The Place There is a renewed interest in Southeast Asian cuisine in the past year, think Pangium, Seroja and Province, to name a few. I was excited to check out Restaurant Fiz located at 21 Tanjong Pagar Road, a fine-dining concept opened in June 2023 that serves contemporary Southeast Asian cuisine. The restaurant is Chef-Owner Hafizzul Hashim’s tribute to the region, where chef has vast culinary experience across London, Tokyo and Ho Chi Minh, including Michelin-starred restaurants like Mirabelle and Chez Bruce in London as well as Jean Georges Tokyo. 

The space of Restaurant Fiz is elegant and minimalist, with just a couple of tables and a private dining room. The kitchen is an open concept, and the most distinct design element are the circular dining booths for me.

The seats are upholstered in natural tactile fabrics with curves and levels that reflect the contours of Southeast Asia’s terraced landscapes on which rice is cultivated. 

The Food It is a tasting menu only restaurant, where it will introduce menus every three to six months known as Episodes which will put a different region under the spotlight. Ep. 1 (S$288++ for 8 courses exclusive of supplement) will be an intimate introduction to Chef Hafizzul’s background, encompassing his childhood and the food closest to him as a young man growing up in Lumut. 

The beverage program is quite extensive as well with a good selection of alcoholic or non-alcoholic options.

Here is what to expect for the Ep.1 menu which I had:  

Memories of the Shore 
For a start, I had a trio of seafood dishes inspired by Chef Hafizzul’s childhood town by the sea: 

Urchin 
The Murasaki Uni is served on a jelly made of sinigang, a clear fish broth that is mildly piquant and finished with kesum leaf oil.  

Firefly Squid  
This snack tastes like Nasi Lemak in a bite. Served in a pie tee shell, coconut rice espuma is paired with a sambal cooked with house-made coconut oil, then topped with an aged firefly squid.  

Petai & Caviar  
White miso marinated petai (bitter bean) puree with blended sous vide kampong egg yolk on top of kuih loyang (rosette cookie), finished with Amur caviar and nasturtium leaf.   

Palate Cleanser 
The first palate cleanser is a popsicle of lychee and bunga kantan (torched ginger flower) sorbet and coconut. 

Netting Prawns at Pulau Pangkor – Botan Prawn 
The first course in the journey of the menu features Botan Ebi served in hot and cold textures. The cold prawn is marinated with Vietnamese vinaigrette, rose apple, and topped with an interesting Assam Pedas sorbet with pineapple. 

The other element of this course is the fried Botan prawn head done tempura-style with daun kesum (laksa leaf), kesum oil and bunga kantan (torch ginger flower). 

I thought that this dish is quite ingenious as there is bits of Japanese element (tempura) along with the Southeast Asian flavours.  

Favourite Treats at the Night Market 
This act of the meal is inspired by the strong “Pasar Malam” or night market culture which showcases oyster, blood cockle and quail. 

Oyster 
First I had the deep-fried Pacific oyster from Kyushu, shucked and coated with a light espuma then deep fried. Served with beansprouts gel, beansprout shoots, a puree of kucai (chives), in-house Sriracha sauce, it is garnished with fennel flowers, garlic chive flowers and sliced chilli  

Blood Cockle 
A morsel of akagai from Hokkaido, it is grilled and sliced thinly and then served in its shell with a sambal made from roasted macadamia nuts and finished with turmeric leaf oil. I am not a cockle fan, but the sambal here makes it delicious.  

Quail  
Inspired from ayam percik, or chicken marinated in a spice paste then cooked low and slow over a smoking charcoal grill, here we have Coturnix quail from Brisbane, Australia which is hand-minced then marinated with herbs and spices before it is shaped into an orb around the chicken leg bone. This is then grilled in a Josper oven fed with herb trimmings, and the resulting taste of the quail is tender and flavourful.  

Ode to the Daily Seafood Curry 
This is one of my favourite courses which features Blue Swimmer Crab. I love the crab infused yellow crab curry served with homemade deep fried mantou which is a perfect combination. The curry sauce contains blue swimmer and Australian spanner crab meat that is poached with coconut milk and it is relatively spicy.  

The Dish for Celebrations – Rack of Lamb with Heirloom Carrot 
One of the menu’s highlights is the Lamb (supplement of S$38), a contemporary rendition of rendang where lamb raised in Aoteroa in New Zealand is used in place of beef. Here, the dish is distilled into three elements that Chef Hafizzul has earmarked as the flavour and textural components of a traditional rendang: the rendang sauce, kerisik (dry roasted grated coconut pounded to a peanut butter-like consistency) and tahi minyak (coconut milk that’s been cooked until the oil separates and the solids caramelise into crumbs).

Again, I am usually not someone who loves lamb as much as beef, but this version is not gamy at all, and you can expect a tender texture of the lamb well-complemented by the rendang sauce.  

The Broth that Soothes 
A simple looking soup course which is so good. This is a kampong chicken broth infused with ginger; turmeric, red turmeric etc. The double bone broth is made by roasting chicken bones, chicken feet and wings for the stock base in the Josper oven.   

A Dinner at my Home 
The highlight of the meal comes with the Hidang course, a spread of dishes to be eaten with rice, much like the communal meals of Asia. There is quite a lot going on and here is what I had: 

Wagyu Beef Brisket – Australian Wagyu beef brisket that sits in a gulai sauce. Expect a really tender and flavourful beef profile along with the delicious sauce.

King Mackerel – This is grilled for 7 days with sambal tumis. 

Wild Paku Pakis – This dish is a hybrid of urap (salad with spiced grated coconut dressing) and pechal (salad with peanut dressing). 

Chayote Shoots – Charcoal-grilled chayote shoots tossed with in-house fermented black garlic and sambal kerisik (roasted coconut flesh). 

Sarawak Beras Adan Rice – A rare type of rice from highland farmers of the Lun Bawang community in Sabah, Sarawak and North Kalimantan which is cooked in a claypot placed in the Josper oven. 

Beras Sia Rice – Cooked with coconut milk, ginger, pandan leaves and a little kosher salt. 
The rice is also served with Achar Ikan Kurau & Sambal Belachan sourced from Malacca and is inspired by chef grandmother’s recipe.  

Both types of rice are served on banana leaf.

A huge spread to say the least, where every dish is flavourful and hearty. I am most impressed with the rice, varieties which I have not come across before and it is amazsing how fragrant the rice can be. Needless to say, condiments like the sambal and achar are delicious as well.  

Soursop Sorbet 
A refreshing pre-dessert after the heavy course.   

My Teatime Snack 
The dessert course is Pisang Salai and is almost like a deconstructed banana fritters. You get an ice cream of smoked pisang emas (Lady finger banana) served with fresh pisang emas brulee, topped with kerimis (fried mixture of tempura flour with light coconut milk and turmeric powder). I like the smoky flavour here and this is surprisingly good and well-balanced for me. 

All The Sweets that I Love 
This last part of the meal is a pleasant surprise for anyone who loves kuehs. Traditional Malay Kuih-muih (confectionery) are placed in antique lacquered rattan baskets sourced from Malacca and it is a wide spread of Bahulu, Kuih Serimuka Jagung (steamed glutinous rice topped with sweetcorn custard) and Kuih Badak Berendam (glutinous rice balls stuffed with grated coconut flavoured with palm sugar and served in a smoked coconut sauce).

We also had Kuih Tanjak, Apom, Jemput jemput Cempedak fritters and Sarang Semut “Ant’s Nest”. 

The pastry chef is amazing, as each kueh has such a distinct yet aromatic flavour to it. We love it all.  

Rants Some of the ingredients native to Malaysia are not so familiar sounding to me and I had to spend more time asking the staff what it is. Other than that, the price of the tasting menu is quite steep for a new restaurant with only one menu option.

Will I Return Again? An excellent meal at Restaurant Fiz where the dishes are well-executed and presented along with complex flavours. Service is warm and sincere, and this is definitely one of the good meals I had this year. The flavour profile of the dishes is on the richer spectrum, but I left feeling satisfied.

This was an invited tasting, though all opinions expressed are our own.

TheRantingPanda says:
Taste bud: 4.5/5
Hole in the pocket: 4.5/5
Ambience: 4/5
Overall Experience: 4.5/5

Restaurant Fiz 
21 Tanjong Pagar Road  
#01-01/02 
Singapore 088444 
Tel: +65 9679 8021 
 
Opening Hours 
Tuesday to Saturday: 6pm to 10pm 
Closed on Monday and Sunday 

Ranted by The Ranter