Singapore Dining - Labyrinth @ The Esplanade

[yflyer]

I was at the Esplanade last night at the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s concert with the pianist Stephen Hough.



Before the concert, Mrs yflyer and I had dinner at Labyrinth, a newly opened restaurant in the Esplanade complex.





Helmed by Chef Han Li Guang, Labyrinth takes local Singapore flavours and cuisine and gives it the full modern, molecular treatment, and turns the familiar into something fantastical. If Heston Blumenthal were born and raised in Singapore, I imagine the cuisine would turn out something like this…and I mean this as a compliment to Han, who has somehow distilled the essence of local cuisine into edible masterpieces that surprised and delighted us.

Molecular gastronomy is no longer new, you can see influences from all over in the cuisine at Labyrinth, but what distinguises the approach here is how playfully familiar Singapore flavours form the themes for the items on the menu, all immaculately executed.

They serve only set tasting menus, comprising a full dinner menu (choice of two menus), a lunch menu, and a pre-theatre menu, which we selected, since our reservation was at 6pm, and had to finish by 7.15pm in order to head to the concert hall by 7.30pm.



We scanned the menu…5 courses…wow…would we be able to finish this in time?

[yflyer]

Our meal began with this…a single sphere of watermelon flavoured liquid, taken in a single bite…very refreshing…



Then, the amuse bouche, which was a macaroon of “kaya toast” followed by “rojak” in deep fried dough fritter (“You char kway”). Biting into the crisp dough fritter, a stream of strong, pungent yet sweet flavour rojak sauce exploded onto your tongue…



The next dish was “fish and chip soup”, which was a foamy pea soup with bits of battered fish. Another subtle and refined dish where the bits of batter and fish did add an interesting texture to the soup.



Our waiter brought out the next dish “pineapple rice” with a disclaimer saying that if we were expecting Thai pineapple rice served in a half pineapple, then this wasn’t it! Instead it was cold pineapple sorbet with crisp fried rice…a very refreshing starter!



For our main, I chose the “Hainanese Curry Rice” while Mrs yflyer chose the Sambal Barramundi and Kang Kong…

For my main, I would have been happy even with regular hainanese curry rice (comfort food!). Given what had come before, I was expecting a twist or two, but the plate that was set in front of me was something totally unfamiliar…



While the sauce was curry, there was no rice…instead it was Quinoa, and the chicken was a finely chopped mousse, encased in black squid-ink balls, all rounded off with a quail’s egg, potato and coriander sponge. If this didn’t taste good, I think I would have had grounds to go to CASE to argue for a refund since I had ordered curry rice and got something that most definitely wasn’t it. But the magician in the kitchen somehow served up a dish that evoked kopitiam curry rice, but one which appears to have been conceived in an alternate reality, fun, evocative and quite delicious. This dish put a real smile on our faces…



The other choice of main, the Sambal fish, didn’t look quite as radical, but it tasted brilliant as well.



This was a generous fillet of barramundi on a bed of risotto. The spicy sambal element (And it WAS spicy), came as a thin sheet on top of the fish.

The fish tasted wonderfully moist, and went well with the risotto.

Dessert was preceeded by a palate cleanser – a cold and not too sweet sorbet…



The apple crumble dessert was another winner…a satisfying way to end our meal.





Despite the number of courses, we finished our dinner in just over an hour, leaving us lots of time to stroll over to the Esplanade Concert Hall to our concert, which began at 7.30pm.

The flavours are refined, and the dishes and preparation well executed, and delivered by staff who evidently share the chef’s passion and enthusiasm for his work.

This was just the pre-theatre menu, an abbreviated light meal. We plan to be back to try their full dinner menu (One of the two menus available is shown below) which looks really interesting.



Verdict? An excellent meal. This restaurant is a real find. We’ll be back to try their full dinner menu…

Thanks for reading!

[jammed]

thanks vy much for this YF. I'm completely intrigued, and curious to give it a try. Never ever imagine someone will want to make local everyday fare into so cheem sophisticated cuisine. Can i ask how much is the damage?

[yflyer]

thanks vy much for this YF. I'm completely intrigued, and curious to give it a try. Never ever imagine someone will want to make local everyday fare into so cheem sophisticated cuisine. Can i ask how much is the damage?

Hi jammed, yes the place is definitely worth a try!

The pre-theatre dinner menu was S$48+++.

They have dinner sets at between S$100-150+++ and I believe their lunch menu is S$35-45+++.

cheem sophisticated cuisine.

Nice way of putting it! Not the type of food to eat every day, and in many ways the original hawker versions that inspired these dishes are still unbeatable. But still an amazing achievement.

[jammed]

thanks vy much yflyer. i guess this is more a sensory experience in extremis - the familiar tastes in the mouth struggling to relate with the incredibly unfamiliar visual presentation I may yet contemplate further, for something 10 times the hawker price, and 10% of the hawker plate

[feizhu]

Reminds me of Chef Edward Voon who used to be at Mandarin Oriental before moving over to Tower Club and now overseas.