Familiar food and environments are a sure-fire comfort, but every now and then, it's nice to ditch routine and experience a fresh dining experience with your partner or friends. Here are 11 new restaurants and cafes you'll want to send to your group chat:
#1 Wildseed Café & Wildseed Bar & Grill at 1-Flowerhill
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The options are endless when it comes to cafes with immaculate interiors, but this new one at Sentosa might be the dreamiest one yet. Tucked away in a century-old conservation house on a hill at 6 Imbiah Road, the cafe and bar grounds channel the romantic and idyllic aesthetic of Monet's paintings. With ornate water features, blooms galore and panoramic views of Sentosa Sensoryscape, dining at this cafe feels like an out-of-Singapore experience.
Wildseed Bar & Grill, open for brunch, lunch and high tea, is one of three concepts under 1-Group, along with Wildseed Café that opens by night and French-Japanese restaurant Camille.
Curated by Group Executive Chef of Casual Dining Tom Kung and Head Chef Wai Lun, the café menu has a diverse variety of both local fare and European cuisine as well as Afternoon Tea ($58). The 'Local Heroes' programme is crafted in partnership with local artisans from hawkers to home-based bakers. At night, it turns into a bar & grill serving up comfort food like BBQ bites, burgers, pasta and pizzas.
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Standouts include the smoky, fall-off-the-bone-tender Barbeque Iberico Pork Rib ‘Char siew’ style ($34), the fiery and fragrant Soft Shell Chilli Crab Linguine ($29), and Grilled Black Angus Oyster Blade ($34), a steak done right! Round off the meal with the Vegetarian Platter ($48) that has a wholesome spread of grilled pita, falafel, hummus, tzatziki, baba ghanoush, feta, olives, sundried tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil.
Wildseed Café and Wildseed Bar & Grill are located at 6 Imbiah Road, S099696. Make a reservation here.
#2 L'antica Pizzeria da Michele
Photo from L'antica Pizzeria da Michele
One scene in the Eat Pray Love (2010) film had Julia Roberts in a pizza joint in Naples, Italy, digging into a particularly delicious-looking slice of pizza. Well, that film location was at L'antica Pizzeria Da Michele, the famed pizza restaurant that has been serving up Neapolitan-style pizzas with the same meticulously-guarded recipe for over 150 years. We can now have a taste of this 'Eat Pray Love' pizza right here as it has opened a restaurant along Club Street, the first in Southeast Asia.
This restaurant carefully recreates the pizzas in Italy as authentically as possible, made using the exact recipe and baked in a Stefano Ferrara Napoli – a domed brick oven custom-made in Italy. Some key ingredients are even directly imported from the south of Italy. These include the highly prized Agerola Fior di Latte cheese known for its delicate flavour and semi-soft, creamy texture, as well as the intensely savoury Cetara anchovies.
The famous pizza a ruota di carro, which translates to wagon wheel pizza, is a massive, 15-inch marvel that's almost too big for its plate. In true Neapolitan style, each pizza has a thin, airy base with a tasty char. Everyone's bound to love the perfectly simple Margherita ($28) featuring Agerola Fior di Latte and pecorino Romano DOP, an aged cheese made from sheep milk. Mix things up with some red- (le rosse) and white-based (le bianche) pizzas like the Friarielli & Salsiccia ($36). The star of this pizza is the broccoli rabe, an Italian cruciferous vegetable that's pleasantly reminiscent of Chinese-style watercress soup.
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There's also a small but noteworthy selection of pastas that are handmade with Martimucci semolina flour. The Orecchiette alla Positanese ($34) will be a crowd-pleaser with Italian sausage, cherry tomatoes, burrata and Parmigiano
Reggiano held inside ear-shaped pasta.
Of course, the Sicilian experience isn't complete without Italian wines. Indulge in exquisite selections from Franciacorta, a sparkling wine from the Italian province of Brescia, to Amarone, an Italian DOCG denomination of typically dry red wine.
L'antica Pizzeria da Michele is located at #01-08, Mercure ICON Singapore City Centre, 8 Club Street, Singapore 069472. Make a reservation here.
#3 Fortuna
Photo from Fortuna
Another new spot for your Italian food cravings, Fortuna is the first Sicilian-Neapolitan restaurant on our shores and it's conveniently situated in Tanjong Pagar. Born in Italy and debuted in Sydney, Fortuna's Singapore outpost offers pizzas and pastas with the best of two worlds. Think traditional Neapolitan pizza with 100% Sicilian ingredients.
The pizzas come in three styles (from $22 per pizza): wood-fired Napoletana Pizza made with fermented dough, contemporary Pizza Al Ruoto cooked in an aluminium pan, and Fried & Baked with an extra crunchy dough.
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Pastas are made in-house a la minute using quality flour from Naples that is a balanced mix of semola and 00 flour, local free-range eggs and Sicilian olive oil. If you're in an experimental mood, try the '1000' Layers Lasagna ($36). This unique lasagna resembles a piece of toast, with the pasta layers lying flat on the plate instead of stacked up vertically. Don't get too excited, though, it doesn't actually have 1000 layers; the name was coined by one of the founder's mum in Sicily who created this unusual style of lasagna.
Fortuna is located at 7 Craig Road, S089667. Make a reservation here.
#4 Berlin65
Photo from Berlin65
In the heart of Telok Ayer is a little Berlin - Berlin65. This restaurant opened in late 2023 and is the first and only hotspot in Singapore that offers the best of Berlin's multicultural food scene including Asian and Middle Eastern street food.
German classics include iconic Currywurst, available as a part of a mezze to share ($16), or as a main dish with a side of fries. Döner kebabs are also another Berlin staple, and you'll find iterations here including The 1972 Berlin Original ($18), featuring spit-roasted chicken, lettuce, tomato and garlic yogurt dressing.
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You can also find Berliners ($8 each) here. This German doughnut is fluffy, pillowy-soft and stuffed with fillings: Vanilla Bean Custard, Strawberry Jam and Apricot Jam.
Wash all that down with Berlin's favourite drinks, including refreshing homemade coolers, aryan, ciders,
beers, cocktails, wines, and Wild and Sylrs German whiskey. Exclusively available on tap is the BRLO Pale Ale Draught. Brewed right in the heart of Kreuzberg, this full- bodied, fruity pint of goodness is exclusively imported and available on draught in both 0.3l ($8) and 0.5l ($12) servings.
Berlin65 is located at 30 Stanley Street, S068739. Make a reservation here.
#5 Nook
Photo from Nook
At Tanjong Pagar is this quaint, three-level shophouse that's a restaurant, bar and art gallery all at once.
At the first level, diners can enjoy contemporary Europea-Asian fusion dishes like Aqina 1⁄2 Organic Chicken ($42) and Spanish Octopus Leg ($38). With tummies full, head upstairs to the bar, Nowhere, to relax over expertly crafted cocktails among artworks and an eclectic mix of mismatched furniture from Thailand.
Finally, the third floor houses the Members Lounge, a bespoke venue space with VR golfing course that can be booked for private parties or corporate events.
Nook is located at 11 Craig Rd, S089671. Make a reservation here.
#6 Tom's Palette at Kovan
Photo from Tom's Palette
Heartlanders deserve a buzzy cafe in their 'hood too! Kovan dwellers can now get their sweet tooth satiated at the new Tom's Palette outlet along just steps away from Kovan MRT station. The iconic Singaporean gelato artisan first made its re-debut at Middle Road in 2023, and has since won everyone's hearts (and tummies) again with its whacky, unorthodox ice cream flavours.
Photo from Tom's Palette
This cafe offers 18 flavours. Six of them will be seasonal flavours that rotate from an archive of over 230 unique flavours. Enjoy these scoops in a Cup ($5.20/$9.60), Cone ($6.40/$10.80), Tom's Palette ($29.80) or with a Belgian Waffle (+$3.90/$7.50) of six scoops. Something exclusive to this outlet is the King Pin's Cone ($7.80) that reimagines the nostalgic local snack putu mayam, made with steamed rice flour 'vermicelli', Tekka Market Coconut and a sprinkle of red sugar tucked into a homemade cone.
Tom's Palette Kovan is located at Block 212 Hougang St 21, #01-333, S530212.
#7 Ume Maru
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Dreamed up by the team behind Ume San 100, Ume Maru is a speakeasy at Far East Plaza that's inspired by Jimbocho, an area in Japan with heaps of bookstores. So, naturally, it's lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves of manga comics, design books and magazines. Like its sister bar, it also has a secret entrance!
On the menu is modern Japanese fair, and to pair with that are creative cocktails.
Find out more here.
#8 Mashi No Mashi
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The world's first and only 100% wagyu ramen may be the main draw at this new ramen joint at Guoco Midtown, but there's no denying that it has pretty good social media content draw. As the staff serves each dish, they bellow the name of the dish and end it with an equally exuberant 'itterasshai'.
Find out more here.
#9 Bites & Brews
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A peaceful, rustic little spot in the middle of a residential area along Crane Road, this Shanghai chain restaurant offers an eclectic menu that readily mashes Western and Eastern cuisine. Diners can also expect the same experimental approach to the cocktails and creative teas.
Find out more here.
#10 Dal.Komm Playground
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You've had your caffeine fix at Dal.Komm COFFEE, but now, you can also enjoy a full dining experience with the Korean coffee brand as it has opened an exclusive new concept, Dal.Komm Playground, in Guoco Midtown.
Unlike the regular cafes, this outlet offers an extensive Korean-inspired food menu like Signature Seafood Kimchi Ramyun Soup ($39.90) for two, and Beef Bulgogi Sandwich with Chips ($18.90) as well as quintessential Korean alcoholic beverages like Strawberry Makgeolli Bingsu ($38).
Dal.Komm Playground is located at 124 Beach Road, #01-08, Guoco Midtown, S189771.
#11 Suns Living Room
Photo from Suns Living Room
The cafe scene in Singapore hasn't seen a lot of Peranakan fare, not until Suns Living Room came into the picture. Housed inside one of the iconic and colourful shophouses along Armenian Street, this cafe serves up Peranakan fare by day and converts into a cosy bar by night.
Find out more here.
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