From February 2020: The food in Singapore is incredible no matter where you go. Hawker centers are all over and offer cheap food that is very good. However, Steve and I wanted to end our stay in Singapore with a true fine dining experience. Su Ling, our private tour guide from Hello Singapore Tours, recommended Candlenut Restaurant. Candelnut Restaurant is on Dempsey Road, a bit off the beaten track to a first time visitor. It is the right hand unit in a series of upscale restaurants and bars housed in what used to be a British barracks. UPDATE: Candlenut Restaurant was featured in the Netflix series Somebody Feed Phil! It was fun to watch Phil enjoy the food at a place that we had eaten!
The unique decor of the interior of Candlenut added to the amazing experience!
Candlenut is owned by head chef Malcolm Lee and offers Peranakan cuisine, combining Chinese and Malay influences. The restaurant has a set menu or you can order a minimum of 4 dishes from the a la carte menu. Steve and I chose the latter and sampled 4 outrageously good starters and entrees. We had the satay starter, a beef dish that I honestly don’t remember the name, king tiger prawns and Ikan Bakar—charcoal grilled local red snapper.
The red snapper was seriously among the best meals Steve has ever had anywhere. He had never asked to see the chef in any restaurant until that night. Chef Lee was as gracious as his food was delicious.
We finished with Candlenut’s signature dessert, the Bush Keluak Ice Cream. The restaurant is the first to successfully transform this dish—which has its origins in a poisonous plant!—into a dessert: and what a dessert it was!
We left comfortably full and still raving over the food weeks (years) later! The cost including drinks and tip was under $200.00 US Dollars.