Odette - Singapore
Dining room with kitchen visible behind the glass doors
Rating: 18/20
Where: Singapore, Singapore
When: Dinner for 2 on 3 March 2025
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 498 SGD, Wine Pairing 295-565 SGD
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, #24 on World's 50 Best Restaurants (2024)
Why: French cuisine that subtly incorporates Japanese and Singaporean influences
Even though born in France, chef Julien Royer has definitely made Singapore his home. He started to cook at the St Regis Singapore in 2008 and then moved to restaurant Jaan with its 70th floor views of the Marina in 2011. After working at hotels for a while, Royer finally opened his own restaurant in 2015. Named “Odette” after his grandmother, the restaurant quickly rose to three Michelin stars, and even topped Asia's 50 Best Restaurant list at one point. I came here last about 2 1/2 years ago, remarking that the restaurant served delicious food, but with hardly a nod to the restaurant's location - to quote: “if you served the same dinner in Paris, nobody would bat an eyelid.” How much (if at all) had Odette changed since then? On the last evening of a month-long trip through Asia, we got a chance to find out.
Odette is located in Singapore's National Gallery, and it's best to enter through the doors on the southern end of the building’s east side. The dining room has a modern, formal elegance, where tables have white table cloths, and the kitchen is visible through glass sliding doors.
The restaurant serves a single tasting menu, but dietary restrictions were accommodated with prior notice. Two wine pairings were on offer, both with pretty good wines, priced at 295 and 565 SGD, respectively. The pricier pairing featured more famous wine producers, but purely based on enjoyability, it wasn't really worth twice the price of the basic pairing. It's also not a bad idea to order an aperitif since the wine pairing starts only after the first four dishes and the bread course.
Three smaller bites were served together at the beginning of our dinner. A fried, spherical “donut” was filled with cheese from the Auvergne, the chef's home. This dish felt a bit heavy, but the cheese was very good 17. The second bite was a mini taco filled with chutoro tartare (medium-fatty tuna) and seasoned with fried ginger and ponzu sauce. The taco had a good crunch, meaning it probably had been assembled not too long before. The fish was delicious with a good balance of flavors, with maybe a hint more ginger than one would expect for a comparable tartare in Japan 18. Lastly, a little French onion tarte that was seasoned with licorice and coffee. Smelling this dish, we indeed got a good whiff of coffee, but tastewise, the licorice and coffee were hard to detect - presumably a good thing, since a hint might be all that was needed. Instead, this dish mostly tasted of the caramelized onions. Tasty and not too heavy 17.
The next dish was billed as a “mushroom tea” - the presentation even included a tea bag filled with dried mushrooms. It started out with a cup containing a sabayon, walnuts, roasted buckwheat and mushrooms (both raw and cooked). Our server then poured a mushroom broth into the cup and we were instructed to first drink the “tea” before using the provided spoon to finish the dish. On the side was a brioche topped with thinly sliced raw mushrooms. The liquid portion of this presentation was delicious, creamy and full of mushroom flavor, enhanced by the bigger pieces of mushrooms in the sabayon. The toasted buckwheat added some nice crunch to the dish. The brioche with its ethereal topping initially looked like something that might easily disintegrate. No such problem, though - the brioche held together well, and even the mushrooms on top stayed in shape after every bite. There was a bit of sauce in between the raw mushrooms that enhanced the dish - otherwise it might have been too dry. Maybe not as amazing as the tea, but still very good 18.
Three kinds of bread were served: a mini baguette, a rye/wheat sourdough bread and a Kalamata olive brioche. On the side were a butter from the Auvergne topped with a buckwheat dust and an olive oil from Catalonia, Spain. The baguette and sourdough had a nice crunch, and the sourdough's interior was aromatic as well. And the brioche? Absolutely amazing! It was very flaky, with a consistency of an airy croissant. Its olive taste wasn't very strong, but it's hard to complain about anything here 18.
This led us to the first official course of the night. An oyster was served over a dashi jelly, with sliced green apples, raw red onions, the season’s first white asparagus, a velouté of white asparagus and a dollop of caviar. On a separate plate came a little brioche glazed with yuzu and topped with uni (sea urchin) from Hokkaido. Clearly, a dish with distinct Asian influences, mostly from Japan. The pre-cut oyster had a creamy texture, and a flavor of the sea that (thankfully) was not overpowered by the rest of the dish. There was some crunch from the red onions and even more from the green apples, and the lovely caviar added some saltiness (18 for this part of the presentation). As for the bite on the side - the uni was nicely creamy, but unfortunately, its more subtle flavors were overpowered by the buttery brioche (maybe a 16). Overall 17.
Shima aji had been cured with lemon, lime and satsuma oranges. It was arranged in a flower shape interleaved with pickled kohlrabi. The dish was seasoned with dill, and that herb appeared in three different ways: in a mayonnaise, as an oil, and fresh. On top, chef Royer himself added a snow made from buttermilk, cider vinegar and horseradish. This combination of ingredients might almost sound Scandinavian, but flavorwise it was (for better or worse) nothing of the sort. First off, the fish was lovely, with a creamy texture, to which the acidic, crunchy kohlrabi was a good complement. But I felt that this dish had the potential to be even better. First off, it was a bit too sweet - the acidity of the kohlrabi wasn't quite enough to counter that. And second, I couldn't really taste the horseradish, and the dill flavor was also pretty light 18. The Alsatian Riesling paired with this dish was a great fit, bringing out some complexity in the wine that hadn’t been as apparent without the food.
An onion millefeuille looked like a dish that would have been a pain to prepare. An onion had been very lightly cooked, before its layers taken were apart, interleaved with black truffle slices, and then reassembled. Just imagine making a few dozen of these every day… The onion came with some croutons, a maple syrup gel, a soy sauce emulsion, and vin jeune infused with katsuobushi. Tableside, a healthy amount of shaved Périgord black truffles were added to the plate. The onion was sweet, the sauce buttery and the truffles lovely. Maybe a bit too sweet overall, but otherwise delicious 19.
The fourth course was first and foremost a pork broth soup. It contained pieces of foie gras and Korean abalone, pickled shiitake mushrooms and cabbage. Maybe not very photogenic, but holy @*#!, this broth was amazing - very salty and somewhat peppery and very, very tasty. An old shoe might have delectable in this flavorful broth. Thankfully, we got some more palatable ingredients instead. The abalone had a good bite and was lightly juicy, the mushrooms lovely, the foie gras fine. This was another dish that one wouldn't be able to get in Paris (at least not in a French restaurant). It was inspired by a Malaysian/Singaporean pork soup called “bak kut teh”, something that I definitely need to check out the next time I’m in Singapore 20. The pescatarian alternative of this amazing soup was a fish dish. Amadai was served with squid, mussels, spinach, a turnip stuffed with prawns and a bouillabaisse sauce. The fish was cooked excellently, the sauce very flavorful and the filled turnip very good as well 18.
Our final seafood dish was a “miso lobster”. Scottish blue lobster had been poached in salt water and then braised in yuzu butter. It was served with endives, a white miso paste, burnt oranges, and a beurre blanc made with sake instead of wine. The lobster was nicely cooked, and the sauce was sweeter and maybe more buttery than a traditional beurre blanc. Rather than using acidity to balance the heaviness of the dish, this one used the noticeable bitterness of the endives for that purpose 18.
The main course was a pigeon filet crusted with kampot pepper and served next to a pigeon leg confit. There was also a pigeon jus, black garlic, a sunchoke cream, and some crunchy caramelized hazelnuts. The filet was cooked on the rare side and had a nice pepper flavor. The leg meat was more seasoned, making it the most flavorful part of the dish. One nitpick: the sunchoke and nuts were maybe a bit too sweet compared to the rest of the dish. A fine preparation, with the caveat that I'm not really a big fan of pigeons 17. Midway through eating this course, we were served a very hot little bao (dumpling) filled with pigeon heart and liver. It had a great texture and the filling was nicely flavored 18.
Normally, I would now describe the pescatarian dish that my wife received instead of the pigeon. However, she also eats chicken - a good thing, since I couldn't possible finish all the half-eaten chicken nuggets that our five-year-old twin boys leave in their messy wake. For that reason, the non-pigeon dish was a Bresse chicken breast. It was served with black garlic, maitake mushrooms, spinach from the Provence, and a sauce made from yellow wine and chicken jus. The chicken was simply amazing, incredibly juicy and flavorful - possibly the best chicken I've ever had. And ironically, leaps and bounds better than the OG Bresse chicken we had at Georges Blanc 20. This course came with a side of “chicken rice” - the restaurant's play on the Singaporean staple, and apparently a crowd-favorite during the Covid take-out days. Chicken confit leg was mixed with koshihikari rice, black pepper, black truffles, an onion/shallot oil, chives and crispy chicken skin. This was a rustic dish, crunchy, with the chicken being relatively fatty. It became truly delicious though when we added the sauce from the main chicken dish (of which we thankfully had plenty, given to us in a small saucepan) 18. Similar to the pigeon dish, there was another small bite that arrived halfway through the course. Here is was a chicken wing filled with chicken meat and wood ear mushrooms. A lovely bite, juicy and peppery 18.
An optional cheese course (48 SGD) offered some flavorful and fresh cheeses that were as good as anything offered at a three-star restaurant in France. Living in the US, I can only envy the more open-minded food import regulations in Singapore… On the side came a salad with a light walnut dressing, some dates, figs, walnuts, a cracker and two breads: a fruit bread and a rye sourdough. All very good.
The pre-dessert was a pineapple granita served with golden kiwis, aloe vera, a yogurt sorbet, a sorrel espuma, bay leaf, matcha and a sugar leaf infused with pineapple. Quite the list of ingredients, but in the end this was a sweet dish that tasted lightly of pineapples. The flavors blended together seamlessly 18.
Our main dessert was a “coffee bean”, as suggested by a coffee-bean-shaped cocoa tuile that was dusted with cocoa powder. The tuile sat on top of a mascarpone foam, sobacha (buckwheat tea), pecans, coffee praline, and a biscuit soaked in coffee. Foamy, nutty, creamy, and thankfully not too heavy. A dish that made one worried about having to stay up all night (which thankfully didn't happen) 17.
Four petit fours concluded the night. A lollipop consisted of a meringue and yuzu sorbet - light and cold 17. There was a serving of fruit: Fuji apples, Japanese strawberries and a melon. The latter didn't taste of much, but the apples and strawberries were great 16. Small vanilla cannelés had a crunchy outside and a nice vanilla flavor 17. A buttery cookie topped with a marshmallow and chocolate was the restaurant's play on a Carambar candy 17.
Overall: A delightful dinner with excellent service - solidly three stars. It was great to see that the restaurant was evolving and not just resting on its laurels. Our dinner definitely had more Asian influences than during my previous visit 2 1/2 years earlier, while still maintaining an overall French-cuisine profile. It is getting a much more distinctive style 18.
