In this month's edition of Hot New Tables: Hot Buns and Thunder Balls, Ippoh Tempura Bar, Acqua e Farina, and more
If your 2017 resolution is to widen your culinary horizons, we’ve got you covered with our Hot New Tables roundup – things don’t always have to change with the New Year! With brand new Hawaiian-themed restos, Japanese tempura stalwarts, and authentic Italian eats, here are seven buzzy restaurants you need to try.
Ola Beach Club
Taking over Azzura Beach Club is the new Hawaiian-inspired Ola Beach Club. Unlike Azzura, however, Ola bills itself as a family-friendly club serving a selection of Hawaiian-style dishes, mocktails and cocktails. Menu items include the kalua pig taco (steamed and baked ’til smoky and tender), grilled octopus, customisable poke bowls, and the loco moco – a wagyu beef patty cooked medium rare, served over Japanese koshihikari rice and topped with a panko-crusted egg. This one’s a prime pick for a laid-back Sunday afternoon with the whole family.
Ola Beach Club, 46 Siloso Beach Walk, Singapore 099005. p. 6250 6978. Open weekdays 10am-1pm, weekends 9am-10pm.
Fynn’s
South Beach – already home to several attractive f&b options like Vatos Urban Tacos and Alchemist Beer Lab – gets another dining venue that’s set to thrill foodies. Fynn’s, a modern, all-day dining concept, features a breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu with hearty mains like pulled chicken pita, grilled chicken with fried wild rice, and charred lamb loin, as well as unique desserts like the skillet chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream and Guinness syrup. Brunch hunter, take note: on weekends, Fynn’s also offers a menu of sweet and savoury brunch dishes like vanilla hot cakes with coconut butter, chia seed pudding, and a Fynn’s breakfast platter that will start your day right.
Fynn’s, 32 Beach Road, Singapore 189761. p. 6384 1878.
Teepee Restaurant & Bar
If sussing out hidden bars makes the hipster in you do a little happy dance on the inside, you’ll want to check out this new bar-restaurant concept that’s just popped up on Hong Kong Street. Like 28 Hong Kong Street, this ‘guerilla diner’ likes to keep things on the down-low. On the main street, only a delightfully ‘rabak’ cardboard sign gives away the bar’s presence. In addition to beers and cocktails, Teepee offers a selection of casual bites like their spiced kimchi beef burger, as well as a wagyu beef bowl topped with an onsen egg. Smaller bar bites include pork belly baos and pork sliders, perfect for sharing amongst peckish groups.
Teepee Bar & Restaurant, Open Mon-Sat 8am-2am. Closed on Sun. p. 6225 0025.
Hot Buns & Thunder Balls
Feeling right at home in the quirky Hotel Vagabond is new restaurant, Hot Buns and Thunder Ball. With a unique menu that marries Western and Asian culture to form one delicious, mischievous mess, Hot Buns and Thunder Ball produces locally-inspired delights such as the Chilli Crack, the restaurant’s take on the beloved chilli crab; and the Slow Burn, its sinful rendition of the kong bak pau (pork belly) sandwich.
Hot Buns & Thunder Balls, 39 Syed Alwi Road, Singapore, 207630. p. 6291 6677 . Open 12pm-3pm daily.
Ippoh Tempura Bar
Joining the ranks of Singapore’s finest Japanese restaurants is Osaka’s oldest, and most prestigious, tempura restaurant, Ippoh Tempura Bar. Fifth-generation member of Ippoh’s founding family, Chef Masaru Seki will bring the restaurant’s crispy and delicately-battered Osaka-style tempura to Singapore, utilising the strictest of culinary traditions from 1850. Ippoh’s open concept also allows diners seated at the tempura bar to witness the chef individually frying each piece of tempura – shrimps, fish, vegetables, and other munch-worthy goodies that you can mix altogether in a ten-don rice bowl.
Ippoh Tempura Bar by Ginza Ippoh, Block 17B Dempsey Road, Singapore 249676.
Acqua e Farina
Co-founders and Executive Chefs, Roberto Galbiati (former owner of Galbiati Gourmet Deli) and Antonio Manetto (former owner of Pizza Bella and Pasta Bella), have teamed up to bring this authentic Italian resto to Rail Mall in Upper Bukit Timah. Fancy your Neapolitan-style pizzas? Chef Antonio, a native of the South of Italy (near Naples), handmakes his dough and allows them to rise for 30 hours. The authenticity goes beyond pizzas – chef Galbiati applies his Milanese cooking style to his handmade ravioli, fettuccine and agnolotti.
Acqua e Farina, The Rail Mall, 400 Upper Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 678050.
Thirteen Duxton Hill
If you’re an adherent to the adage that “variety is the spice of life”, this new resto in the foodie enclave of Duxton Hill will be right up your alley. The menu here changes daily and will feature 13 different dishes and drinks each day, dependant simply on what Chef-owner, John-Paul Fiechtner, buys from the market each day. Do you like surprises?
Thirteen Duxton Hill, 13 Duxton Hill, Singapore 089597. Open Wed-Sun 8am-12am. Closed Mon-Tue.