When foodies think of Singapore, it’s usually the hawker centres that come to mind – and for good reason, because they offer delicious food at reasonable prices. But the Lion City also offers an amazing variety of more upmarket places, from French to barbecue to modern interpretations of classic Singaporean cuisine. We started our tour of Singapore fine dining establishments with Odette . In March, the restaurant, by French chef Julien Royer, knocked Bangkok’s Gaggan from the number-one position it has held on the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants for the past four years. Royer also recently opened Louise in Hong Kong, at the PMQ cultural hub in the city’s SoHo neighbourhood. Royer writes in his welcome note on Odette’s menu that he was born into a family of farmers in Cantal, France, and that his grandmother, Odette, showed him that “remarkable dishes can come from the simplest ingredients”. It’s doubtful that caviar and uni were on Royer’s grandmother’s table, but at Odette he serves them to remarkable effect – especially the latter, which is shown in one of the chef’s most beautiful, and delicious, signature starters of squid ink toast with uni, Australian finger lime and shiso flowers. Succulent and enormous Mozambique langoustine tails with vin jaune sauce, stuffed morel mushrooms and wild asparagus are made all the more luxurious with a profusion of shaved truffles added tableside. Poached foie gras in bouillon paysan is perhaps a nod to Royer’s roots, but it’s doubtful that the chef’s grandmother served it with charred abalone and braised shiitake. Red mullet with obsiblue prawns, squid and mussels in a vivid saffron sauce is served with Niigata prefecture rice with botan ebi oil, sakura shrimp, chives, sudachi and kinome. Odette takes top spot on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list Royer shows his whimsical side with pigeon – the breast is Josper grilled, the heart is fried, the liver is made into a parfait and the legs are confit’d, with a tiny note tied around one ankle (because it was a meant to appear like carrier pigeon). Odette, National Gallery Singapore, 1 St Andrew’s Road, #01-04, Singapore 178957, tel: +65 6385 0498 Our next restaurant, Les Amis , has a Hong Kong connection in the form of Sebastien Lepinoy, who was head chef of Cepage in Wan Chai. When that restaurant closed, the Joël Robuchon-trained chef moved to Singapore as executive chef of Les Amis. At Cepage, Lepinoy’s food was heavily influenced by Japan; with Les Amis, he has returned to his roots with French haute cuisine that is pure, but not heavy. The first thing that catches your eye at Les Amis is the trolley displaying the amazing bread selection – courtesy of Lepinoy’s long-time pastry chef, Cheryl Koh. Koh is also responsible for the most ethereal of gougeres that we nibbled on while looking at the menu, and the fantastic anchovy croissant that comes with a chilled tomato soup. Before the mains, we were served generous tastings of Kaviari caviar, including oscietre gros grains (“big eggs”), a type so rare that you can eat it only at Les Amis, because Lepinoy took the company’s entire production of 14kg (31 pounds). Michelin Guide Singapore: there’s more to Lion City dining than the red book A light sea urchin souffle with a sauce made of lobster coral and cognac was so delicious that several of our group voted it as their favourite dish of the night. Our main course is a seemingly simple grilled cote de veau, cooked so it’s pink and succulent and served with pan juices. Fun came with a dessert of baba au rhum, and a trolley of a dozen aged rums. The sommelier explained their different characteristics, then asked which we wanted to soak our baba. He also served small glasses of the rums so we could taste them on their own. Les Amis, 1 Scotts Road, #01-16 Shaw Centre, Singapore 228208, tel: +65 6733 2225 The hardest reservation to get is at Burnt Ends , chef Dave Pynt’s “modern Australian barbecue” restaurant. Book counter seats so you can have a good view of the chefs cooking over dancing flames of the custom grills and an enormous – four-tonne! – wood-fire-heated brick kiln. We started with softly cooked smoked quail eggs topped with caviar, and an off-menu item, the fantastic “steak frites” – crisp fried potato topped with beef tartare and yet more caviar. Another off-menu dish was shell-on king crab leg with black truffles – the meat was succulent and sweet. We got a brief vegetable-focused reprieve with grilled maitake mushrooms with egg, and aubergine with white miso, then it was back to the meat with grilled onglet, served with a palate-cleansing watercress salad. Burnt Ends, 20 Teck Lim Road, Singapore 088391, tel: +65 6224 3933 At Jaan by Kirk Westaway , the chef brings Britain to Singapore using British ingredients and updating the nation’s classic dishes, such as his bite-size starters of fish and chips (in tartlet form) and duck sausage roll – the most elegant one you’ll ever eat. Scottish langoustine tail was soft and sweet, and a tender slice of Welsh salt marsh lamb came with shepherd’s pie. For dessert, there’s “Pimm’s in the Park” – fresh fruits, cucumber sorbet and lemonade foam served in a glass bowl on a bed of fresh grass, with a tiny bottle of the traditional British liqueur to add (or drink) as you wish. Singapore’s best hawker food stalls, serving up laksa, char kway teow, curry puffs and more Jaan by Kirk Westaway, Level 70, Swissôtel The Stamford, 2 Stamford Road, Singapore 178882, tel: +65 6837 3322 We also visited restaurants where local chefs are making high-end Singaporean cuisine. We started off at Candlenut , where Malcolm Lee updates the Peranakan classics he ate growing up, serving them in a beautiful, airy dining room. We were served a feast, starting with Singaporean snacks such as fill-your-own kueh pie tee (crisp pastry cups with vegetables, meat and prawns) and Maori Lakes lamb neck satay. A small dish of house-made sambal with a piece of fresh calamansi means that every diner can spice up the dishes, if they like. We moved on to larger sharing plates of wing bean salad with prawns, cashew nuts and crisp ikan bilis (fried anchovies) in a refreshing calamansi dressing; a fragrant blue swimmer crab curry; and luxurious wagyu beef rib rendang. Two of my favourite dishes were deep black: baby squid cooked with squid ink, tamarind and lemongrass, and the ugly-delicious pork bone babi buah keluak. The latter dish is made with buah keluak – the poisonous seed of the kepayang tree, which needs to be cured, fermented and buried in ash for 40 days, so the cyanide in it can be rinsed away. Candlenut, Block 17A Dempsey Road, Singapore 249676, tel: +65 6444 6163 On to Labyrinth , where chef LG Han serves a playful menu evocative of his grandmother’s dishes and what he describes as “my Singapore”, using almost all local produce. We started with a trio of “chef’s favourite street food”: oyster omelette made in a takoyaki mould and served with oyster leaf sambal; heartland waffle sandwiched with a smooth pâté made from the liver of local chickens and sweetened with goji berry jam; and home-made lap cheong wrapped with burnt rice “nori” so it resembles sushi. His “chicken chicken chicken” satay is mystery meats: he wants us to guess what each of the three skewers are made of, and didn’t reveal until we finished that only one is actually chicken – the others are frog and crocodile (they all tasted like chicken, but the textures are different). His “ang mo” claypot rice is based on his grandmother’s recipe: she was a cook for a British family who didn’t like the traditional Chinese version, so she started making it with what he calls “button mushroom ‘roux’ sauce”. Restaurant Labyrinth, Esplanade Mall, 8 Raffles Avenue #02-23, Singapore 039802, tel: +65 6223 4098 Our final meal was at Corner House , run by chef Jason Tan, in a beautiful black and white bungalow in the magical Botanic Gardens. One of the highlights of the meal was an incredibly beautiful salad, reminiscent of Michel Bras’ iconic gargouillou of young vegetables. Tan makes it his own, though, and almost all the vegetables, fruit and flowers in the salad are from Singapore. The dish we were most excited about is entirely Tan’s: his “interpretation of my favourite vegetable” – the onion. Tan says that two kilograms of the Cévennes onion – a sweet variety from France – is used per guest: a whole onion cup filled with onion purée and onion confit then topped with a sous-vide egg and shavings of black truffles; delicate onion tart; dehydrated onion chip; and onion tea with an emulsion of onion confit and cream. Corner House, 1 Cluny Road, EJH Corner House, Singapore Botanic Gardens, Singapore 259569, tel: +65 6469 1000