Food Blog | Meta Restaurant Chinatown Singapore

In yet another edition of Bibz tries to appreciate fine dining, I present to you Meta Restaurant, brought to you by Chef Sun Kim. This Michelin starred (2017, 2018 and hopefully 2019) restaurant serves up French food with an Asian twist!

Context: My dad has eaten here before, so he really wanted to bring my family over for a meal. The set lunch seemed more reasonable for bringing 5 people, so we made a reservation for lunch.

As usual, unedited shots on my blog, retouched/edited photos seen more on my IG @bibzeats !

Meta Restaurant China Interior (You can see the kitchen on the right)

Is it Halal?

This is a non-halal restaurant which has served up pork in its menu. I’m not quite sure about how they source their other ingredients, but do eat at your own discretion with regard to this aspect.

Where it Is?

It is located along 1 Keong Saik Road (from the direction I drove, it was all the way at the end of the road). I actually parked on those parking lots on the side of the road - payment is SGD1.20 for every half hour for weekdays or something like that. Ultimately I know I used up SGD3.60 worth of coupons (I would recommend 2 hours worth - so SGD4.80 worth).

There are, however, other Metro parkings nearby. There is a parking along 92 Neil Road that is meant to be the nearest gated parking to the restaurant a few minutes away.

The entrance is actually this sliding glass door against a white background. Honestly speaking, quite easy to miss, but I love the concept of the general interior, exterior and the view of the kitchen. This is one of those really pretty restaurants!

One thing I do recommend is definitely to make a reservation before coming here. You can do that via making a phone call (shown below) or by using the chope app)

 

Address: 
Meta Restaurant 1 Keong Saik Road Singapore 089109
Phone: +65 6513 0898

Opening Hours: 

Lunch: 12-2pm (Last order at 1:45pm) - only Wednesday to Friday
Dinner: 6-11pm (Last order at 9:45pm) - only Monday to Saturday

What it Costs

I think that the best way I would describe the cost would be to use the total cost for the 5 of us and divide it - because we did mix and match quite a few things. The total for our bill came up to SGD541.20, meaning a set lunch here will probably set you back around ~SGD110 per person on average - and this is with the assumption you don’t order any additional drinks.

The way the lunch menu works is that you have 2 options - the 3 course and the 4 course meal. The 3 course meal is priced at SGD68 and the 4 course meal is priced at SGD88. 

We also got an additional oyster for everyone (SGD10). In addition, you can choose which appetiser you want for the SGD88 version, one option being to add SGD10 for jeju abalone. Apart from that, that was pretty much our meal! You can take a look at what they offer by looking on their website for the menu.

How it Tastes

Chip with Octopus, Ikura and Seaweed Powder

I think it is just better that I separate the 3 course and 4 course for the purpose of this food blog. I’ll just be starting off talking a little about the 3 course meal (SGD68). They’ll start you off with snacks (Not counted in the menu for both, but same for both the 3 and 4 course) - a chip with octopus, ikura, garlic aioli and seaweed powder, as well as a cheesy starter - sorry I can’t quite remember the full description of this XD. 

Both are pretty delicious and set the bar for the rest of the meal! The cheese has this really nice melt in your mouth - doesn’t taste that cheesy and the ikura pops in your mouth, with a nice burst of flavour from the aioli. Both are pretty savoury in general!

Meta’s Take on a Chawan Mushi

Next up we have their take on a chawan mushi. Honestly speaking, I couldn’t pick up everything that they were saying when they were describing it (my personal fault, none of theirs), but upon the first bite, you immediately get that strong taste of truffle! As with a lot of truffle dishes, I kinda wonder what it would taste like without truffle because whilst truffle is tasty, it has this ability to overpower everything else.

Not that I’m complaining, but it is a pretty nice rendition on the chawan mushi.

Next up, the oysters! This, I feel, SHOULD be something you add on for SGD10 because it is absolutely delicious. 3 aspects of it - the oyster itself, the ginger lemon dressing and the tinge of gochujang make it an absolutely stunning bite of oyster. Fresh, lots of flavour and even that bit of spicy sweetness from the gochujang! ADD THIS!

For the three course meal, you get a razor clam with endive, button mushroom and capers. Pretty tasty, but I feel as though the other 2 are from the SGD88 side are even tastier! This one is what I would say is the lightest appetiser - both in flavour and general caloric intake. 

You then have a lamb rib with ssamjang, garlic & chyesim. If you ask me, THIS is my favourite main. The lamb falls off the bone really easily, you’ve got a great sweetness in the ssamjang and the garnish on top in order to add that twist in flavour and it DEFINITELY doesn’t have the same gaminess that you normally get from usual lamb dishes, so I highly enjoyed this dish!

Japanese Strawberry

To finish off, you have a Japanese strawberry with fromage blanc, basil & rhubarb. This one is one of those dishes that make me go ??? Really acidic dish with a whole load of flavours that I personally feel that I’m not refined enough to appreciate XD. The only way I can describe this would be that it is interesting. 

Cookie with Passionfruit Chocolate

Lastly, you have two complimentary desserts (the same for both the SGD68 and SGD88 sets), you have a cookie with passionfruit chocolate and banana cream coconut marshmallow with soy bean powder.

Banana Cream Coconut Marshmallow

So that’s the SGD 68 sets for you guys! I’m not going to repeat and go through the complimentary stuff that comes with both, so I’ll just go through the other stuff you can get in the SGD88 set.

If you ask me, both the shima aji and the jeju abalone - this is the one where you can choose whether you want to add SGD10 for the jeju abalone - are both really nice. The shima aji is similar to a lot of those sashimi/tartare - esque kind of dishes with a bit of acidity coming from the dressing.

Shima Aji

The jeju abalone is actually really nice - but for me, I really liked the multigrain! Of course I liked the rice in a fine dining appetiser including abalone. But it packs a nice punch of flavour and the abalone adds to this some more, making for a delicious appetiser!

The octopus is a beautiful dish, with Chinese inspiration in the XO sauce that they use. I feel like it’s almost really hard to explain everything going on with this dish, because there really is A LOT going on with this dish with the spice, the texture of the octopus and I haven’t even reached the artichokes.

The main for the SGD88 version is a 40 hours wagyu beef short rib. Not sure what the 40 hours means - whether it be some dry rub, ageing or some complicated technique that I will have NO UNDERSTANDING for, but it falls in between okay and tasty for me. 

Buckwheat with Ice Cream

I really liked the dessert that came with the SGD88 set though. It is basically a buckwheat with ice cream with some caramelisation somewhere along the way. For me, I just love a sweet dessert, and this checks a lot of boxes! Sweet, has a lot of fun texture in the form of nuts in there, IG worthy and delicious! It’s a nice dessert!

Star Rating

9/10. I probably can’t appreciate these places enough, but this is a restaurant that is quite simple to understand and has a lot of flavour coupled with beautiful presentation in there. There are some fine dining restaurants that I just struggle to understand what they’re doing completely, but this isn’t one of them. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal!

The service here is fantastic as well, catering to our requests promptly and efficiently. Really have appreciation for the good work they’re doing here.