels Sprouts next time. My husband is a mussels fanatic -- he's ordered them all over the world.

The Raffles Billiard Room was on the tour last week and I was dismayed to see that the famous billiard tables were being used as buffet tables. I know there's something distinctive about those tables but I couldn't remember what it is. Is it the color?

Legend (actively promoted by Raffles Hotel of course) has it that the last tiger shot in Singapore was crouching under one of those tables in 1902. That's not actually true....the last tiger killed here was somewhere out in the western part of the island in the 1930's. But the legend sure gets a lot of people to eat there.
BTW, the food at the wedding party last night was outstanding, especially all the seafood choices!

the Lee Garden does excellent Cantonese cuisine and Dim Sum. your clients will love it! there is one branch in Chimes (near Raffles Hotel) which is a lovely place to dine.

True Blue is fantastic... food in Singapore is wonderful, but does food taste any better than this?? Imperial Treasure: 1 Kim Seng Promenade
#02-06 Great World City S(237994) has great Chinese food, ask for a private room. Crystal Jade Palace: 391 Orchard Road (Takahimaya Shopping Centre 04-19) Orchard. 67352388 has great Chinese food/Dim Sum, upscale, ask for a private room. Also, Straits Kitchen at the Grand Hyatt... unique and fun... great for a group with varying palates.

Sorry forgot to add a link for True Blue http://www.theblueginger.com/ This was hands down the best food I have had. The reason it is so good is that it is Peranakan and they use only fresh ingredients, spices, etc. and take the most painstaking efforts to make the simplest of dishes. No wonder, in a fast food world, does a palate dance with joy upon every bite!

I am so sorry to post again: last post has wrong link. What was I thinking? Saint Francis Enterprise / True Blue Cuisine Restaurant: 117 East Coast Road
Tel: (65) 6440 0449. There appears to be not website. Yet, the link in the previous post looks rather nice too!

We were in Singapore for five days-2 days mid January, 3 days first week in Febuary, so I will add to the list of restaurants.

Day 1

After walking around all day in jet lag stupor, we took the free shuttle bus from City Hall MRT to Suntec City Mall, which leaves you off at Carrefour, intending to walk through to our hotel. We had stuffed ouselves at breakfast and had no intention of eating lunch, but there it was-Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao. So after downing, xiao long bao, har gau, and Szechuan la mian, we were on our way. I highly recommend Crystal Jade.

We had decided to limit ourselves to restaurants serving modern Chinese and for our first 2 days to stick close by in the Marina area. That night we walked to the Esplanade to My Humble House. Everything here is absolutely stunning--the decor, the tableware, even the chairs. A lot of wow factor. We had a table by the window looking out over the river to the Fullerton. The presentation of the food is equally stunning. And best of all the food itself is delicious. The selection is pretty straitforward chinese with a few modern twists and a few exceptions. We had for starters, a double boiled seafood soup, and chawan mushi (one of the exceptions). I'm not a fan of double boiled soup. It's always very expensive and the flavor can be about nonexistant, but this was something else--just gorgeous. The seafood was prime and super fresh. It seemed strange to find the chawan mushi on the menu. It's a traditional Japanese New Year dish served as a starter to a festive meal. The egg custard was ethereal, light, and savory. Instead of the usual tiny shrimp, this came with a humongous crab claw. I've heard of this being served with foie gras and sea urchin, but the crab claw was an excellent taste contrast to the custard.

For mains, Aubergine w/soy sauce--delicious, delicate, no seeds, skin, etc.--just perfect cylinders, and deep fried soft shell crab w/sweet sauce w/hot red peppers, and green mango salad--a strangely good combo of crunchy, sweet, hot, sour & 2 glasses of Australian pinot gris. total $S 114.20 = $75.00 US. We would have ordered a few more dishes, but our late snack did us in.

I'll continue with day 2 in another post.

I agree with eating at True Blue Paranakan Restauarnt. I've eaten lunch there. It's upstairs in a restored Chinese shophouse and downstairs is Benjamin the kebaya maker. He made my kebabya. I flew all the way from L.A. to have him do my kebaya. He's by appointment only, but his sister is usually at the counter wearing a kebaya if you want to get an idea of his style. He's amazing and only in his early 30s. He also owns the restaurant upstairs. That whole block is very interesting...food and shopping. Go at lunch time and just stroll the block. Happy Travels!

Day 2

This afternoon found us using the internet at Raffles City Shopping Center and afterwards in the basement looking for the link which would take us back to our hotel in air conditioning. You can now travel through many malls--City Link-Marina Square-Suntec, without surfacing.

Although we had again vowed not to eat until dinner after another breakfast extravaganza, we came upon a newish food court in RCSC, and Din Tai Fung. We did constrain ouselves, and stuck to one order of Xiao Long Bao and cold drinks. We had tried both Crstal Jade & DTF in Shanghai last spring, and in Singapore came to the same conclusion,
CJ for us was the best. The serving at DTF is 10 teeny XLB, with a therefore teeny drop of soup. Although CJ,s serving is only 4 pieces, they are much more satisfying--larger and slurpalicious. Also, the dim sum selection at DTF is much smaller and the variety limited. This was actually a good thing for we weren't tempted to order more.

That evening, we again walked to the Esplanade to No Signboard for chilli crab. No Signboard is a much venerated crab place in Geylang & National Stadium, which now has a more convenient outpost in the Esplanade. For a crab place, this is fairly upscale, with seating in or out facing the river with a fabulous view. There are many more goodies on the menu, but we started with the crab, about 2 kilos, with thoughts of ordering more afterwards. The crab took up a very large portion of the table. Delicious and so was the chilli sauce. I'm not crazy about the mantou, (little sauce sopping buns), but there's no alternative but white bread. With 2 beers & a lime juice, we could eat no more. $S 94.00 = $62.00 US.

Although many like the atmosphere at East Coast Parkway, it's a long taxi ride from the center and it's the same crab. Our last time in Singapore we went to Jumbo, in Clark Quay, also good. Some people feel that a Singapore Sling at Raffles is a must, I feel that Chilli Crab is.

If you're staying at a hotel in Marina Bay, there are many good restaurants, both in the Esplanade Mall, and along the Esplanade. There is also the excellent hawker center, Gluttons Bay, run by Makensutra.

We left Singapore for 2 weeks at Pangkor Laut in Malaysia. Our return visit later.

More Singapore eats:

Brussels Sprouts
Thanks, Lindsay, this one's a keeper. Very casual, we sat outside with a nice view of the passing parade on Robertson Quay. We had a range of appetisers: meatloaf, cheese croquets, some veg that I can't remember plus plenty of icy cold Belgian beer. Those Thai mussels were memorable.

My Humble House
Unfortunately this one left me underwhelmed. The service was lackluster. Several large noisy groups gave it a kind of factory feeling. Housekeeping was also substandard. Food? Pretty good, but I think you could do better.

Iggy's
Returned to see if it was really THAT good, and found it was. Had the vegetarian tasting menu with a beef course in lieu of the the fish. Each offering was sublime. The wine was perfect. This restaurant is wildly expensive but to me astonishingly excellent.

My only comment is that they should impose some kind of restriction on electronic devises; the couple next to us at the counter each had a Blackberry AND a cellphone all four of which were in constant use. Very distracting and annoying in what is otherwise a serene and lovely environment.

Shangrila Chinese Restaurant
Still a great favorite. We just kept ordering dim sum and each one was better than the one before.

As we leave Singapore, I'll put in a good word for the Riverview Cafe, right next to STPI on Robertson Key. We didn't eat a lot of western food while we were here, but we were extremely pleasantly surprised by this lovely little restaurant right near our serviced apt. Absolutely excellent food --especailly beef and mediterranean dishes, extensive wine list, knowledgable somelier, great service, terrific sophisticated but very unstuffy atmosphere, very reasonable prices.

Day 3

The first day of our return to Singapore was taken up following the Thaipusam day rituals, which started at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon Rd where the devotees are pierced & their Kavadis decorated with flowers and peacock feathers, and ended on Tank Rd, across from Ft Canning, at the Sri Thendayuthan Temple, with much ritual.(If anyone knows the significance of the pots of milk carried, let me know.)

Last time in little India, we had an excellent curry lunch at Muthus on Race Course Rd, but we wanted something fast this time. We went to Kamala Villas, a few minutes walk, where we had 2 delicious dosai sets. The 1st floor is a McD's type operation, order, pay, pick up. Second floor restaurant. The Kamalas fast food outlets are sprinkled all over Singapore and I highly recommend them for fast, cheap, and delicious Indian food. Another few minutes down Serangoon is Mustafas, unbelievable selections of everthing at low prices. We bought camera accessories.

We ended our afternoon walking over to Clark Quay to see the renovation and for some icey drinks. There are many restaurants here but it has a Disney like, tourist cental atmosphere. Xintiandi in Shanghai is the same type of place, but done in an extremely tasteful style.

In the evening, we combined a few hours shopping and dinner at the upscale Crystal Jade Jiang Nan in Ngee Ann City (Taka)-Cantonese & Shanghai & environs. We had a tip to reserve in the bar room, most tables for 2, windows, and intimate. We had: 1. cold
sliced pork rolls w/garlic--delicious -wished we had ordered 2 of these
2. Shanghai stewed pork w/bun -a heavenly little square package (it was done up in green vegetable ribbon) of pork belly w/ a flower shaped bun- we did order 2 of these 3. deep fried yellow fish--disappointing- a 6 inch fried fish--shades of Mrs Pauls--unfortunately we ordered 2 of these. 4 pea shoots w/garlic - excellent & at least healthy - River shrimp w/salted egg yolk-- fabulous shrimp coated in a mixture between custard & scrambled eggs. Also had 1 Corona and a pot of tea. $S 94.41 USD $62.30 Cholesterol overkill, but we were 2 happy campers.

OFF TOPIC, IN REPLY TO QUESTION IN ABOUT POTS OF MILK IN THAIPUSAM PROCESSION. The pots of milk in the procession are used to bathe the statue of the god in the temple -- in the case of Thaipusam the god is Lord Murugan (or Subramayan, also called by several other names). Was it really Thaipusam, or am I possibly looking at a reference to a trip a while ago? Pretty sure Thaipusam was the first of February.

Thanks pmacbee--We were in Singapore January 15, 16 and again Febuary 1-4. I started some while ago to write our dining out experiences on a day to day basis. I had in mind to do a contiguous thread, but that idea was overly ambitious. I've just not had the time, but I'll give it another go with day 4. I should have started a new thread to make it less confusing, but I thought it better for others inquiring about restaurants in Singapore to keep everything on the same post.

Re Thaipusam--The temple was very crowded and all we could see was the procession entering and doing a trance dance to music. We could only see this from the waist up. We could also see a gigantic vat of milk.

Singapore Dining Day 4 Febuary 2

After wandering around various malls--Marina Square-Suntec, looking for men's haircut, internet, laundry--we were right at Crystal Jade LMXLB and stopped in for late breakfast-early lunch. We had opted out of 3 days of buffet breakfast as we already had 17, and 8 more to go in Vietnam. The extra calories were starting to show.

We ordered:
Xiao Long-Bao again--always verrry good

Szechuan La Mian--ditto

Carrot Pastry--warm white radish or turnips just short of a paste encased in a fabulous flaky crust--wonderful

Crispy Mushroom Beancurd Skin Roll--almost like a mushroom streudel--wonderful

Pan Fried Shanghai Pork Bun--this is the one that looks like a giant marshmallow or styrofoam ball--pan frying did not redeem it.

With a pot of tea, the total cost was S$ 29.37 = US$ 19.37
Again very good.

We had not discovered the Crystal Jade restaurants until we went to Shanghai, where we very impressed. The Kitchens & LMXLB in Singapore are all over in various malls and serve continuously all day. The more upscale are also in malls and have lunch & dinner hours, with most dim sum items, only at lunch. I rarely see them mentioned in trip reports, yet it seems Singapore locals eat at one of them at least once a week. From our brief encounters--Shanghai 3 times, Singapore 3 times, and Saigon one time-- they serve consistently very good food.

I will have to continue day 4 dinner on another post.

Singapore Dining Day 4 Feb 2 Dinner

As it was 2 weeks before Chinese New Year and a Friday night, we wanted to take in all the excitement and also visit the excellent museum, Chinatown Heritage Center, so we looked for a restaurant in Chinatown close by Pagoda, the MRT exit, and the center of shopping. After reading numerous reviews, we narrowed down to 2--Taste Paradise on Mosque St, upscale & modern Chinese, and Hometown on Smith St, the food street, down about 5 notches in ambience and decor, but supposedly excellent Szechuan.

We chose Taste Paradise, intimate, low lighting, beautiful decor, beautiful tabletop accessories, with a very much low key New York buzz. We ordered Carrot Cake in XO sauce first. This is not 1: cream cheese icing dessert, 2: Not made of carrots, 3: Not a cake. It is a hawker food, of white radish, eggs, daikon, garlic wok fried to savory goodness. All the reviews raved about this, and they were not mistaken. It topped every hawker rendition that I have had.

Unfortunately, after this our meal went downhill. For our mains, we ordered: Japanese eggplant, pork rib in honey, and venison in spicy sauce. While the quality of the ingredients was good, and also the preparation, (not over or underdone), everything was uninspiring, dull, uninteresting. It may well be that we had ordered incorrectly, as all were fairly heavy choices, but not one dish stood out on its own.

For our last course, we had a braised noodle crab dish. We had really been looking forward to this, Every review praised this dish--"braised vermicelli topped with simmered crabmeat-covered with sweet slivers of fresh crabmeat, the rice noodles soaked up the tasty gravy so well that the dish was perfect."--"the vermicelli had soaked up the sweetness of the gravy--worth waiting for". Out came a large bowl of noodle soup topped off with an egg, which was then stirred in. So there we were with an egg drop noodle soup, and if there was crab, we could not find any. The kindest I can say is--truly disappointing. I kept thinking we had ordered the wrong dish, but when I searched the web after, I found a review with a picture, "A signature will be braised vermicelli and crabmeat, braised till soft and then sprinkled with crabmeat. To give it a greater 'oomph' it was topped off with egg."

All of the above with a beer, glass of cabernet, and jasmine tea was: S$98.75 US $65.13

Taste Paradise, was listed as one of the best top 50 in Singapore. and was a restaurant that we would have loved to love, but with 1 good dish in 5, we would return if we could get away with ordering only the carrot cake.

Singapore Dining Day 5 February 3

We chose Min Jiang at 1 North, #5 Rochester Park, Szechuan, Cantonese & Peking Duck, for our last night in Singapore. There are quite a few of the old colonial black & white bungalows in Rochester Park that have been developed as restaurants & retail space--creating a green country feel, not too far from the city, close to Holland Village, but far enough to attract mostly locals & expats.

We had requested a table on the patio, and this would be the best choice, it's really lovely, but there was road work going on with flashing lights & noise, so we moved inside. The interior, designed by an Argentinian architect, Ernesto Bedmar, is modern chinoiserie style, black & bronze. There are also tables on the 2nd floor, but the ambience was not good.

We started with the xiao long bao (soup dumplings) which were excellent, as we expected, since Min Jiang's main branch in the Goodwood Hotel is known for its dim sum. Were they better than Crystal Jade? They were delicious, I'll leave the rating game to the Jeffrey Steingarten wannabes, my ratings are limited to the good or not good.

We love szechuan, but the peking ducks passing by looked great, so we compromised, 1/2 duck (prompted by our server--"enough") and eggplant szechuan style. About 1/2 of the diners were ordering the duck and it did not disappoint. Very authentic. They use the specially bred force fed duck, pump air under the skin, and roast over an applewood fire, with 4 chefs imported from Beijing to get it all right. The open oven is on the patio. My guess would be that outside of China you are probably getting a Peking duck in name only--a regular duck, air dried, and roasted in a regular oven.

The first duck course was the skin served with sugar for dipping. The second course was slices of the duck meat with skin and pancakes served with many condiments--hoison, mashed garlic, spring onion, cucumber, cabbage, radish. We ate 1/2 of this without the pancake with a dab of hoisin & mashed garlic--a taste treat. The third course was the chopped duck with a choice of noodles, rice, lettuce, and maybe 2 other methods. We chose the lettuce. This was quite a production. Between courses, we nibbled on the eggplant. This was excellent, but really did not go well wth the duck. In hindsight, we should have ordered more dim sum. The total cost with 2 glasses of cabernet and tea S$121.20 US $79.89. The 1/2 duck was S$40, whole S$80. Probably our best dining experience in Singapore.

After dinner, we walked next door to Graze, a restaurant and bar opened by the people from the trendy, hip Jia in Hong Kong. This place has gotten a tremendous amount of PR. At 10:30 on a Saturday night, the open air bar on the second floor was empty--so much for hype.

So summarizing--There are so many good restaurants in Singapore--French, Italian, and more, but we chose Chinese because the majority of Singaporeans are Chinese, and we can get the other flavors at home. We also chose stand alones rather than hotels. Last trip, we tried Jade at the Fullerton and The Summer Garden at the Ritz. Both were excellent but were only 1/2 full, a little fusty, and the other diners seemed to be hotel residents. We wanted a more local atmosphere and full bustling rooms and for the most part we were successful.

I'm going to an 8:00 p.m. performance at the Esplanade Friday night and would like some suggestions for a light meal before or after in the area.

10:30 pm on Saturday is TOO EARLY for the bar at Graze IMO...it is a very good restaurant however.

Bookmarking for upcoming trip

Moving up for Koreaprincess

Moving up for Skittle. Happy Travels!

moving it up

ttt.Happy Travels!

ttt. Happy Travels!

I'm back in Singapore for a few days and would like to update my list. Some of my favorites (like Papillon) are no longer extant but I'm sure there are plenty of new and good.

I'm primarily looking for Western restaurants, maybe expanded to include Indian. I love Chinese and Southeast Asian but am fairly covered in that category by my local friends.

So . . . What are your current favorite Western restaurants in Singapore?

>>>I'm back in Singapore for a few days and would like to update my list.<<<


Warm evening greetings, marmot! (And should your plans change and you find yourself flying SQ2 tomorrow to HKG - and on to SFO in my case - well, 'drinks on me' at a certain SIA SilverKris Lounge.)

Now, suspect you're familiar with all the dining options at my main non-residence, post-work hangout, the Four Seasons. So, propose some rather special restaurants ~ 36,000 feet up: 'Book the Cook' with those sensational Singapore Girls! (As always, can't wait.) Check it all out at sqtalk.com and singaporeair.com and just between us: have always found the food selections at those SIN SKLs to be just fine. (Then, I'm rather easy to please.)

Have fun in sweet Singapore, and if staying at the FS, don't forget ringing up my all-time cherished SIN masseuse to venture up to your softly-lit room. (Oh yes, she's still a 'working girl'.)

As always, sweet and smooth (SQ) rides to all of you in family friendly fodorland.

macintosh (robert)


... Singapore Girl, You're a Great Way to Fly ...