Singapore

LabyrinthThe food you grew up on, cooked another way

Dark walls, a wooden floor, an island in the middle of the room with a bunch of red flowers on it. The menu carries no dish names; the kitchen works to one line from the official site, less is more.

Level two of the Esplanade mall, with the theatres next door. The lift beside Subway opens straight onto the restaurant door, and City Hall and Esplanade MRT stations are both within reach.

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PlaceEsplanade, Singapore

StyleSeafood-led tasting menu

KitchenLG Han

TeamFour, all named

Childhood flavour, a different technique

Singapore — Singaporean cooking, seafood-led, one Michelin star.

LG Han is Singaporean and opened the restaurant in 2014. The dishes come from what he ate as a child: hawker stalls, home cooking, preparations that few kitchens still bother with, and the versions on the plate are built out from those rather than copied from them.

He reduces the approach to three things: ingredient, minimalism, Singapore. It sounds like a slogan, and on the plate it looks like something else: few things in a dish, little sauce, the rest left to the ingredient itself. The official site's own phrase for it is less is more. The set menu is seafood-led, so without seafood it cannot be done.

A Michelin star came in 2017 and has stayed since. Four people run the place: Zee Chan in the kitchen, James Ngoi as sous chef, Priscillia Sim on the floor and Nyan Htet Naing on wine.

A hand holding a wooden spoon, lifting rice from a dark clay pot with a blue-glazed lid resting against the rim — A spoonful of rice lifted from a black clay pot

A small white dish with a green floral pattern on brown paper, two slices of layer cake turned cut-side out — Two slices of layer cake on a small plate

A white bowl of orange-red clear broth with a translucent white piece in the middle, dark brown pearls and a few pink-purple flowers on top

The orange-red soup

A shallow pool of orange-red broth in a white bowl, clear enough to see the bottom, a translucent white piece at the centre, dark brown pearls piled on top of it and a few pink-purple flowers standing in the liquid.

A white bowl of clear broth with a pleated parcel floating in the centre, small green spheres around it and a white flower on top

A small parcel

Clear broth in a white bowl with a pleated parcel floating in the middle, a white flower on top and a ring of small green spheres laid around it, close to the rim, the surface unbroken.

A painted porcelain bowl on a matching saucer, dark brown soup with a pale yellow cube, a wooden spoon lifting a slice

The painted bowl

A painted porcelain bowl on a matching saucer, the soup dark brown with oil bubbles floating on the surface and a pale yellow cube below. A wooden spoon lifts a slice, cream outside, grey-brown within, still dripping.

The inner part of the restaurant, a ring of porcelain plates and silver spoons on the wall, banquettes along it and a black figure in the corner

Route

After the show

The meal pairs with whatever is on next door: eat first and catch the late part of the evening, or come after the curtain and let the dinner run long.

Old recipes, rebuilt

The cooking is Singaporean, but the old dishes are not sent out as they are. Han goes looking for preparations that are rarely made now, keeps the flavour and changes the shape and the technique. Some of the names on the menu sound familiar to anyone local; what arrives at the table often is not, and the plate has to carry the argument without a name to help it.

The menu itself is not online. The official site explains that the produce shifts quickly with the season, so anything posted would be out of date by the time it was read. A sample can be requested by email, and that request is how the current menu is seen before arriving; the address is on the official site.

Also worth knowing

When it opens, what the kitchen cannot work around, and which door to take from the mall.

Wednesday to Sunday

Wednesday and Thursday are dinner only, from 18:30, with the last seating at 19:30. Friday to Sunday add a lunch service, 12:00 to 14:30 with the last order at 13:00. Monday and Tuesday are closed.

What the kitchen cannot work around

The official site is direct: no vegan, vegetarian or coeliac menus, and no dairy, gluten or allium allergies. Shellfish can be avoided, but the menu does not come off seafood altogether. Lunch runs two hours, dinner three.

Which door

Take the lift in the mall beside Subway; it opens at the restaurant door, so there is nothing to find afterwards. City Hall or Esplanade on the MRT, and parking at 1 Esplanade Drive.

The four names

Zee Chan runs the kitchen, James Ngoi is sous chef, Priscillia Sim runs the floor and Nyan Htet Naing looks after wine. All four are named on the official site.

Putting a meal here into the trip

Five days a week and a menu that is never published, with conditions on diet that are better settled before the flight than at the table.

Cuisine

Singaporean cooking with seafood at the centre. The menu moves with the season and is not posted online.

Booking

In advance. No menu is published on the site; restrictions are raised when booking, and a sample menu can be asked for by email.

Hours

Wednesday and Thursday dinner only, 18:30 to 23:00, last seating 19:30. Friday to Sunday lunch 12:00 to 14:30, last order 13:00, dinner 18:30 to 23:00. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

Dress and diet

No dress code is listed on the official site. Vegan, vegetarian and coeliac menus are not offered, and dairy, gluten and allium allergies cannot be handled.

Plan this into a journey

Tell us when you are in Singapore and what is on at the theatres, and we can work a table into that evening.

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