LUXE LIFE

Live it up with wagyu beef, Russian caviar and French cuisine from a Michelin-starred chef.

Portrait of Tammy Strobel

Live it up with wagyu beef, Russian caviar and French cuisine from a Michelin-starred chef.

The light-filled interior of the Origin Grill. 

WELL DONE

For elegant but unpretentious dining, Origin Grill is the place to head. Filled with natural light, the restaurant on the first floor of the Shangri-La offers contemporary dishes with a strong focus on beef. Diners get to choose between steak from Australia, Japan, the US and Ireland, and experience the difference in taste—like the lean Mayura Full Blood Wagyu Beef Ribeye from Australia contrasted with the Snow-Aged Full Blood Wagyu Striploin from Japan, so richly marbled with fat that it wobbles.

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Octopus Charred With Smoked Paprika.

Non-meat dishes are also rendered beautifully, like the perfectly cooked Octopus Charred with Smoked Paprika and the divinely flavoured Japanese angel hair cappellini. End the meal with the delicious, deconstructed Enchanted Black Forest or crowd favourite Red Velvet Cake. The executive set lunch that runs from Monday to Saturday is perennially popular—at $34++ per person for three courses and $44++ per person for four courses—no doubt a reason why diners keep coming back for more.

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The tender Tajima Wagyu Beef is a highlight of Anne Sophie Pic’s menu

FIRST LADY OF FRENCH FOOD

One of the most eagerly anticipated aspects of Raffles Hotel’s re-opening must be La Dame de Pic, the first Asian culinary outpost of French chef Anne Sophie Pic. Lauded for being only the fourth female chef to win three Michelin stars, Pic has crafted sophisticated seasonal menus for her guests in Singapore. Fans will rejoice to discover Berlingots (pasta parcels filled with cheese) here as well, while meat-lovers can revel in the tender succulence of Tajima Wagyu Beef. The elegance of the food is matched by the décor: Soft powder pink walls and lush bouquets of fresh peonies are accented by a golden chandelier featuring the symbol of the spade, because it sounds like “Pic” in French. Queen of Spades might be the name of the restaurant, but when it comes to food, it is clear Pic also reigns as the Queen of Hearts. 

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Mother-of-pearl spoons are recommended as they don’t affect the taste of caviar. Lightly salted, the roe makes a beautiful accompaniment to fresh oysters or pasta

CAVIAR DREAMS

Imagine being able to reap a harvest only once every ten years. That is exactly what caviar farms face, bound as they are by the breeding cycles of sturgeon. While that undoubtedly gives the product its luxury cast, Singapore-owned Caviar Colony, which owns one of the largest farms in China, is on a mission to make the product more accessible as well as raise standards within the industry. Employing stringent farming methods so that their fish produce eggs of superior quality, this results in caviar that can be aged longer and salted less. Connoisseurs will appreciate the beautifully firm texture, as well as taste variations across the caviar produced by the five sturgeon species that they farm—from the briny taste of the Russian, to the well defined roe of the Amur, to the rounded flavour of the Kaluga.

Visit caviarcolony.com