Singapore Fusion Cuisine at Upper Place in Wangz Hotel

If you are the adventurous sort with your tastebuds, here’s a new restaurant in town which you may find interesting – Upper Place in Wangz Hotel, which offers east-meets-west fusion cuisine, Singapore-style.

Nestled in Tiong Bahru, Upper Place’s menu offers European small plates with Asian influences. The restaurant is helmed by Chef Gregory Lau and purveys fine food offerings with prices starting from S$8 only.

These were some of the dishes I sampled:

As you can see from the pricing, it is on the affordable luxury side which won’t cause a big dent to your wallet. Set lunch is priced at S$19.90++ for a 2-course meal or S$24++ for a 3-course meal. The dinner tasting menu is priced at S$42++ for the 4-course meal or S$50++ for the 5-course option.

I am usually very wary of fusion cuisines as they tend to fall on two extremes – either surprisingly good or unbelievably bad. This is not so much the fault of the chefs, but because there are certain tastes which are familiar and comfortable with for traditional dishes like laksa and Hainanese chicken rice for instance. When you mess with it, it is often difficult to win people over with the different taste.

For Upper Place, I enjoyed the laksa risotto and the two appertisers. The short rib congee didn’t work for me as it is too rich in flavours from diverse ingredients. The latter tastes unique, but it’s one of those dishes which may be good that one time, but you won’t order it a second time round.

Give me a second or even third serving of the risotto though. It is beautiful to look at and the flavours blend well for a east-meet-west dish, whereby the familiar taste of laksa is not greatly compromised. The dish comprises coconut foam, sambal, served with an enticing seafood medley of scallop, lobster, shrimp and mussels.

The two appertisers are very pretty to look at and small enough to pop right into the mouth to enjoy the mix of textures and flavours from rich ingredients like truffle onions, caviar and guacamole in the tuna tartare tart and pulled pork, purple lettuce and coriander in the pork belly taco.

If you are looking for a wallet-friendly fusion restaurant to enjoy a quiet dining, Upper Place in Wangz Hotel may be just what you are looking for.

Address: 231 Outram Road, WANGZ Hotel, Singapore 169040
Tel: +65 6595 1380
Opening Hours: Lunch 12pm to 2:30pm / Dinner 6pm to 10:30pm
Website: http://www.wangzhotel.com/eatdining
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/upperplace.wangz