Hotel Dining

Butcher’s Block Raffles Singapore dining review: Dining at Butchers Block is one of the signature dining adventures as part of the unique offers from this legendary ‘grande dame’. And it also – given that the hotel and its outlets cover the area of a whole and downtown block – feels accessible, since public guests can enter these restaurants through other entrances than the actual hotel lobby (which is dedicated to the discerning guests staying at the hotel).

At the avante-garde, wood-fire Singapore restaurant, Happy Hour Asia tested the ‘IMUA Dinner Tasting Menu’, including wine pairings that really impressed, and was also accompanied by an impressive music playlist with predominantly 1980’s music (with songs from artists such as Dire Straits, The Police, Duran Duran and Roxette)!

This choice of music certainly sets the tone for a casual venue, while the food is more of the fine dining kind – and with a unique style of sourcing ingredients and preparing the food. At Butcher’s Block the restaurant’s wine guru also moves around among the tables, and an impressive wine cellar ready with suggestions to match the fine meals. And a wine pairing dinner certainly marks an absorbing opportunity to learn about unusual wines one has maybe not experienced previously, and getting to hear in detail from the sommelier how the particular choice of wines matched with the food – and then make one’s own evaluation. It’s like being at the theatre, experiencing the acts playing out, except that here you are not the audience, but a main protagonist in the event. During this IMUA, according to Happy Hour Asia’s reviewer, the selection perfectly hits the right notes for all pairings except one – which is impressive indeed!

Butcher’s Block is situated along Raffles Singapore’s courtyard, facing the garden on one side and the street on the other.

This destination restaurant’s show kitchen is to the left directly inside the entrance, with a counter of cuts, live cooking over fire and where also dry-aged meat are on display in a larder. There is also home-grown produce on display here, where degustation menus pair progressive dining with top-notch wines. Needless to say, meat is cooked to perfection – and to one’s wishes – by chefs who transform these ingredients on custom-built ovens and grills.

“From smoking with wood or dried herbs, slow roasting, high heat grilling, burying ingredients with embers, to grilling in baskets directly over embers and hanging ingredients over the coals, discover the wonderful depths of flavour that only pure wood-fire can forge,” promises Butcher’s Block, calling the cooking style ‘avant-garde’!

The restaurant’s beautiful interior – in bistro style – has rather dark brown tones, and from the dark-brown timber ceiling hang rather vintage style, round brass lamps. Pillars and wall panels are painted in a beautiful cobalt blue hue, while the wooden flooring is dark brown. Contrasting to this is an orange-hued, tropical wood table at the centre, as well as modern-vintage beige leather armchairs with rivets. Along the window walls are dark brown leather padded sofas.

There is also a private dining room, with a curved large tropical wood slab as dining table. Its illuminated glass wall houses the restaurant’s wine cellar, with 288 premium wines, including a meticulous selection of natural wines.

Stylishly looking, and exclusive, this is the perfect choice where to impress on business partners or for private celebrations over a fine meal!

The dinner is full of surprises in terms of the variety of plating as well, from a rustic rusty-looking wide plate to dim-sum style, with meals designed to impress, in fact works of art!

Now what is the meaning of ‘IMUA Dinner Tasting Menu’? It’s Hawaiian language for ’moving forward with strength and spirit’, IMUA perfectly encapsules the culinary prowess and philosophies of Chef Jordan Keao – through wood-fire cooking, whole animal butchery and zero waste, writes Butcher’s Block.

This Hawaiian focus is based on the fact that the restaurant kitchen is currently helmed by Chef de Cuisine Jordan Keao, who was born and raised in Hawaii where cooking, fishing, hunting and farming are a part of everyday life. Each ingredient is ingeniously transformed by wood-fire, embracing the variety of nuances that fire offers, and requires finesse.

For tailored pairings with a degustation menu like this, the idea should be to balance and enhance the assertive richness of the food.

To set things off, champagne is served – in an incredibly light crystal champagne glass!

The opening act (subject to seasonal change) here was quite something to “decipher” in terms of a dish – served on top of a plate with small pebbles: Scallop, Parsnip blini (appetizer), Kumquat kosho (Japanese seasoning paste), shiso (aromatic Japansese herb), Korean BBQ, Wagyu tartare, Roasted beetroot tartlet, Taleggio (Italian cheese) and Macadamia nuts! To kick things off, per the concept, this was ruly intriguing for any diner with a curious mind, open to innovative dishes!

Next followed Smoked Sashimi poké (a dish of diced raw fish tossed in sauce), Kukui nut (Hawaiian candlenut). Ogo (also Hawaiian) seaweed, and herb dashi (stock). It came served on a wide nature stone-looking plate, on a bed of black candlenuts. With the dish first hidden in smoke inside at glass bowl, once opened it revealed a nature-inspired dish – including stone-like foam and garnished with edible flowers. The dashi stock was poured at the table, forming circles in a shape resembling – although perhaps not in colour – one of those satellite images showing a cyclone! As wine pairing: intriguing rice wine, Kamoshibito Kuheiji; served in an ordinary wine glass, which is how this wine is best enjoyed. Some Japanese sake producers, including the one for this brand, are moving away from the traditional sake cup and embracing the wine glass for a modern and refined drinking experience. This wine is known for its elegant and balanced flavour profile, showcases fruity aromas, alongside notes of wood, lychee, and Japanese cypress.

On this followed Dry-aged duck, black garlic purée and grilled dumpling, a “chewy” dish that formed a delicious combination and reached even higher with the wine pairing: The duck – cut in slices and “swimming” in a juice, along with the dumpling – was paired with Moulin à Vent (made from the Gamay grape variety, are known for being some of the most concentrated and tannic made in Beaujolais) – a wine that pairs with both hearty and robust fish dishes and meat and in particular with lamb.

The next dish weas Mackerel, Starfruit curd, and Hokkadio Yumepirika sushi rice – served on a wide, white plate with a large slice of sumptuous mackerel from the grill on a bed of the starfruit curd and the sushi rice!

The degustation menu then continued with A5 Saga Beef and Kabocha squash bone marrow purée, paired with Kaiken Mai The First Malbec – an Argentinian wine an intense purple-red colour and attractive violet tones, with flavours of oak, chocolate, vanilla and more.

Rounding it all off was a truly unique dessert, consisting in Pumpkin pie, served in a porcelain bowl and with burnt marshmallow ice cream + Hazelnut chocolate bonbon, Liliko Pate de fruit and Charcoal macaron – revealed by opening up wooden tiffin (bento) boxes!

All in all, the IMUA Dinner Tasting Menu was a truly splendid dining experience, enhance by that soundtrack and excellent service.

The IMUA menu changes with the season.

Accessible via the North Bridge Road entrance, Butcher’s Block is open as follows:
Lunch – Wednesday to Saturday, 12.00 noon – 2.00pm (last seating); Sunday & Monday closed. Dinner – Tuesday to Saturday 6.00pm – 9.30pm (last seating); Sunday & Monday closed