New in town: Ingleside — Modern European restaurant blends fermentation, dry-ageing & wood-fired cooking techniques
Tanjong Pagar‘s Tras street is an enclave of hip restaurants and bars. Adding to that list is new player, Ingleside, a 35-seater modern European restaurant. It’s opened by husband-and-wife duo Louis Chan and Jana Jusman.
Louis, the head chef, teams up with Jana, the fermentation wizard, to explore innovative ways of fermenting, texturising and discovering different flavours to craft gastronomic masterpieces.
As you step inside, you’re greeted by an array of meticulously dry-aged meats of the finest cuts. Louis has fine-tuned the perfect aging duration to produce the best flavour for each variety.
Right beside it, you’ll stumble upon Jana’s quirky fermented creations like coffee shoyu, rose vinegar and black-eyed peas miso, created with the purpose of elevating dishes.
Before the main dinner, we were served some sourdough bread with lacto-fermented tomato butter. Although we loved the smokiness of the butter, it was slightly too savoury for us.
We then kicked off the Dinner Menu (S$128++) with 2 of their seasonal snacks.
The Tuna Tartare had finely-chopped Japanese maguro, perfumed with a delicate blend of aromatic sesame oil and maitake shoyu. Between nibbles of the paper-thin crispy shell, a citrusy splash of yuzu and pickled shallot hits you, with mini pops of umami from the caviar.
I loved the buttery brioche of the Truffle Toast. It was topped with foie gras mousse, sauternes jelly and finely-shaved fresh black truffle.
The set also comes with Jamon Ball, a potato ball with Jamon Serrano and gruyere cheese.
At Ingleside, the chefs pay homage to the perennial art of wood-fire cooking. We had a taste of our first Entrée, the Mozambique Carabinero Prawn (+S$32), served with a burnt lemon.
The prawn, kissed by flames fuelled by dry-aged beef fat, is seasoned with shrimp and rose garum. The prawn was lovely on its own; tender and smoky. But the true magic happened when we dunked it into the puddle of prawn head butter— utterly life-changing!
The Hand Cut Wagyu Tartare (+S$24) was a heavenly mix of bone marrow, coffee shoyu, celery vinegar, roast chicken garum, and cured egg yolk.
Only those who’ve toiled in the kitchen know the tricky nature of octopus. But the culinary team at Ingleside smashed it with the Atlantic Octopus main course— seasoned and cooked to perfection.
It came served with smoked pepper squid garum puree, black garlic aioli, herb aioli, prawn oil and charred fennel. This was one of my favourites!
The 35-day dry-aged A5 Miyazaki Sirloin (+S$60) tasted divine on its own, but adding the slow roasted garlic took it up a notch.
I may not be a purist when it comes to food but certain deconstructed desserts just put me off. However, the Deconstructed Lemon Meringue Tart was quite the opposite.
Smoked ice cream and a luscious lemon curd was served on a bed of yuzu granita, crunchy thyme crumb and crushed ice— it was pure genius!
The Caviar and Hazelnut (+S$18) panna cotta was served with herb oil, sourdough bread miso butterscotch, and ahem, caviar. Surprisingly, the unorthodox combination worked, making it an ideal dessert for those craving a unique twist.
Swing by 49 Tras Street and allow Ingleside to impress you with their modern European fare. Trust me, you’ll be in for a treat!
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