A decade of Michelin Stars: Lei Garden’s refined flavours underlie one of Singapore’s best Chinese restaurants
10 years, 10 Michelin Stars — since the Michelin Guide’s 2016 foray into Singapore, only 12 establishments have the honour of claiming such pedigree. Staying alive in Singapore is already a challenge for most, even star-studded trailblazers; staying relevant and at the zenith of an oversaturated scene is an art requiring finesse.
One restaurant that has achieved decadal Michelin glory in Singapore is Lei Garden, a luxury Cantonese kitchen nestled prim and proper inside CHIJMES.
Inside, the decor exudes nostalgia, with plush brown leather couches, pristine white linen, and stately live seafood tanks melding into a mise-en-scene that’s charmingly retro but still feels sleek enough for a zeitgeist marked by countless glitzy modern restaurants.
It evokes memories of binging on old-school Hong Kong films during the yearly Chinese New Year de rigeur of house-visiting, when Stephen Chow and Chow Yun Fat monopolised the TV screen.
Everything falls into place when you receive context of its provenance.
Lei Garden isn’t a homegrown Singaporean restaurant. Its origins lie in Hong Kong, where a multitude of satellite branches exist, and many of which are — or have been — on multi-year star runs.
Even while bringing the Lei Garden brand out of its home ground, though, the Singapore branch hasn’t sullied the lustre of the brand backed by a whopping 107 Michelin Stars.
On the contrary, this outpost in the Lion City is one of the most decorated in the family — it trumps most of its HK cousins, while trailing slightly behind the Mongkok outlet, which also earned dual Michelin Star status at one point.
Its prestige should be no surprise, though — with a long tenure at CHIJMES stretching back to 1996, Lei Garden Singapore is a stalwart that has had the luxury of time and experience on its side to fine-tune its experience.
A refinement only found in one of Singapore’s best
Celebrating the decade studded with stars, Lei Garden Singapore has curated a 10th Anniversary Tasting Menu ($188) made up of an intimate collection of its Cantonese classics, available till October.
The first course is already a mesmerising one: The Double-Boiled Fish Maw Soup merits a spot on the list of the best soups I’ve tasted, and perfectly demonstrates the kitchen’s technical refinement.
A soup like this, I only expect to find in one of Singapore’s best Chinese restaurants.
It’s a collagen-rich broth that relishes coating your palate with a velvety bliss, while unleashing a deluge of lush, heartwarming seafood sweetness. It’s clean and elegant, but carries a reassuring depth!
Lei Garden’s mastery over ingredients is also immediately apparent — the thick, gelatinous sheet of premium fish maw is a revelation, answering each bite with a gentle recoil, then splits apart easily while leaving sumptuous traces of collagen.
To follow up, Lei Garden presents a Sauteed Crab Meat with Egg White & Truffle Sauce, which articulately showcases its proclivity for the luxurious — Cantonese banquets are known for opulence, after all.
Even without touching a single shell, you get to indulge in a sizeable mound of fresh crab meat, exquisitely enrobed in egg white and perfumed with truffle. It’s a dish built on simplicity, allowing execution and produce quality to shine through.
Although the first two dishes followed the traditional precepts of the Canton canon, Lei Garden also isn’t averse to bending the rulebook, as evident from the Pan-Seared Norwegian Cod with Fresh Tomato, a new creation.
A piece of pristinely seared cod — marked by an airy, grease-less crust, and soft, flaky flesh — lies supine over a spill of bright red tomatoes, which nicely contrast the clean and mellow of the fish with a vibrant tang.
This peculiar dish might be a departure from the preceding stunners, but definitely provides a different kind of charm that’s also quite welcome.
Opulence at Lei Garden
Expanding on the earlier luxury, the Pan-Fried Wagyu Beef Cube is another dish that would leave most swooning.
Lei Garden arranges it so the luscious beef arrives spilling out of a deep-fried yam cone, and mottled with fried garlic chips. Nothing too elaborate, and the beef is given space to be the star.
Flavour is king here, with the richness of the wagyu meeting its perfect foil of garlic-chip fragrance — the beef is firmer, with a touch of chew, so anyone looking for wagyu steak-style melt-in-your-mouth succulence might be disappointed.
Rounding off the savouries is a tantalising Braised Australian 5-head Abalone in Oyster Sauce, with Sakura Shrimp Fried Rice — when the ensemble reaches your table, all attention is monopolised by the hulking sea snail.
Abalone is undeniably synonymous with luxury in Chinese cuisine, and makes for a fitting coda.
There aren’t many intricacies to uncover here: Purely superb produce handled with the utmost respect, a trait Lei Garden has shown affinity for.
It’s all about the stunningly tender, juicy abalone — that’s somehow comparable in size to a portobello mushroom — doused in top-grade XO sauce. While only a small supporting role, the fried rice’s texture is pristine, too.
The tasting menu does eventually meet an abrupt stop, though, with a somewhat pedestrian dessert capping off a meal filled with incredible savoury creations.
Although enjoyable enough texture-wise, the Snow Peak Matcha Pudding called out for more flavour complexity and nuance that characterises top-drawer matcha desserts — not bad by any means, though.
Taking everything into consideration: If there is an ideal restaurant worth bringing my parents to splurge on, Lei Garden would be very close to my ideal.
Especially after factoring in that stupendously tasty fish maw soup!
Make a reservation online before visiting Lei Garden Singapore to savour its refined, Michelin-starred Cantonese cooking!
Lei Garden (Singapore)
- Address: 30 Victoria St, #01-24, CHIJMES, Singapore 187996
- Hours: (Mon–Sun) 11.30am to 3pm, 6pm to 10pm
*This was an invited tasting.