SINGAPORE - A name like Bonding Kitchen tells you nothing about the kind of cuisine the eatery serves. So it is just as well that the enigmatically named restaurant at Orchard Gateway has the words "Modern Peranakan Cuisine" emblazoned prominently on a wall near its entrance.

The Bonding Kitchen moniker is carried over from chef-owner Danny Chew's previous private dining gig in Johor Bahru before he opened his first restaurant in Singapore in October. The Malaysian sees himself providing a place for people to bond over a meal with friends and family, or even over a corporate lunch or dinner.