Newly launched: The most exciting spring menus in Singapore for 2023

Take a journey to the Italian country at Fiamma, where chef Mauro Colagreco has curated a new spring menu representing the best of traditional Italian techniques with the finest seasonal ingredients. 

Start your meal with a refreshing amberjack carpaccio in a basil-saffron vinaigrette that lets the freshness of the amberjack slices come through. You’ll be spoilt for choice with the mains, which include a risotto cooked in an intensely umami lobster bique sauce with a dash of sea urchin, and a wood-fired turbot steak in a sharp and piquant citrus sauce with white asparagus. Don’t miss out on the classic tiramisu, which has a layer of torched sugar over its rich mascarpone filling and biscuits soaked generously in Amaretto. 

Fiamma, 1 The Knolls, Sentosa, S(098297), +65 6377 8888

Willow is celebrating its first year with a new spring menu, crafted by Singaporean chef Nicolas Tam. Western classics like a pain au lait (milk bread) is flavoured with kombu (dried kelp), fresh and roasted nori, and a katsuobushi sabayon—a light sauce made with smoked and fermented skipjack tuna.

Get a taste of spring with the steamed sakuradai (cherry bream), a fish that hails the coming of spring and the sakura season in Japan. It’s served with a preserved sakura flower sauce flavoured with clams and dashi, which carries the sweetness and umami profiles of the sea with the tang of the sakura flowers. 

Willow, 39 Hong Kong Street, S(059678), +65 8843 4066

In Wagatomo’s new seven-course sharing omakase menu, chef-owner Tomoyuki Kiga will show you the best of spring, mastering the precision of Japanese techniques while letting the ingredients speak for themselves. 

Set your taste buds alight with dishes like the maguro tataki, a sharing dish made of torched fresh maguro (tuna) drizzled with vinegar, Tataki soy and sugar and decorated with shredded pickled ginger flower, negi (Japanese green onion) and garlic chips to balance umami and acidic notes with elegance. Excellence lies in the saba shio yaki, a grilled saba mackerel lightly seasoned with coarse grain salt and served with a side of yuzu zest and grated daikon for a tang that elevates the dish. 

Wagatomo, 5 Wallich Street, 01-12 Guoco Tower, S(078883), +65 8313 6622

Chef Louis Han is offering a peek into the Korean barbecue tradition in his Front Yard Barbecue at Naeum, which has also recently gained a spot on the Tatler Dining Guide’s Top 20 Restaurants. Choose between a Classic six-course tasting menu or a Signature eight-course menu, featuring a bevy of cold and hot dishes that keeps the palate refreshed. 

Look out for dishes such as the cold dongchimi (radish water kimchi) soup, which is elevated with confit Obsiblue prawns, sea urchin, and cured eggplant mixed in with a chimichurri sauce of seasonal mountain herbs and grated mung bean jelly. The result is a refreshing soup that cleanses the palate in time for the barbecue dishes, which includes a MS7 Wagyu tenderloin grilled over binchotan, a prized hardwood charcoal. Chef Han’s signature duckgalbi will be making an appearance in the Signature menu, featuring minced duck wrapped around a rice cake, then grilled and glazed with a sweet chilli sauce and served with a Korean perilla leaf to provide a hint of freshness in contrast to the more savoury grilled meat.

Nae:um, 161 Telok Ayer Street, S(068615), +65 8830 5016

Read more: A Taste of Home: Naeum Chef and Founder Louis Han on His Favourite Meals in Seoul
 

At Buona Terra, expect the finest spring produce sourced all around the world, crafted into modern Italian creations by resident chef Denis Lucchi. Fresh herbs are now in abundance, and these are translated to a fusilloni with pesto of tomato and Sicilian almonds, lemon, bottarga (cured fish roe pouch) and sea urchin; it is a combination that is concentrated with umami flavour. 

No trip to Buona Terra is complete without its signature dish, a 10-day dry-aged pigeon, grilled over binchotan charcoal, then spiced and glazed with Italian acacia honey. The pigeon, both juicy and full of depth, is accompanied by a braised artichoke and pigeon jus fragranced with sweet white onions and earthy sage, ensuring a balanced complexity. 

Buona Terra, 29 Scotts Road, S(228224), +65 9456 3147

Restaurant Jag’s new spring menu, La balade du végétal (The Vegetable Journey), celebrates the plentiful French harvest with produce like white asparagus, rhubarb and artichokes. The dining journey takes you through 16 plates, and includes refreshing canapés like fennel salads before luxurious mains like Normandy brown crabs with uni and caviar. The latter is served with a range of green, sweet, and snow peas that pair the salty and savoury profiles of the seafood with the sweetness of the vegetables. With curations from a seasonal cheese trolley, desserts and an optional wine pairing, Restaurant Jag will not disappoint. 

Restaurant Jag, 76 Duxton Road, S(089535), +65 3138 8477

Health is on the mind of chef Lee Hongwei, who has curated a spring menu at Yue Bai informed by Chinese shi liao dietary therapy aimed at supporting the liver and the movement of vital energy, qi. Chlorophyll-rich greens are prominent here, which includes a cod filet served with pickled choy sum and Chinese celery—a pairing that elevates the clean taste of cod with the acidity of preserved vegetables. 

Other premium offerings include the wok-fried asparagus with scallops and Sarcodon mushrooms. The wok lends the asparagus a wok hei char that you don’t get with a sautée, and the scallops and mushrooms imbue umami dimensions to the dish that takes it to the next level.

Yue Bai, 33 Duxton Road, S(089497), +65 9721 8055

Let executive chef Sam Chin take you on a contemporary exploration of European flavours on the rooftop of OUE Bayfront. Sit amongst the clouds as you feast on his new 4-course spring menu, which features seasonal highlights like poached white asparagus paired with a tahini orange dressing and a white asparagus brûlée, topped with crushed walnuts and orange slices. Elsewhere, an oven-roasted maple leaf duck breast steals the spotlight with its Périgord sauce infused with truffle and port wine, but Chin shows how versatile seasonal vegetables can be with a grilled Japanese eggplant with Chioggia beetroot, poached radish, mountain caviar, and a fragrant ginger bergamot sauce. The rhubarb earl grey is an excellent end to a delicious meal, featuring an earl grey sponge topped with a yoghurt sorbet, Chitose strawberries, and yuzu foam.

Italian mainstay Altro Zafferano is channeling the best of white asparagus in its new à la carte menu item until the end of June, the risotto with sage and onion molasses. It sees Acquerello rice painstakingly cooked in a stock made with the base of white asparagus, thickened and flavoured by the rich additions of butter and Parmigiana Reggiano. The fibrous tops of this seasonal delight is then slow-roasted in butter and sage for an exceptional aroma before adorning the risotto alongside onion molasses for a slight umami yet sweet note.

Vibrant Catalan flavours are in store for you at Restaurant Gaig, its international one-Michelin starred sister from Barcelona. This spring, executive chef Marti Carlos Martinez is bringing out the best of white asparagus by charcoal-grilling it and adorning it with house-made romesco sauce. The charcoal leaves a smoky imprint on the white asparagus, which is paired perfectly with the sauce's blend of garlic, tomato, sherry vinegar, ñora peppers, toasted almond and hazelnut for a complex, piquant tang. Don't miss out before this menu item leaves at the end of May.

NOW READ

New Restaurant Alert: Chef Yusuke Takada debuts new dining concept Hanazen in Singapore

What is natto and how do Japanese chefs in Singapore enjoy this delicacy?

Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023: The restaurants which made it into this prestigious list