SINGAPORE RESTAURANT

The Disgruntled Chef

4
Average: 4 (1 vote)

Blink and you'll miss this hidden restaurant. A staircase encased in greenery hides a hillside subterranean restaurant with lots of great food. Whether you fancy something small or big, they have conceptual but comforting food like the prettily-plated seared scallop carpaccio with soy brown butter, ikura, konbu and lime; grilled quail with bacon, frisee salad and a poached egg; as well as decadent brunch tartines like the to-die-for Elvis: French toasted fruit & nut bread with Nutella, bananas and vanilla ice cream.

Now that the hoo-ha over whether chef Sia really was disgruntled about his time at the White Rabbit has died down (he wasn’t; it’s just a name to make you stop and think; and hopefully head inside) we dropped by to sample more than just their outstanding baked bone marrow with persillade. Having identified it as one of our 50 Things to Eat a couple of months back, we were curious to see if the rest of the menu delivered.

The short answer: it does, and then some.

The longer answer would involve starting off by mentioning how charming the space is, with a quiet outdoor area great for a couple of cocktail sharpeners (the strawberry mojito was a real table-pleaser) go on to talk about how hard it is to share dishes like the delicate tuna tartare and the moreish crayfish mac’n’cheese, even though sharing is the whole point of the place—go ahead, see how you fare letting the rest of the table mop up the baked camembert fondue with a deliciously tart Granny Smith apple sauce; then say something about how, whatever else happens, you absolutely must order the large plate suckling pig, cooked til crisp and served with a thick clove-infused honey.

Under pressure you might start talking about how the curried mussels, while delightful on their own, rather overpower the other dishes; and you’d be sure to query the choice of house music as an accompaniment. But by then you’d be at the bottom of a fine, entry-level bottle of Cockatoo Shiraz, pondering why it is that you’d never before thought of combining Roquefort cheese and chocolate ice cream to such winning effect as with the puff pastry fig crisps, stretching back in your chair and not in the mood for much talking.

So you give the short answer instead: A very good place indeed, this.


Have you tried the Baked Bone Marrow? It's one of I-S Magazine's 50 things to eat in Singapore before you die (2010). Or the grilled eel and foe gras made it to 50 things to eat in Singapore before you die (2012).

Venue Details
Address: The Disgruntled Chef, 26B, Singapore, 247693 Singapore
Phone: 6476-5305
Website: www.disgruntledchef.com
Cuisine: European
Price Range: BB
Open since: August, 2010
Opening hours: Tue-Sat 11am-1:30pm; Fri-Sat 5-10:30pm; Sun 11am-3:30pm, 5-9:30pm; Tue 5-9:30pm; Wed 5-9:30pm; Thu 5-9:30pm
Nearest trainFarrer Road
Reservation recommended, Parking available: at Dempsey Road
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The Disgruntled Chef