Tuck into European fine dining fare like lobster, tenderloin and foie gras without breaking the bank at this new Keong Saik restaurant
999.99 (or Five Nines if that’s too much of a mouthful), named after the purest form of gold, certainly looks the part. But it’s that same abundance of gold highlights and swish décor that may cause you to err on the side of caution if you’re looking for a budget friendly bite. After all, Singapore has once again found itself topping the list of the most expensive cities in the world, and this new dig definitely looks like one of Keong Saik’s more upscale offerings.
Helmed by Tokyo-born Executive Chef Masanao Saito, Five Nines aims to present diners with luxury ingredients at modest prices. The restaurant bills itself as modern European, but Chef Masanao showcases seasonal flavours and techniques from both Europe and Japan in his renditions of classics. What we do find particularly attractive is that, despite offering traditionally expensive dishes like lobster gratin and beef tenderloin, none of the items on the restaurants menu are over $30.
We started off with the tuna & peach salad and a burrata & tomato salad (both $14). The tuna salad was livened and freshened by the sweetness of the peach, instead of the regular citrusy notes one would come to expect. The latter too offered the unconventional addition of orange chunks that added a bit of acidity to the soft mozzarella and sweet tomatoes. The most interesting addition to these two dishes, however, was the subtly salty tomato coulis jelly.
Our appetites whet, we were itching to dig into something more substantial. Our next courses were the truffle cream risotto with foie gras ($19), the tenderloin with foie gras, and the lobster gratin. The risotto was rich and intensely flavoured with truffle, while the foie gras that crowned the pile of al dente risotto was soft and tender. The tenderloin, like the risotto, came with a generous portion of the similarly seared foie gras and was cooked to a lovely pink medium rare. But what we were most excited about was the lobster gratin: the shell was served with the meat scraped out, chopped into chunks and drenched in a rich béchamel sauce and baked until the cheese started to brown. Sure, this was a sharing dish, but if you’re anything like us, you won’t regret ordering one for yourself.
At $29, the lobster and tenderloin are the most expensive items on the menu. But if you’re early enough to snag the first 20 portions of each of these two dishes, you’ll only pay $19.
Our dessert was the pistachio & chocolate cake ($9): a small finger of dense chocolate cake topped with fluffier pits of pistachio cake and fruit. This writer is a fan of pistachio, so it came as a slight disappointment that the cake was mostly chocolate. But if you’re a fan of the latter, you will enjoy this petite dessert portion after heavy courses like the lobster and risotto.
Five Nines more than delivers in its quest to provide diners with luxury fare at affordable prices. The more cynical foodies amongst us might assume the restaurant skimps on quality of ingredients and portion sizes. But true to the promise of “serving food in its purest and finest form”, Five Nines delivers gold-standard dishes that won’t leave diners wanting.
999.99, 29 Keong Saik Road, Singapore 089136. p. 6221 7098.