The Seroja Experience
📸 The Seroja Experience
🇸🇬🇲🇾🇮🇩Flavours of the Malay Archipelago
📖 Nusantara Menu
💲 268++
👨🍳 Chef Kevin Wong, Chef Andrew Ou, Long Tran
‘Seroja’ means “Lotus Flower” in Malay. The restaurant explores the diversity of cultures across the Malay Archipelago.
Helmed by Chef Kevin, who was previously head chef of Meta and has also placed top three at the Asia regional final of San Pellegrino Young Chef 2019-2022.
The restaurant house 24 seats in Duo Galleria.
Nusantara Menu:
🥥Coconut mixed with sourdough and fermented overnight.
AMUSE BOUCHE
🍃 “Jamu”, Malay / Indonesian for traditional herbal drink made of turmeric, spices and savoury meringue base infused with laksa leaf and turmeric, topped with Oscietra caviar.
🦪 “Tiram” / oysters mixed with oyster leaf & made into a tartare.
🌶 “Sambal Hitam” / black chili, from the state Pahang, is made from fermented small prawns. Topped with fried white leeks.
🥗 Kerabu / cold salad. Bluefin tuna stuffed with tartare, spring onion and ginger, topped with crispy potato skin.
Paired with > amberjack. Coconut calamansi sauce, topped with ulam raja herb with slight mango taste. In the middle is pickled “Bunga Kantan” / ginger torch and pickled cucumber.
🥘Scallop with vinegar puree and gunpowder & spring onion. Served with tamarind glaze & ginger torch sauce.
🍞 “Roti Paung”, a specialty of Kuala Terengganu, made of steam bread and then fried.
2️⃣ Mains
🐟 Flounder from Hokkaido, lightly pan seared with a succulent finish. The sauce is made from roasting the fish bone and mixed with herbs & spices with fish gelatine emulsion.
Served with watercress and seasonal vegetables i.e. kailan from Cameron Highlands and salcify. Butternut puree with miso.
🍝 Noodle made in-house doused in chicken and prawn broth.🦐🍗 Cooked with snow crab legs, topped with shrimp roe 🦀
🍳Steamed egg custard, infused with prawn stock and ramoulette made from confit gurkhin.
Award winning duck broth and jasmine leaves..
🍖“Percik” / marinated pork ribs braised for 30hrs and put on charcoal grill after that
🥗 salad: cucumber, wing beans and ice plant toasted with herbs from Selangor called “butter kali” made from fermented shrimp and coconut cream; pickled chayote.
🍚“Nasi Dagang”/ traders rice “lauk pauk”. The red rice is grown and harvested from Borneo tribe called Lun Bawang, topped with spring onion;
3️⃣ DESSERTS
👅 Palate cleanser
Kumquat sorbet, jackfruit, marinated juicy mandarin orange & oolong foam
🥥🌴 “Kurma” / dates with miso and white chocolate and kaffir lime. Served with caramelized pine nuts and palm sugar, and salted coconut ice cream
🍨Goat milk from Johor sweetened with condensed milk. Grape mixed with salt, lime and fermented with ginger.
🍰“Bahulu” in Malay or “Kue Bolu” in Indonesian or “Kue Klemben” in Javanese. 2 types of sugar used: 1. Apem sugar and 2. Nipa palm sugar roasted in bamboo. Mixed with goat’s ghee.
VERDICT:
Following my experiences at:
🇲🇾Dewakan which takes on rare and forgotten indigenous ingredients from peninsular Malaysia.
🇲🇾Eat & Cook, Malaysian-styled Omakase.
🇲🇾 gēn which showcases nostalgic native flavours and innovative cooking techniques.
🇸🇬 Mustard seed, Singapore's food, inspired by Japanese cuisine and technique.
Seroja is on an entirely different level of bringing familiar flavours from spices and herbs native to the region (malaysia, singapore and Indonesian). Every dish unfolds a story and keeps its diners captivated. Worth trying.
OVERALL
Food: 🌟🌟🌟
Ambience: 🌟🌟🌟
Price: 🌟🌟🌟
Service: 🌟🌟🌟
Aesthetic: 🌟🌟🌟
Experience: 🌟🌟🌟
(Out of 5 Stars)
