Monthly Digest
Contemporary Taiwanese restaurant Iru Den launches new menu
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Standout dishes in Iru Den’s ninth-anniversary menu include the claypot lu rou fan (right), while 10-year-aged radish features in its brown butter (left).
PHOTOS: IRU DEN
- Iru Den celebrates its ninth anniversary with a new menu.
- The menu blends Taiwanese dishes with Japanese and European techniques, featuring standout items like mapo tofu custard, lu rou fun, and salt fried chicken.
- Dining options include a Lunch Experience at $128++ and Dinner Experience starting at $158++.
AI generated
SINGAPORE – Iru Den, a contemporary Taiwanese restaurant in Scotts Road, is celebrating its ninth anniversary with an ingredient older than the restaurant itself.
Aged for a decade, a gnarly-looking preserved radish anchors the menu in both hearth and homeland. It was first prepared by sommelier Emily Chen’s mother, and is served with the kitchen’s version of cong you bing – scallion pancakes popular throughout Taiwan – reimagined here as a spring onion shio pan.
It is the story of Taiwan that the restaurant seeks to tell. Iru Den turned its attention south two years ago, pivoting from Japanese to Taiwanese produce after chef-owner Javier Low visited his Taiwanese wife Chen’s home town of Pingtung.
He now sources over 90 per cent of the restaurant’s ingredients from the island, including the juicy Carabinero prawns that add a lovely umami depth to the mapo tofu custard, and the tender knobs of pork belly in the claypot lu rou fan (additional $22++).
These are among the standout dishes on Iru Den’s ninth-anniversary menu, which marries Taiwanese flavours with Japanese and European techniques. In homage to Taiwan, some classic snacks make an appearance here, dolled up to the nines for the occasion.
Salt fried chicken, for instance, can be had with the Degustation Menu for $29++ more. Caviar and green chillies add an opulent touch to this night-market classic, which is gone too soon.
Inspired by chilled Taichung-style mee sua, the restaurant’s cold noodles are layered with a host of little luxuries – sea urchin, karasumi or mullet roe, and negitoro – all vying for attention. A tad bit more restraint might have made for a lighter, more distinctive dish.
The menu leaves just enough room for foreign talent, with Irish duck breast and Arita wagyu striploin from Japan ($28++ extra) given starring roles as the main courses (guests can choose either option).
To round off the meal, the kitchen prepares a dessert celebrating Taiwan’s prized strawberries, pairing the fruit with a yogurt panna cotta and amazake strawberry “ice cream” made from fermented rice. Bright and tart, it perks you right up after a heavy meal.
Iru Den’s Lunch Experience costs $128++ a person, while dinner starts at $158++. Guests can add on a curated alcoholic beverage flight from $68++, which comes with three glasses.
Where: 27 Scotts Road
MRT: Newton
Open: Noon to 2.30pm, Fridays and Saturdays; 6pm to 10.30pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays
Tel: 8923-1127
Info: iruden.sg
