Gunther's (Singapore, SINGAPORE) ★★★☆☆

Belgian owner-chef Gunther Hubrechsen has been a household name in the fine dining scene of Singapore following the opening of his namesake restaurant, Gunther's, back in 2007. The acclaimed chef attributes his success to the 5 years working alongside his mentor Chef Alain Passard at Arpege. 

Chef Gunther's cooking philosophy has always been very simple - to cook simple and honest food using the freshest ingredients from the market. You can't go wrong with fresh ingredients.

The entrance of Gunther's is rather unpretentious for a modern French restaurant that is touted as one of the best in the city.



The dining room is equally low-key and plainly decorated. There are approximately six to seven small tables, each generously separated from each other.



After we settled ourselves down, the restaurant manager came and started going through their daily special one by one - starting from the French dover sole, Hokkaido scallops to the wagyu beef freshly arrived from Japan. 

But the best buy had to be their set lunch priced at SGD 38++ only and that was exactly what we ordered.



Tiger prawn Parisienne was our first starter. True to Chef Gunther's cooking philosophy, it was a dish with very simple preparation - three pieces of fresh tiger prawns were tossed in garlic butter and served lukewarm (5/10).



They ran out of grilled bamboo clams and replaced it with scallops instead. I thought the presentation looked strikingly similar to the previous dish and so was the taste (4.5/10).



Roasted cod fish was presented as our first main course. Don't get fooled by its simple presentation though - it was a well executed dish. The only thing odd about it was the rice on the side. It tasted a bit like the fragrant rice from Hainan chicken but was somewhat of a weird combination to go with the cod dish (5/10).



I liked the second main course a little better - pan fried pork's shoulder with giant shell-shaped pasta and Parmesan cheese sauce (6/10).



There was not a great deal of choices when it came down to the dessert department. I had the orange crepe suzette which tasted good but the presentation could have been a bit nicer (5/10).


 
Finally a simple petite four before the bill...



The chefs were playing safe with most of these dishes and although we found their cooking techniques to be generally sound, we'd like to see them take a little more chances.

Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: 36 Purvis Street, Singapore
Closest Metro Station: Bayfront
Tel: +65 9010-3075
Website: www.gunthers.com.sg 
S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 43rd (2013)