Restaurant Labyrinth

All the snacks and starters!

Chef Han Li Guang's Restaurant Labyrinth has been around for two years and I haven't worked up enough of a curiosity to swing by. Now that it has moved to the Mall at Esplanade—Theatres on the Bay, and I happen to hang out there loads, it was opportune to dine there one evening.

We took the 10-course 'Experience' tasting menu which included four desserts. Woah. I was stunned. The desserts were superb, and not all were sweet. The kaya toast was made up of crème brûlée and meringue. Impressive. That soft-boiled egg was unlike no other. Absolutely brilliant. Loved the century-egg porridge most. You've gotta to try it for yourself. It's mainly made up of soya bean, grass jelly, glutinous rice balls and salted egg yolk. It tasted mainly like a savory porridge (oats). Restaurant Labyrinth's impressively creative desserts are themed on a typical day's meal in Singapore, taking diners from 'breakfast to dinner'. Very clever.

After the amuse-bouche and fun starters, the meal began with a bak chor mee that was fantastic. No meats, all seafood. Scallops, squid and dried anchovies. Those 'fishcakes' aren't actually fish. They're made from scallops. Loved that bit of vinegar and chillies. The Hainanese curry rice was ridiculously exciting! It used quinoa, chicken mousseline and clay potatoes. The tiny cute popiah rolled in obulato and filled with turnip and prawns was awesome. Of course we skipped the wine pairing. Forgot what beer was on the menu because we zoomed straight to the Guinness on tap. :P

The mains.

For our mains, the man picked the beef hor fun, which was totally deconstructed and came in slices of A4 Japanese wagyu, radish and pickled chillies. Totally liked how the radish and pickled chillies cut across the heavy oily meat. Even though it's perfectly grilled medium-rare, we aren't fans of wagyu, so the spices in this dish helped. If it had been actual carbs of rice noodles instead of long strips of thin radish, the man wouldn't have enjoyed it that much. My fairly delicious Hokkien mee was made up of Boston lobster, egg yolk noodles (painstakingly extracted strand by strand via silicone tubes) and smoked bacon, and pork fat. No carbs either, but eeeps, the taste of pork fat was obvious, especially in the sauce.

Chef Han calls his cuisine 'Neo-Sin'. Okay, whatever. He's definitely very innovative, taking whatever inspiration and turning it into something uniquely his own since 2014. It's local Singapore hawker food re-defined. We enjoyed it tremendously. Portions were more than sufficient to fill the stomach. If Restaurant Labyrinth could expand this repertoire to include more flavors from non-Chinese foods, that would be perfect. Currently, there's only nasi lemak in the starters that showcases a slight twist to regular fare.

All the desserts!