The Born Experience
📸 The Born Experience
🇫🇷🇨🇳 French Fine Dining with Chinese Gastronomy
📖 Chef’s Menu
👨🍳 Zor Tan
Housed in a conservation house built in the 1900s, Born Restaurant tells the stories of Chef Zor’s culinary journey - from his first kitchen job in a Japanese restaurant, to working with chefs in Spain and Sichuan, to his favourite root vegetables, giving tribute to his mentor, recognising his wife, early memories of his mum’s cooking and lastly giving back to society.
STARTERS
Pickled wintermelon with purple shiso juice
Pickled japanese daikon skin with coriander stem
Pickled jellyfish with mountain chilli
“Japanese fruit tomato” filled shiso and smoked plum juice
Chicken Skin Mille Feuille made with up to 45 layers of crisp chicken skin.
Roasted eggplant and Beluga hybrid caviar is an ode to Tan’s mother’s fried eggplant and pork belly dish, which she sometimes made with chicken.
Taro Puff, Salted Egg Custard and Faux Bottarga
Kombujime Buri with Daikon, Galangal Sorbet, fermented mustard seeds, soy sauce and ginger sauce
Fish Bacon, Sweet and Sour Sauce, Homemade Chilli Oil and Ikura
Jerusalem Artichoke Skin, Dark Chocolate, Artichoke Purée
MAINS
Chicken Liver Parfait, Smoked Oil, Morel Mushrooms, Diced Celeriac and Roasted Chicken Sauce
Monkfish with Hainan Imperial Green Chilli Purée, Yunan Jade Fungus and Chicken Emulsion
Fresh Barramundi Fish Maw wrapped with Chinese Cabbage, stuffed with Smoked Eel. Served with an Eel Broth, finished with a Spring Onion Oil
Alaskan King Crab Leg, Egg White Caviar, Tang Yuan filled with Crab Miso served with a Crab Bisque Sauce with Sweet Basil Oil
Air Dried Pigeon, Barley Risotto with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Pigeon Bone Sauce with Fermented Black Beans
Double Boiled Birds Nest with Osmanthus Sorbet with Chrysanthemum
DESSERTS
Mont Blanc/“Garlic Fried Rice”s Chestnut Purée, Toasted Rice Puff, Black Garlic, Rice Foam, Milk Ice Cream, Black Garlic Purée, topped with Toasted Rice Powder and a Charcoal Sable
Sea buckthorn jelly, rice paper, pineapple gel (sour/酸)
Ispahan lotus flower (sweet/甜)
Bittergourd bonbon (bitter/苦）
Spicy beef fat financier (spicy/辣）
VERDICT
It was an absolute pleasure dining at Born. The food was on point, presentation and taste wise - very palatable.
Food: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Ambience: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Price: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Service: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Experience: 🌟🌟🌟
(Out of 5 Stars)
THE EXTERIOR & INTERIOR
Born is housed in the beautiful conservation building, previously a depot for rickshaws.
The main dining hall has a double-height glass ceiling and an anchor suspending a stunning Peter Gentenaar paper sculpture.
The colour platte of black, sand, grey emphasises the warmth and delicacy of a home and comfort. In addition to 15 seats in the main dining hall, the space boasts 12 seats around the show kitchen and two private dining rooms with 4 and 8 seats respectively. It’s also interestingly has a cigar room.
