Loca Niru, an important relatively new opening in Singapore.
Nestled in a newly restored Chinese Teochew heritage mansion, helmed by Japanese Chef Shusuke Kubota, trained in the fine arts of French culinary, showcasing a menu of French Japanese cuisine intertwined with some local South-East Asian ingredients & elements.
To the layman it might sound really confusing, yet this is exactly what encapsulates the Singaporean culture. When 3 great culinary cultures collide with such technical finesse (French, Japanese, SEA), we as consumers are in for such a treat.
Our meal was sublime, cross cultural ingredients and flavors intertwine as our eyes and palates were being teased constantly.
Restraint was also very well managed here. Seemingly simple elegant looking dishes hides a ton of technical skill mastery & balance of flavors.
The service was also top notch, our server for the evening was Thai asst manager Honey. Every single component was explained in fine detail with passion, pride and excitement. It was great energy having passionate service (rare in Singapore).
What made it even more impressive was that the above mentioned experience, was executed by the stellar team on the first night of the brand new menu. Mind blown.
Overall, one can feel every single staff member's passion and drive, which is a subliminal attribute that adds to the consumer's experience.
Extreme, and by extreme I meant life changing standout dishes amongst the already strong menu :
-Hamachi with plum- The aroma of the different interpretations of plum was intoxicating, paired with a duo texture of hamachi. Just as the dish almost got too sweet, the much needed salty umami caviar pulled it back. Phew
-Unagi, wintermelon- Every year we would fly to Nagoya, to our fave 150 odd years old unagi restaurant. This unagi simply blew every eel out of the water. The glass crisp skin gave way to the melting tender flesh. Gosh, it's illegal to be this good. Luckily the dish came with 2 pieces of fi