The Place One of the newest restaurant additions to the buzzing Keong Saik Road, Imbue is a new modern European restaurant with refined Asian influences concept. Helmed by Chef Lee Boon Seng, Imbue is part of the 1855 F&B group (behind restaurants like Path, Restaurant Born) where the dining space seats an intimate 38 pax and is equipped with a 4 pax bar for pre-dinner drinks. If you find Chef Lee’s name familiar, he was also the Head Chef at The Spot in Marina One when it first opened a few years ago. 

The interior of the restaurant is quite elegant, and you can go for the counter seats for a closer view of the open kitchen or opt for the regular dining tables if you fancy more privacy for your meal. 

The Food This is a contemporary European restaurant serving Asian sauce-centric dishes, where you can expect Chef Lee’s unique spin on Asian ingredients, dishes, and flavours. Chef Lee is particularly notable for his sauces – simmered, brewed, reduced – which you can expect in the dishes here. 

For a business lunch in the area, it starts from 2-course (S$58++), 3-course (S$68++), or 5-course (S$158++) menu; while dinner showcases Chef’s tasting menus, available in a choice of 5-course (S$158++) or 8-course (S$198++). An ala carte selection is also exclusively available during dinner.

As part of the 1855 F&B group, Imbue also showcases an exquisite array of Bordeaux vintages where you can also opt for wine pairing with 3 flights at S$68++ or 5 flights at S$98++. 

I had the 8-course ($198++) Simmer Menu for dinner and here is what to expect: 

The meal started with a trio of snacks. 

Oyster Mousse, jellyfish, fennel, citrus white soy 
Chef Lee meticulously deconstructs the oyster into three distinct elements – its succulent meat, juice and the delicate shell. The oyster mousse sits above an oyster shell brushed with sesame oil and algae powder, topped with citrus white soy and chopped jellyfish, confit fennel and finished with dill flower. 

Drunken Chicken, doubanjiang, shaoxing wine 
This is my favourite snack of the trio. Inspired by the memorable drunken chicken that Chef Lee had in Shanghai where the succulent drunken chicken is encased in a light and crispy spring roll skin tart shell topped with doubanjiang emulsion, Shaoxing jelly, a crunchy layer of black sesame chip, and drizzled with a few drops of green Szechuan peppercorn oil. The flavours are robust, and you get that fine Szechuan element here without being too overpowering. 

Century Egg Crab, kelp paste, Kaluga caviar 
The century egg here is paired with caviar where the mud crab meat is marinated with kelp paste and housed in a thin cup made of beetroot and rice flour, topped with century egg emulsion, pickled ginger jelly and Kaluga Hybrid Caviar. 

Smoked Yellowtail, plum ginger, lapsang souchong, mountain yam 
The Yellowtail Kingfish here is served cold, smoked and styled like cold noodles. It is first preserved and marinated with lapsang souchong oil, lemon balm and pickled yellow mustard seed, where the fish then sits in a sauce made of double smoked lapsang souchong tea oil, freshly juiced apple, ginger, and plum. Finally, it is covered with pickled mountain yam and garnished with Davidson plum seasalt, lime and lemon zest, apple, lemon balm and fennel. This is quite a refreshing course to whet the appetite where the fresh flavours of the fish are evidently highlighted. 

Abalone, ginkgo nut custard, preserved green chilli, pine nut 
This course is like a chawanmushi course – Chef Lee’s take on Chinese egg custard with abalone from Jeju, South Korea. It is a very well-balanced flavour from gingko nut, cream and kelp powder and covered with Chinese ham and dried mushroom reduction. It is then topped with abalone that is seared over binchotan with brown butter, pear, inhouse fermented cabbage relish, preserved green chilli paste, and roasted pine nuts. 

Horse Mackerel, aged tangerine, raw vegetables, onion potato pancake 
The fourth course is inspired by a dish from Beijing that has been around since the Imperial Era Peking Duck. It is best eaten with your hands by wrapping the horse mackerel. Sourced from Kyushu, the horse mackerel is dry-aged for 2 days, torched, and dressed with homemade tangerine oil that is made from 30-years aged tangerine peel with 30-years aged tangerine oil.

Served with potato pancake, green daikon, cucumber and chives, the overall flavour is quite good where the texture of the pancake wrap is soft, though I thought it would be better if there was a crunchier ingredient to have with the wrap. 

“MALAI” Bread, malt, ginseng honey butter, thyme 
Inspired by Ma Lai Gao during Chef Lee’s trip to Guangzhou, this course is like a bridge between Ma Lai Gao and Bread. The “bread” here is first baked with malt molasses to achieve a light crust and then sprinkled with sea salt and thyme.

The most unique part of this course is the butter, which has honey and ginseng powder. The freshly baked bread itself is expectedly good and flavourful. 

21 Days Aged Fermented Bean Wagyu Rump Cap, daikon soubise, macadamia morel 
This meat course is inspired by fermented black beans where the grass and grain fed Australian Wagyu rump is aged with fermented black bean powder for 21-days.

The beef here is grilled over charcoal and served with fermented black bean sauce of beef jus and fat, and served along with Chinese morel stuffed with macadamia tofu and daikon soubise. Overall, the beef flavour is succulent and has a good balance of lean and fat meat. 

Squid Sausage Claypot Rice, squid ink egg sauce, truffle, herbs 
Inspired by the humble rice casserole aka claypot rice, the rice here is cooked in stock of brown chicken, vegetables and spices.

Served on a bed of squid ink egg sauce, the most unique element for me is the accompanying sausage made from squid, fish farce, squid ink and salted fish.

The rice is aromatic, and the squid ink flavour is very good here. 

Strawberry Sorbet, peach gum, rice wine lees espuma 
For pre-dessert, this sorbet dessert is made of strawberry and Szechuan peppercorn. 

Yuba Pavlova, sesame oil, Meyer lemon curd, black lemon 
For dessert, it is an Asian twist on the classic Australian dessert – Pavlova Meringue. This dessert showcases milk Yuba and meringue, stuffed with sesame oil infused sponge cake. It is covered with delicious dehydrated black meringue made of dried black lemon and Europe alyssum flowers. 

Mignardise 
Finally, for petit fours, I had a delightful trio of Passionfruit sable, Coffee financier and a Soya nougat with wolfberries. 

Rants Perhaps my only gripe is that I was expecting the element of the sauces bit to come across more pronounced in each course which could potentially add a stronger identity to the restaurant? For instance, how about a dessert course which showcase something saucy instead?

Will I Return Again? I like the Asian touches in the dishes at Imbue, where each course in my dinner menu spots a robust and well-balanced flavour overall. It is great that ala carte menu is also an option for dinner, which fits diners who do not fancy sitting through a 2 to 3 hours meal. A great fine-dining addition to Keong Saik for sure in my opinion where the lunch courses are priced very competitively.

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

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

Imbue 
32 Keong Saik Road 
Singapore 089137 
Tel: +65 6223 7266 

Opening Hours 
Lunch 
Friday to Sunday: 12pm to 2.30pm 
 
Dinner 
Tuesday to Saturday: 6pm to 11pm 
1st seating: 6pm to 8.30pm 
2nd seating: 8.30pm to 11pm 

Closed on Monday 

Ranted by The Ranter