Fusion food is hard to pull off, but 15 Stamford does it masterfully

When visiting restaurants by celebrity chefs for the first time, you tend to have elevated expectations. This increases the probability of disappointment when reality doesn’t match up to the hype.

One way that we’ve found to manage this risk is to go during Restaurant Week, where many brand name restaurants offer set lunches at reasonable prices. Since we’re not committing big bucks for a fancy multi-course dinner, we don’t feel as bad if the meal ends up being mediocre.

The famous ones tend to get booked out very quickly, so when the early-bird window of this year’s edition opened up, The Wife and I scanned through the many choices, narrowed down our picks and promptly made reservations.

15 Stamford by Alvin Leung, located within The Capital Kempinski Singapore hotel, was a challenge to get to, given all the access restrictions still in place. We had to take a long and winding route from Raffles City MRT, across Capitol Singapore and finally through a semi-hidden mall exit gantry.

Ambience

When we finally reached our destination, we were greeted with a warm and airy space, invitingly lit with incandescent lamps. The colour scheme was predominantly brown, beige and blue, giving off a sense of understated luxury.

It doesn’t announce itself as a fine dining restaurant, opting for simple placemats instead of formal white tablecloths, and comfortable booths and leather seats instead of fancy high-backed chairs.

The interior is friendly and welcoming, not stiff and intimidating. I could see ourselves sitting there, enjoying our food and drinks for hours on end. Especially since we managed to snag window seats facing the main road, which let in abundant natural light.

Staying true to our middle-aged tendencies, when asked if we wanted sparkling or still, we requested for warm water. When I commented that the little teacup and saucer combo was quite pretty, our waiter drew our attention to the cleaver-wielding demon within the flower motifs.

Alvin Leung is known as the Demon Chef, and these playful little monsters are hidden throughout the custom-designed crockery. We had fun looking for and spotting each of them as our courses arrived.

Restaurant Week Menu

The special prix fixe lunch was priced at S$48++ per person and comprised an appetiser, a main course and a dessert. Conveniently, there were two choices available for each course and it was a simple decision to choose everything and share.

Unlike his flagship Bo Innovation restaurant in Hong Kong, the chef has consciously chosen to tone down his flamboyant “X-treme Chinese Cuisine”, opting instead for more subtle Asian fusion dishes. The menu descriptions looked interesting, and we were looking forward to tasting each item.

An optional wine pairing was available at S$32++ per person, and while we initially decided to lay off the booze during lunch, we finally relented and chose to share one pairing instead.

Turns out our original plan not to day-drink would have failed anyway, because we were served complimentary welcome daiquiris. They definitely weren’t part of the set, so the generous gesture was appreciated, especially since they didn’t skimp on the rum. On the contrary, the drinks packed quite a pleasant punch.

Appetiser

The Japanese Amberjack consisted of five slices of fatty sashimi, a big blob of coconut milk foam, cilantro puree, microgreens and crunchy brunoise for texture. Amberjack is a strong flavoured fish and it held its own against the herby puree and wonderfully lemak foam.

All the individual components worked well together, transforming what could have been a one-dimensional Japanese sashimi into an exciting morsel, full of robust South-East Asian flavours.

Equally exciting was the Pan Seared Foie Gras, with its Chinese spice coating and sticky Indonesian gula Java glaze. The slice of daikon that it sat on was mild and unassuming, but the accompanying compote of banana rum raisin was a unique and delicious pairing.

It’s difficult to say which appetiser was better, because both were really good, but the foie gras came out slightly ahead. Good thing we were sharing. If there was an option of adding a course and having both, it would have been a no-brainer.

Main Course

The rich and robust flavours carried through into the main courses, starting with the perfectly cooked, but simply named, Sea Perch. Equal parts flaky and moist, it was doused with a silky Thai hollandaise sauce and served with an artichoke heart and a quenelle of smoked mackerel.

As the plate was served, The Wife caught a strong waft of fishiness and was worried about the freshness of the sea perch. She soon realised that the scent was from the mackerel, and all her concerns evaporated with the first bite.

When it was my turn to taste the mackerel, the first thing that came to my mind was: “Wow, this is the best otak-otak that I’ve ever eaten!”

Having the sea perch with just the hollandaise was already great, but combining it with the mackerel made it even more fantastic. It was like having a totally different dish, all on the same plate.

But the best dish of the day was hands down the Pasture Fed Beef Short Rib, served with a spiced sauce and accompanied by pickled cucumber and radish.

In other words, beef rendang with achar.

This was not just any beef rendang, but the best beef rendang that you’ll ever have. Unless, that is, you know a makcik who can whip up a better homecooked version. Unfortunately, I’m not close to any makcik who fits that description.

The short rib was meltingly tender and must have been braised for hours and hours in the beautifully unctuous rendang gravy. A small bowl of fluffy white rice on the side would have been perfect. That, and an extra portion of the beef, of course.

It was at this point that I whipped out my phone to check if we could quickly make reservations for a return visit to have the exact same meal again. Unfortunately, it was listed as Fully Booked. Looks like we’ll have to come back for their regular menu, and hope that the rendang is still there.

Dessert

After the wonderful first two courses, I would have been satisfied if desserts turned out to be just average. Luckily for us, the quality carried through to the last course. The Nespresso Coffee Mascarpone was a light and fluffy concoction served in a martini glass.

It had just the right amount of sweetness to balance out the slightly bitter notes from both the coffee and Valrhona dark chocolate streusel. The chocolate tuile wasn’t molded from just chocolate, but had incorporated some crunchy stuff, imparting a nice texture.

The Yeung Ji Kam Lu was served quite theatrically, with our waiter carrying a smoking container filled with what I assumed to be nitrogen freeze-dried coconut milk. He then proceeded to spoon generous amounts onto the cold mango dessert to create a snowy mound.

Despite the fancy presentation, it tasted very much like a classic 杨枝甘露, with bits of refreshing mango, pomelo and sago swimming in the mango soup. The flavours were traditional, but the quality was definitely top notch.

Wine Pairing

For the wine pairing, we had the JL Colombo Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Abeilles 2017 Blanc with the foie gras, and the Rouge with the beef rendang.

I don’t recall ever having a white CDP before and it was quite nice, although a sweeter Riesling or Gewürztraminer would have paired better. The red CDP Grenache blend, on the other hand, went well with the rendang, with just the right amount of body to stand firm against the onslaught of spice.

The star of the show was undoubtedly the Hampden Jamaican Rum 46% that was paired with the mango soup, but would have worked equally well with the coffee mascarpone. The nose was intoxicatingly smokey and the first sip was like a warm embrace.

It had an aftertaste that lingered forever, stretching all the way from the back of the mouth, down the throat and deep into the belly. “Oh uh,” I thought to myself, “I didn’t realise rum could taste this good.”

Thus began a fascinating trip down the rum rabbit hole, which is a story for another day. For now, let’s just say that Tim, the knowledgeable and enthusiastic bartender at The Bar at 15 Stamford, is 100% guilty of getting us hooked on overproof rum.

Verdict

This was, by far, the best restaurant meal that we’ve had in a long time. Surpassing even the three wonderful meals we had at Tanoke, Beach Road Kitchen and One-Ninety during last year’s Restaurant Week.

Our proprietary Fusion-O-Meter^TM indicates that the food at 15 Stamford is mainly Asian with various Western elements. Ingredients were sourced from a diverse set of cuisines, spanning French foie gras, Japanese amberjack and South-east Asian rendang and achar.

Cooking methods were similarly wide-ranging, from timeless pan-seared foie gras, to molecular coconut foam, to traditional slow-cooked braised beef, to classical yeung ji kam lu. Presentation was mostly Western, served individually course-by-course instead of Asian family style.

It’s easy to descend into fusion/confusion when mixing ingredients, cooking methods, seasonings and presentations across so many different cuisines, but 15 Stamford navigated it masterfully. It reminded me of Jungsik in Seoul, another fusion restaurant that managed to pull it off superbly.

Although fusion is probably the most suitable label for the cuisine served at 15 Stamford, I would describe it simply as really good food with honest and hearty flavours. Both The Wife and I can’t wait to go back again, and will recommend it to our friends without any hesitation.