My dine-in luxury in SG
I always look forward to visiting Singapore because there’s no shortage of places to eat in, be it fine dining or hawker joints. On my recent trip, I found myself not even leaving the hotel, since housed in the same building are two brands that found acclaim abroad and decided to open their maiden outpost in Asia, right in Como Metropolitan Singapore.
Korean barbecue
Found on level 3 of the hotel (the suites are located from the seventh level all the way up) is the United States’ very first Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse owned by Simon Kim.
True to its counterparts in New York and Miami, Cote in Singapore beautifully showcases the marriage between Korean barbecue and the classic American steakhouse. The result is a dining experience that offers the highest quality USDA Prime beef cooked on the table, matched with an impressive 500+ label wine list, enjoyed in a pleasant and sociable (definitely not uptight) atmosphere.
The entry alone delivers this, as the elevator opens up to a sleek bar flanked by potted plants and a glowing bar table—an inviting spot for a pre-dinner drink while waiting for your company to arrive.
Guests are then led next door where rows of booths, each equipped with a state-of-the-art smokeless charcoal grill, wait for action to happen. This is prompted by your personal server, who not only cooks your meats for you but also serves you a load of information about what you will be indulging in.
In my case, it was the Butcher’s Feast, the middle and more practical choice between a more expensive steak omakase and à la carte, which limits the number of dishes you get to try.
My set came with four selected cuts, plus a bunch of unlimited banchan (Korean side dish) including pickled seasonal vegetables. There was an Australian black Angus hanger steak, a USDA Prime 45-day dry-aged rib-eye, an Aussie Wagyu flat iron steak, and and USDA galbi marinated prime short rib, totaling about 200 grams per person.
Each meat is first seasoned with Cote’s signature Gastronome’s Salt, a proprietary blend of British Maldon salt, Celtic sea salt, and Korean thousand-day aged sea salt, before being cooked to the ideal doneness.
To go with these were gogi cha, a clear broth of prime beef bone consommé, which I thought was a great tummy-warmer to begin the meal with; a scallion salad, mixed greens tossed in a gochugaru vinaigrette; a savory egg soufflé, which proved to be my favorite side dish; rice and the two stews, a spicy kimchi number and a doen-jang stew.
Pastry paradise
They cool off your palate from all the strong flavors and spice with a serving of vanilla soft serve drizzled with soy sauce caramel. Thus, the meal ended on a sweet and satisfying note, but for someone who loves sugar, I craved for more. Good thing there’s a lauded pastry shop just two floors down.
Cédric Grolet is an award-winning and often-viral French chef who opened his fourth shop (the very first in Asia) in Como Metropolitan Singapore, with queues that spilled over to the next block when it opened. He burst into the scene and instantly became a household name because of his trompe-l’oeil creations, aka desserts that resemble the fruits they are inspired by. His spots in Paris and London have become attractions for foodies, and we’re lucky that we need not travel thousands of miles just to be able to sample his goods.
You enter the ground floor of the hotel and step into a wide spiraling staircase in black, which leads to a contrasting stark white room with a semi-open kitchen and a ceiling with hanging flower petals in silver. Complemented with soft lighting, low tables and seats, and soothing music, the place definitely makes the guests linger longer.
The assortment of pastries does the same. The bronzed beauties, displayed on the counter, include viennoisseries such as croissant, pain au chocolat, kouign amann, pan suisse, and a flan gula melaka. I had the one which hid a tender-as-butter half pear lodged in the middle, and it ate much like a buttery pie.
I had to get one of the trompe-l’oeil creations. There was a red apple with cinnamon choux pastry; a passionfruit flower with choux pastry sponge, vanilla ganache, and passionfruit gel; and one called Coco Thai with kaya gel and coconut praline.
But my eyes naturally locked in on the mango with its gradient color. It effortlessly broke with the light touch of a fork and revealed a layer of mango coriander gel, fresh mangoes, mango ganache, and a thin chocolate shell. It was refreshing and sweet, with a tinge of tang. And with my last bite, I knew my meal for that day was done. I didn’t even have to set foot outside the hotel I was staying in.
Como Metropolitan Singapore is at 30 Bidefor Road, Singapore. Visit comohotels.com. Follow the author @fooddudeph on Instagram.
