PUBLISHED August 1st, 2020 01:21 pm
Mention dining with a view and sky-high restaurants or lush garden settings come to mind, but Ocean Restaurant’s scenery is in a class of its own. Tucked away in the basement of Equarius Hotel, this underwater dining spot has front-row seats to S.E.A. Aquarium’s enchanting inhabitants. Floor-to-ceiling glass runs the length of one wall, allowing manta rays and schools of silvery fish to glide practically past your plate. It’s pretty damn magical.
Still, it hasn’t been much of a destination restaurant among Singaporeans – the price-to-portion ratio, for one, has been an Achilles heel. But with its reopening in Phase Two comes an ocean-fresh new menu that might just be worth splashing out on. A four-hands collab between Ocean Restaurant’s Chef de Cuisine Marvas Huang and Chef de Cuisine Tony Choo of Cantonese restaurant Forest森, this limited-time menu carries on Ocean’s sustainable ethos with responsibly sourced seafood and mod-Asian flavours.
Our 5-Course Dinner Menu (S$138++) kicks off with a complimentary glass of prosecco (available till 4 September 2020) – it offers the perfect excuse to sit, sip, and simply soak up the serene views of undulating stingrays. When the amuse-bouche arrives, we make short work of it – a simple but refreshing bite of silken tofu topped with a few sprigs of nightshade.
Abalone gets artful with our first course, the Drunken Australia ‘Yumbah’ Abalone. Sustainably farmed on Kangaroo Island, the greenlip abalone is lightly steamed with shaoxing wine to spicy-sweet firmness, then sliced and arranged with wolfberries, heirloom tomatoes, and organic greens. The result is what looks like a manicured garden on a plate, with chili oil caviar for garnish to give that extra zing.
The Wild Caught Hiramasa tartare was a highlight – its clean, almost creamy freshness works beautifully with the bright lemongrass and cucumber sauce. Add a sprinkling of Friend of the Sea-certified Kristal caviar and it wins us over completely. The Boston Lobster follows up on the decadence with sweet lobster chunks in a ginger-infused egg white custard, adorned with crisp crackers for a textural contrast.
For mains, you have the choice of either surf or turf. There’s a tempting option of Herbal Braised USDA Prime Ribs, but no one at our table takes that bait – we are in an aquarium, after all. And the New Zealand Cod Fillet we unanimously go for leaves us with no regrets – it comes marinated in sake to melt-in-the-mouth tenderness, and graced with crispy bits of its own skin. We finish up every flake of it, and manage to fit in dessert – a silky, classically Chinese Mango Pomelo Sago pudding topped with vanilla ice-cream.
Ocean Restaurant is one of those spots you head to for rare special occasions – in fact, we witnessed a proposal at the next table while we were there. The nosh might be less memorable than the ambience, but you can still be sure of a swimmingly good time.
Ocean Restaurant is located at 22 Sentosa Gateway S.E.A Aquarium, Equarius Hotel West Zone Carpark B1M, #B1-455 & 456, Singapore 098136, p. +65 6577 6688. Open Mon-Tues and Fri-Sun from 11.30am (1st lunch seating), 1.30pm (2nd lunch seating), 6pm (1st dinner seating) and 8pm (2nd dinner seating). Closed Wed & Thurs.
All photos courtesy of Resorts World Sentosa.