Restaurant Born ups the ante with a new menu

SINGAPORE – Holding diners’ attention in a city full of restaurants is no easy feat. People are constantly after the shiny new thing, the viral snack or drink. What is a chef to do?

In the case of chef Zor Tan, 39, of one-Michelin-starred Restaurant Born, it is to knuckle down, think hard, source even harder and come up with a compelling menu.

This latest one, the fourth since the restaurant opened in 2022, shows it is going strong, melding technique with interesting ingredients and flavour combinations.

The eight-course Chef’s Menu is priced at $368++ a person, available at dinner from Tuesdays to Saturdays. A five-course Experience Menu, priced at $288++ a person, is available from Tuesdays to Thursdays for dinner; and there is a five-course lunch, priced at $228++, available on Fridays.

My recent dinner there is full of delicious surprises. One of them is Two Beginnings, One Dish, the first course after a raft of snacks. It is best described as salad morphing into soup.

Pretty as a picture is a plate of delicate vegetables – curls of carrot, juicy bamboo shoots, day lily, peas in their pods and onion, among others. I notice there are two of everything and, as instructed, mix the vegetables with the dressing, made with otoro fat from fatty tuna, Italian basil and Sichuan peppercorns. I carefully eat half the salad, relishing the light tingle on the tongue from the dressing, and the gentle crunch and sweetness of the vegetables.

Then part two arrives in the form of chicken soup pepped up with tamarind and pickled mustard greens – suan cai tang, essentially. It is, of course, gentler on the palate than what you might get at restaurants that serve the dish.

What delights me is how well the soup goes with the basil dressing. There is a certain Hakka lei cha (thunder tea) vibe to it, plus a tang, and I marvel at how one plate can become two courses so seamlessly.

Another highlight is Back To Basics, chef Tan’s take on the French onion soup he learnt to make at hospitality school Shatec. Although made with sweet Cevennes onion, cream, butter and milk, it is not too rich. A tiny quenelle of housemade black garlic ice cream brings some earthiness to the ethereal soup. What takes it over the edge is the shavings of roasted chestnuts and slivers of fresh chestnuts – velvety and crunchy all at once.

The standout course is Gold For A King. The star is steamed Alaskan King crab leg. And it is delicious and sweet. But what is more compelling is the chef’s take on aligue, or Filipino crab fat sauce.

At Restaurant Born, it is roe and fat from stone crabs mixed with Huadiao wine, butter, chicken stock, shallots, garlic and aged chye poh or radish. Oh, for an entire pot of this liquid gold to toss with pasta.

I spoon some over the rice served alongside, studded with little chunks of crab, balsamic vinegar pearls and something that makes me sit up. It tastes like a floral version of kaffir lime. Turns out, it is zest of champagne limes from Fujian, China. It is so good, I have a second helping of rice, something I pretty much never do.

But, yes, that is the effect of chef Tan’s cooking. It always leaves me wanting more.

Where: Restaurant Born, 1 Neil Road
MRT: Chinatown
Open: Noon to 3pm (Fridays), 6 to 11pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays), closed on Sundays and Mondays
Info: Call 9270-8718 or go to restaurantborn.com