No menu has tickled our taste buds as much as it scratched our brains. LabyrinthThis is what was done recently.

After a decade of success in Singapore’s cutthroat dining scene, chef-owner Han Li Guang proves he still has plenty of new tricks up his sleeve. Labyrinth first emerged through something called Neo-Sin cuisine, a modern expression of Singaporean dishes that includes everything from chendol xiao long bao to chilli crab ice cream. It’s this unconventional approach to food that earned Labyrinth its first Michelin star in 2017.

The latest menu “An Ode to Singapore” (from $298 for dinner) is what happens when you combine near-obsessive research into food history with plenty of culinary precision and the brand of gaming Labyrinth. It also helps that its location in the Esplanade Shopping Center and its black box interiors fit well with the idea of ​​the restaurant as theater. You’ll see what we mean when the first four snacks are rolled out…on a makeshift hawker center table that doubles as a placemat.

Reinvented yet strangely familiar hawker flavors are the star here. Ramly burgers made with tomato meringue buns; soft oyster rolls inspired by those sold at Maxwell; Hainanese curry puffs with Japanese sweet potato; and reimagined satay sticks taking you back to the Satay Club days of the early 2000s. Everything comes with thoughtful narration, illustrated cards, and if you’re even the slightest bit curious, they’ll even show you video clips from the way oyster rolls are fried in a ladle, Disfrutar style.

In subsequent classes, we’ll see how Chef Han goes back in history with each dish, considering its origin, flavor profiles, and cooking techniques in order to represent it Labyrinth-style. With the char kway teow, each component represents painstaking effort and skill. The liver sausages are homemade, as is the oyster sauce. The South African abalone that crowns the dish is tasty if a little superfluous – a reminder that you are in a fine dining restaurant after all.

More interestingly, instead of regular kway teow noodles, sea bass fish maw is braised, steamed, and then stir-fried to achieve a texture that surpasses the kway teow itself. Inspired by how kway teow is historically used as a cheap replacement for fish maw, Labyrinth then does the opposite. Why this complex reverse engineering? Well, because they can.

And since part of Chef Han’s quest is to discover forgotten Singaporean dishes, we also discover the elusive Laksa Siglap, a dish sold only at two remaining hawker stalls in Singapore. Fun fact: There are more than 10 types of laksa in Singapore and Malaysia. Here, fish broth and coconut milk are mixed with tamarind and rempah for the broth, Medai fish slices are “velouted” in the traditional Chinese way, and vermicelli is replaced with the lesser-seen rolled laksam noodles. .

This procedure even extends to the desserts. We encounter a trio of surprises: azuki bean-filled rice wine, tang yuan, cereal and shrimp ice cream, and kaya “toast” – yes, dinner ends with breakfast.

These days, offering a prix fixe menu with Singaporean flavors and motifs is a risk in itself. How does Labyrinth achieve this while avoiding being labeled “kitsch”? Chef Han attributes this to his ability to “walk the fine line between what is truly authentic in terms of flavor and what is the refinement of those flavors.” And in our opinion, what he does is beneficial, even necessary, for our culinary scene.

No matter how you look at it, a $300 meal is crazy. But to anyone who considers themselves a foodie – and especially if local food is your jam – we’d say do it if you can. Indeed, dining at Labyrinth feels less like a dinner and more like a delicious three-hour intellectual experience for the food connoisseur. We also recommend it to tourists looking for a true immersion in Singaporean cuisine, not without conquering some of our best hawker centers first of course.

At a time when fine dining is starting to dwindle and even award-winning restaurants are struggling to stay afloat, the fact that Labyrinth’s new menu is moving forward with no signs of slowing down is truly encouraging.

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