A couple of years ago, during an omakase meal, my partner and I discussed the absence of fine dining restaurants focusing on Straits, or contemporary Asian, cuisine. Our region, we agreed, was rich with flavours and heritage, and chefs would have a field day interpreting the ingredients for today’s audience.
Others must have felt the same way because several places mushroomed in the past year or two offering refined menus focusing on the region’s culinary heritage. Chef Kevin Wong opened Malaysian cuisine-focused Seroja in 2022. Chef Hafizzul Hashim offered his take with Restaurant Fiz last year. And Chef Nurl Asyraffie Mohamed Shukor wowed diners with his now-closed private dining outfit Arang (he’s now opened a hawker stall in Yishun called Kerabu).
Brunei-born, Australian-raised chef Victor Liong has entered the fray with Quenino at the new hotel Artyzen Singapore. It’s Liong’s first outpost in the region, but it’s a stellar debut. The third culture chef—his parents are Malaysian—also runs Lee Ho Fook in Melbourne, but that restaurant focuses on Chinese cuisine.
For Quenino, Liong sources ingredients from around the region. Only if he can’t find something up to par does he head beyond. I thought the generous dollops of oscietra caviar on the mud crab snack were from Europe. Chef de Cuisine Sujatha Asokan tells me they’re from T’Lur Caviar, a farm in Perak, just an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur. “The team headed up to check it out before we placed orders,” Sujatha tells me.
Ulam raja also features prominently in Quenino’s menu. A vegetable purportedly used by cooks and eaten by kings (the name translates to “King’s salad”), it’s a difficult ingredient to master. It easily bruises if cut wrongly and will turn bitter. But the vegetable is fragrant and herbaceous when treated right. Liong pairs the vegetable with the Murray cod. If a dish could sing like Sheila Majid, this would be it.
If I had to pick the standout dish though, it would definitely be the flatbread. A simple carbohydrate, Liong serves it with a thick dipping sauce of chorizo XO, prawns, and lentil butter. It reminded me of a fragrant curry puff filling—savoury and rich—that you always wish there was more of.
Beyond the food, the service was also impeccable. The staff constantly checked on us and asked if the dishes were up to par, and chef Sujatha was generous with her knowledge. She even taught me how to make the flatbread. It takes three days, so I’m leaving it to the experts.
I’ve always believed that this region’s culinary heritage was a gastronomical treasure trove that can be exported around the world, so I’m glad to see that more and more fine dining restaurants offering contemporary Asian cooking are popping up. Syabas.
Quenino offers a 7- and 9-course menu, priced at at $180++ and $240++ respectively.
