Quick update – Zen has lowered its wine prices.

Restaurant Zen, spawned from Stockholm’s Michelin 3-starred Frantzen, is a worthy addition to Singapore’s fine dining scene. A lot has been mentioned about the pricy SGD450 omakase menu but I think Zen is just about the best fine dining restaurant here at the moment. The cuisine is a nice marriage of nordic and japanese influences, which means it focuses on high quality seasonal ingredients and is relatively light on the palate.

The night I was there in late January, our dishes included king crab, blue lobster, caviar, foie gras, marron and copious amounts of black truffle. I was also really happy to see wild strawberries for dessert – it’s hard to find these here in the tropics. These are the benefits of having an efficient airport with frequent international connections! So “locally” foraged produce extends seven hours to Japan and Australia.

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The restaurant occupies the heritage townhouse in Bukit Pasoh formerly used by Restaurant Andre (those familiar with Andre will alas be inclined to compare). It has been given a makeover that makes it cosier and the restaurant spans all three levels now. This means that guests commence their meal with starters on the first/ground floor and proceed to the second floor for the main dishes and the third for dessert.

The meal starts almost immediately on arrival with a series of canapés. This is pretty clever as there is almost no wait before the food arrives. While some folks may bemoan the need to shift from floor to floor, I think the moving helps to make this a more casual fine dining experience. Between the canapés and the mains, we were introduced to the night’s ingredients. This was a very pleasant way to find out more about our food and an effective way of meeting the team.

Incidentally, it is a lot of food. There’s no way anyone should feel hungry after this meal. If I recall correctly, there were at least four canapés, a soup, six mains, three desserts and fruits. I’d say all the dishes were executed to a high level.

One complaint is the pricy wine list (Resolved – yay!)

I do did have one-and-a-half complaints though. The pricing of the wine list when I went was pretty crazy. I’ve not seen such exorbitant mark-ups but I believe (hope) that Zen is addressing this. Zen has addressed this complaint and lowered their wine list prices. However, if you’ve got a nice bottle of wine you’d rather bring, there is a SGD100 corkage. My half a complaint is that there is was no written documentation/menu of what we ate. I’d love to be able to refer to some paper with information. Apparently, they do have a menu that they hand out at the end of the meal but I just didn’t get mine that evening. Hmmm. Next time.

Regardless, I can’t wait to go back to see what this season’s dishes will be. I’ll cough up the price of the meal but I may not order any drinks. Maybe I’ll sneak in a flask. I will bring my own bottle just in case.

Starting with some very good canapes

These were three of our canapés. The crispy potato filled with creme fraiche and fish roe was an excellent take on rosti potato. And part of the reason the truffle taco was also very good was the texture of the truffle shavings set against a foie gras mousse-type base (I believe – this is the problem with not having a menu and not taking notes). Reminded me of bonito shavings. The canapés were followed by a frothy take on the french onion soup (not pictured).

Surfing and Turfing for the mains

I especially enjoyed the deer with caviar. The meat is served raw (tartare) and dressed with argan oil and lime. It balances nicely with the saltiness of the caviar. Not only that but with the edible flowers, it was a very pretty dish. Also very yummy was the marron with crispy Japanese rice. So good with the yuzu pepper and sansho pepper leaves.

The “french toast” is a signature dish of Frantzen. It is parmesan filled sourdough topped with truffle and accompanied with a clear oxtail broth. I’ve not pictured the Japanese (Miyazaki) beef seared table-side. The night I was there it was cushioned by a softly and perfectly done onsen egg.

A nice way with waffles

The sea buckthorn sorbet was a nice way to segway from the mains to dessert. The sorbet sits in a green and blue tea, according to the restaurant’s website, and that’s a crystallised sea lettuce (edible algae) on top.

By the time I got to dessert it was pushing midnight and the only thing I wanted to do was to lie down. I was too stuffed to remember what the cobbler was made of. The waffle with the custard-like Hokkaido ice cream and wild strawberries was as good as it looks. I have pictures of the petit fours being some very nice looking fruits, chocolates and green tea macarons which I don’t think I ate at all.