Feb 15, 2009
Get a Taste of local food
A new eatery in a Bencoolen Street hotel is offering Singaporean dishes served tapas-style
By Huang Lijie
Fans of Singaporean delights such as chilli crab and chicken rice usually cannot get enough of them.
For these fans, the bigger the serving, the better.
Newly opened It's All About Taste restaurant at hotel ibis Singapore on Bencoolen, in Bencoolen Street, however, is bucking the trend with its menu of popular Singaporean dishes served tapas-style.
Tapas is a small-plate dining concept and at Taste, diners are allowed to pick any combination of three, four or five dishes from its selection of 20 Singaporean street food favourites such as nasi lemak (coconut rice), chilli crab, laksa (noodles in spicy coconut gravy), bak kut teh (pork rib soup) and fried Hokkien mee.
The three-course option costs $15, the four-course, $18, and the five-course, $20.
To draw up the list of 20 dishes, the hotel enlisted the help of Singapore street food expert K.F. Seetoh.
Mr Puneet Dhawan, 38, general manager of ibis Singapore, is confident that the restaurant will appeal to both tourists and Singaporeans.
He says: 'We believe it is a great idea that diners can sample the best of Singaporean cuisine all under one roof.'
He adds that the hotel's dining concept, which was first launched at the Taste restaurant of the ibis hotel in Patong, Phuket, last year, has since been successfully replicated in 11 other Taste restaurants around the world.
The 200-seat restaurant here is helmed by chef Casey Lai, who has worked in the restaurants of The Fullerton Hotel and Novotel Clarke Quay.
Would Singaporeans, who are spoilt for choice when it comes to tasty and cheap street food, embrace this concept?
Mr Dhawan says: 'For the Singaporean customer, the main attraction would be that they get to sample from 20 favourite dishes in a contemporary restaurant environment with terrific ambience.'
Mr Seetoh adds: 'The way Singaporeans eat is to sample a little of everything. When you eat at a hawker centre, you order one plate and you are full.
'At the restaurant, however, you can comfortably savour three dishes at one go.'
While it is not common to see Singaporean food served in small plates, Taste is not the first restaurant here to offer local Asian dishes in small, Western-style serving portions.
Goodwood Park Hotel launched a similar concept with its local degustation menu at the Coffee Lounge in 2007. Its menu features tasting portions of 14 popular Singaporean dishes such as Hainanese pork chop, prawn noodles soup and satay (grilled meat skewers), and diners are allowed to choose any four or five dishes from the list.
The four-course set is priced at $28 and the five-course set at $32. Both sets include a dessert buffet and coffee or tea.
The hotel's marketing communications manager, Ms Justina Loh, 29, says: 'Response to our local degustation menu has been very good. We have seen a steady increase in diners opting for it since its launch. We even have guests returning regularly for it.'
Similarly, Prima Taste Kitchen at Centrepoint rolled out a $9.50 sampler set of local delights last July where diners can choose three out of its seven local delights, such as laksa, mee siam and Hainanese chicken rice. These are served in smaller tasting portions.
As to whether Taste's offering might pose competition, Goodwood Park's Ms Loh says: 'The food and beverage industry in Singapore is very competitive but we believe we still appeal to the discerning diner because of the standard and quality of our food and service.'
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