Hainanese chicken rice, chilli crab, pineapple tart – Singapore flavours galore at Pan Pacific London, city-state hotel group’s European outpost
- Singapore-based hotel group’s first European property serves diners Southeast Asian dishes such as chilli crab and Hainanese chicken rice
- A team of chefs from Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and China ensures the flavours are authentic
It’s not every day you find chilli crab being dished up in a restaurant outside Singapore – much less a hotel restaurant. Halfway around the world, however, the Pan Pacific London, which opened its doors on September 1, serves an array of classic Singaporean dishes.
Housed in a glass, bronze and steel skyscraper in the British capital’s financial district, the 237-room hotel is the first European outpost of Singapore-based hospitality brand Pan Pacific Hotels Group. The hotel advertises its Asian roots in its decor, hospitality, bars and restaurants.
In the all-day restaurant Straits Kitchen, custom murals of Asian plants complement the menu’s Eastern flavours. Guests tuck into dishes such as mee siam (Malay rice vermicelli), tauhu telur (Indonesian tofu and egg salad), Hainanese chicken rice and the aforementioned chilli crab.
Even some of the more international dishes are given a subtle Asian treatment: for instance, the lamb navarin is marinated with Chinese five-spice powder, while the butter-aged Buccleuch beef is infused with lemongrass and curry leaf.
“When it comes to Asian cuisine, authenticity is so important,” says executive chef Lorraine Sinclair, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and cut her teeth in hotel kitchens across Asia, including the Lotte Hotel in Seoul and the Langham Hotels group properties in Hong Kong.