Want Russian food with a Hainanese twist? This Orchard Road stalwart opens its doors once more to meld a fusion dining experience with tradition.
Shashlik made news June last year when, after its long run of over thirty years, it announced that it would be shutting its doors for good. Shortly after, the restaurant found itself packed with diners eager for one last taste of Shashlik classics like the borsch stew. But just three months after its closure in November, the restaurant reopened, helmed by Chef Derrick Tan and his brother Alan, children of the late Mr Tan Niap Hin, a long-time staff member. It’s not surprising then, that the brothers plan on keeping this institution’s traditions alive… except the Shashlik of yesteryear has now gotten a bit of a nip-and-tuck.
Regulars will notice immediately that the interior has been reworked. It’s much better lit and the ageing chairs have been replaced with designs decidedly more modern. The wood-panelled walls remain however, along with the hanging iron lamps – a nice throwback to the restaurant’s original interior. If you’re back here to relive the nostalgia of the restaurant in its ’80s heyday, the décor might throw you off, but the food is where you’ll get a heady dose of the Shashlik of old.
To welcome Shashlik’s return, we had to start off with one of its iconic dishes, the Borsch soup. It’s here where you may begin to notice that Shashlik does stray slightly from its Russian roots. To better cater to Singaporean tastes, the Borsch here is tomato-based as opposed to the traditional beetroot base. The soup was richly flavoured and included an ample portion of tender beef chunks. To contrast the tomato zing, a dollop of sour cream is added to the soup to round off the taste and add a little creaminess.
For the next course, we opted for the baked garlic escargot. It came served in an indented metal tray with tongs and a two-pronged fork. If you’ve tasted snail before, you’ll have no surprises here, good or bad, so we moved on to the much-anticipated main course, the beef shashlik.
The strip of beef shashlik arrived on a searing hot cast iron plate, medium rare. Of course, you’ll want to prevent it from getting overcooked, so before cutting into it, slide the provided tomatoes and cucumbers under the meat to stall the cooking process. Considering the restaurant was named after this Russian staple, we expected it to be nothing short of delightful, and it was. The meat was tender, well-seasoned and flaunted a perfect doneness. They don’t skimp on portion sizes, so you can expect a hearty feed if you arrive here starving.
If you’re familiar with the restaurant, you’ll know dessert and entertainment come hand in hand here; an exemplar of this being the much-lauded baked Alaska. Though hardly a Russian staple, it’s been a crowd-pleasing favourite for years. The un-scorched baked Alaska came out on a wooden trolley, the very same one regulars will recognise from years ago. Our waiter, Mr Foo Sek Chuan, one of the restaurant’s longest serving staff members, lit a metal sauce bowl of liquor on fire. The lighted alcohol is then poured over the dish to flambé its surface. When the flames died down, we dug in. The light, slightly-browned crust gave way easily and inside was ice cream and a layer of sponge cake. It’s a medley of textures, lifted by what remained of the sweet alcohol and a burnt caramel taste.
If you’re familiar with Shashlik, you’ll probably visit for the nostalgia and perhaps a taste of its comforting classics, while the uninitiated might find themselves wandering into Shashlik’s wood-panelled confines just to see what the fuss is all about. Either way, from the bowtie-clad waiters to the tableside theatrics, what we can say for sure is that you’ll enjoy a homely, old-school dining experience unlike any other at this Orchard Road stalwart.
Shashlik, 545 Orchard Rd, Singapore 238882. p. 6732 6401