Chef-owner Han Li Guang's transition from banker to chef looks like a seamless one so far. Following some pretty intensive training under Mauro Colagreco (Mirazur, France) and Roberto Galetti (Garibaldi, Singapore), he opened Labyrinth in 2014 to showcase his brand of modern innovative cuisine which is highly touted as the "New Singaporean dining experience".
And what would Modern Singaporean cuisine be without locally sourced ingredients, right? It's nice to see chef Han's continuous effort to work with local farmers and suppliers, and there are a lot of them judging by the map shown on the table.
To make our dining experience even more interesting, they have a deck of cue cards on the table telling the story behind each dish and how they come about finding all the ingredients. These are presented to each diner as a gift following the conclusion of the meal along with a small bottle of homemade chili sauce made by Chef Han himself.
Our tasting menu started off with a pair of small bites, first a quail egg marinated with soy sauce and infused with fermented Oolong tea.
The quail egg came with a cup of fermented Oolong tea which had pretty sharp acidity.
More small nibbles immediately followed, all representing Chef Han's modern take on his favorite Singaporean street food.
"Nasi lemak" cheong fun - The rice flour roll came stuffed with sambal, egg yolk gel and with toppings of crispy chicken skin, cucumber and a bit of anchovies. Pretty interesting.
Heartland waffle - The pandan flavored waffle had both local duck liver pate and goji berry jam sandwiched in the middle.
Braised baby abalone - The first thing I thought of when I saw this dish presented in front of my very eyes was our favorite Chinese New Year dish, Fatt Choy Ho See (發財好事), of course made with black moss and dried oysters (Some premium version does come with braised abalone!).
The braised baby abalone was really tasty while the fatt choy tart added some nice crispiness to the dish. Chef Han's homemade oyster sauce which came from a 80-year old recipe was a little sweeter than our typical oyster sauce but I thought it worked well with the abalone.
Ah Hua Kelong lala clams - The last small bite before we moved onto the "Plates" section of the menu. This was a beautifully plated clams tart with a deep-fried wonton skin serving as the crust and a clams juice gel holding the clams together nicely. An XO sambal sauce provided the extra spicy kick at the end. Pretty tasty!
Labyrinth rojak - This came with 13 different edible gardens herbs served with natural stingless bee honey and cempedak sorbet.
I really like the tangy dressing made with the natural raw unpasteurized honey for its subtle bit of sweetness and the crushed nuts provided some lovely nutty flavors to the mix.
"Ang moh" chicken rice - It was my second chicken rice of the day but this looked nothing like ordinary chicken rice at all!
Chef Han's chicken rice came in the form of a dumpling with the wrapper made with home-milled rice flour. Served on the side was a light rice porridge with diced mushroom.
Cutting through the thin wrapper revealed that there were braised chicken, chicken fat, chicken stock and shaved ginger stuffed into the dumpling. Grandma's chili sauce and chili cress brought some nice spicy kick to the dumpling which was quite nice but frankly, I didn't get the part with the rice porridge and mushroom.
Grandma's fish maw soup - The slices of fish cake made with yellowtail snapper were arranged in the shape of a flower on a bed of tofu purée.
A hot soup made with fish maw and cat fish was then poured into the bowl.
I thought the soup was pretty nice and soothing for my palate but I didn't enjoy the fish cakes as much as I thought I would.
Local wild caught crab - Finally, the dish I've been waiting but no, it's not because of the wild caught flower crab. It's Chef Han's signature chili ice cream.
This was a well-designed dish with plenty of flavors and textures further enhanced by the variation in temperature thanks to the chili-crab ice-cream (Looked like crab roes at first glance). A very lovely dish.
Nippon Koi Farm silver perch - The key of this dish was the herbal pepper broth, which was actually Chef Han's own interpretation of the traditional bak kut teh (肉骨茶).
The silver perch tasted seriously good while the different textures of black garlic did well in its supporting role.
Uncle William's quail - Of course, the meal won't be complete without one of the most popular dish in Singapore, chicken satay. This grilled quail was supposed to be a premier version of chicken satay with the quail coming from Uncle William's highly regarded Lian Wah Hang Farm from Singapore’s northern Kranji countryside.
This dish featuring the quail's breast and leg wasn't bad. I thought it was a lot less gamey than French quail, yet the texture was equally tender. It's nicely matched with a satay espuma, peanut mochi and pearl onion.
"Lost grain" fried rice - The rice came from a special grain of Thai Hom Mali rice that has been lost for over 70 years and just got re-cultivated again recently. It was fried with white bait, dried scallop and local "dashi". Pretty tasty.
Bean to bar - That spelled the end of all the savory dishes and here came the pre-dessert, a fairly interesting one I might add.
A scoop of artisanal dark chocolate was served with a few drops of aged dark soy sauce adding a nice salty edge. They added further twist to it with some fragrant jelly made with aged Shaoxing wine. That's quite an interesting spin on the dark chocolate.
Clam leaf snow - Next up were grapes in different textures, served with clam leaf snow and rosella meringue.
A very refreshing palate cleanser.
Soy bean curd - The first dessert was Chef Han's contemporary take on the conventional douhua (豆花).
There were sago, bird's nest and burnt yogurt made with goat milk in there while on top was something like a caramel glaze (like one of those on a creme brulee). I like the notes of sweetness and toastiness but the mild acidity from the yogurt was a little weird (a sour douhua?).
Cristal de Chine caviar - Finally, kaya ice-cream sandwich (or toast) made with buttery toast from Sing Hon Loong Bakery. Interestingly, they've added some caviar on top for a bit of saltiness.
Petite four - My 2-hour culinary journey was about to end but not without some local favorites including a pandan sponge, a pastry stuffed with mashed banana and of course, a durian macaron!!!
It was a very entertaining night full of good food, most of which came with interesting Singaporean inspirations (chicken rice, chili crab, bak kut teh, satay etc.). I thought service was excellent throughout the night which by itself was well worth the Michelin star (if not more). I was also very impressed with the pace which was well managed. Every dish seemingly followed the previous one closely to keep us on our heels and I like being on my heels. My only complaint, and I'm not the only one complaining about this, was the noise coming out of the private dining room. Obviously, there was a private party going on in there and a lady inside seemed to have a little too much to drink that night. This was generally not going to cause any problem if the room was sound proof (or at least enclosed) which unfortunately was not. So, poor us who were sitting in the main dining room, had to endure the noise she was making all night (And she was at times out of control). That wasn't much fun.
That was really the only blemish of an otherwise enjoyable night for me. Yes, it was a tough decision leaving my little nugget and the gang behind at the zoo but they knew I had to check this one off my list.
PS. They've got to make the private room more private here. A close door would really really help (although the existing patterned door with holes looked kind of nice).
Food Rating: 7/10
Price: $$$$
Address: Esplanade Mall, 8 Raffles Avenue #02-23, Singapore 039802
Closest Metro Station: City Hall / Esplanade
Tel: +65 6223-4098
Website: www.labyrinth.com.sg
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