Food Picks: Make the trek out to Forage restaurant at the Mandai Rainforest Resort by Banyan Tree
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Forage restaurant offers peaceful views of Upper Seletar Reservoir.
PHOTO: MANDAI RAINFOREST RESORT BY BANYAN TREE
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SINGAPORE – Even if you do not splurge on a hotel stay at the fancy Mandai Rainforest Resort by Banyan Tree, you can dine at its Forage restaurant.
The 40-seat nature-themed space – launched in April with the hotel – is open for dinner only.
You will want to arrive earlier to bask in the sunset glow with a glass of champagne – complimentary with the tasting menus priced at $138++ (five courses) or $198++ (eight courses) – as you soak in the peaceful views of Upper Seletar Reservoir.
Helming Forage is Singaporean chef de cuisine Marcus Tan, 33, a familiar face from previous restaurants including Michelin-starred establishments Ma Cuisine, Lerouy, Saint Pierre and, most recently, the now-defunct Restaurant Inicio.
Singaporean chef de cuisine Marcus Tan helms Forage restaurant.
PHOTO: MANDAI RAINFOREST RESORT BY BANYAN TREE
There is no wild foraging here. Ingredients are mainly limited to chef Tan’s use of herbs and microgreens from the resort’s rooftop edible garden and produce from local partners such as Toh Thye San Farm for poultry and Ah Hua Kelong for seafood.
The food is largely Asian-influenced in flavour and ingredients, enhanced with chef Tan’s French techniques.
His star dishes include a soya bean custard with charcoal-grilled leek wrapped in seaweed and topped with Kaluga Hybrid Caviar; and layered braised Beijing cabbage with foie gras and a shiitake mushroom and crustacean broth, complete with a cube of crispy pork lard.
Soya bean custard with charcoal-grilled leek wrapped in seaweed and topped with Kaluga Hybrid Caviar.
PHOTO: MANDAI RAINFOREST RESORT BY BANYAN TREE
Other standouts are the lobster medallion wrapped in bacon and surrounded in a rich assam pedas-style sauce; and chicken four-ways, a take on the Taiwanese dish of san bei ji (three cup chicken).
Different parts of the chicken, even the breast, are cooked perfectly and rounded off with a lip-smacking collagen-rich chicken soup.
Chicken four-ways is a take on the Taiwanese dish of san bei ji (three cup chicken).
PHOTO: MANDAI RAINFOREST RESORT BY BANYAN TREE
The eight-course meal includes another meat main of wagyu striploin with celeriac and black winter truffle. While also delicious, if the meal had ended with the chicken main as with the five-course meal, I would have left satisfied too.
Wagyu striploin with celeriac and black winter truffle.
PHOTO: MANDAI RAINFOREST RESORT BY BANYAN TREE
Two refreshing desserts and petit fours follow and, almost three hours later, I am stuffed. Chef Tan cheerfully acknowledges this, saying that he cannot leave guests hungry after they have made the trek out to Forage.
Where: Level 4 Mandai Rainforest Resort by Banyan Tree, 60 Mandai Lake Road str.sg/vSsq
MRT: Khatib (Mandai Khatib Shuttle connects Khatib MRT station to Mandai Wildlife East)
Open: 6 to 10pm daily
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