195 338
REVIEWS
195
June14
We sample the island’s newest restaurants,
so you can decide whether to follow suit
the
TASTE
TEST
This month:
LOWER EAST SIDE
TAQUERIA
CICHETI
EARL OF HINDH
VIDA VINO
MUST-TRY DISH:
Foie gras terrine
Lewin Terrace
21 Lewin Terrace
6333 9905 | lewinterrace.com
For a romantic tête-à-tête, you can’t
beat the location of this black-and-white
bungalow in Fort Canning Park. I’m with
a girlfriend, so the romance is more
about the historical setting, at the foot
of what Malay inhabitants of pre-colonial
Singapore used to call Bukit Larangan,
or Forbidden Hill.
Overlooking the Central Fire Station in
Hill Street, it was once the residence of
a series of Superintendents of the Fire
Brigade. Most recently, it housed fine-
dining Flutes at the Fort, now relocated
to the National Museum.
Lewin Terrace is billed as Japanese-
French fusion cuisine. Despite the
authentic restoration and refurbishment
of the colonial architectural treasure it’s
in, the ethos feels very Japanese, from the
warm and exquisitely courteous service
to the precision engineering of the food.
Chef Ryoichi Kano presides over
what I imagine to be an army of minions
engaged in such eclectic culinary
pursuits as handcrafting transparent
“crystal potato” chips that look like discs
of spun sugar, charcoaling lemon zest,
and making edible sand. (Different from
making sand edible, no doubt.)
After a couple of original andwell-mixed
cocktails, general manager and chief
sommelier Daisuke Kawai (ex-Les Amis)
offers wine pairing froma list of more than
100 labels, half of themFrench, the others
a mix from the old and new worlds.
By far the tastiest elements of our
eight-course set menu ($180 per head)
are the rich and creamy
foie gras
terrine
with pickled white radish and
a tropical fruit sauce; and
Wagyu
sirloin
toubanyaki
, served rare so
you can cook it to your personal idea
of perfection on a portable table-grill.
Servings are on the light side, so hold
onto your basket of warm bread.
For now, two set lunch menus ($38
and $70) and two dinner menus ($120
and $180) are available, but an à la carte
menu is in the offing.
Verne Maree
This month:
LEWIN TERRACE
PORTICO
THE MONARCHY AT ME@OUE
MANOR COCKTAIL ROOM
D’BELL