TABLE FOR ONE
New Openings in Singapore, 2025–2026
Preface: A City Eating Eastward
Singapore has always been a city that eats with ambition, but 2025 and 2026 mark something rarer: a sustained, deliberate migration of China’s culinary crown jewels to an island that already owns a shelf of its own. What began as scattered outposts has become a recognisable movement—Michelin-approved Fujian kitchens, century-old BBQ dynasties, and dessert laboratories whose viral credibility precedes them by thousands of kilometres. This report examines fifteen of those arrivals with the rigour they deserve: ambience, dish anatomy, flavour architecture, texture, and colour.
Restaurants are reviewed across five rubrics — Ambience & Design, Culinary Execution, Signature Dish Analysis, Value Proposition, and Overall Impression — each scored out of ten. No reservation was made under a trade name. No complimentary meals were accepted.
01 · The Soup Expert
Location: Suntec City, #03-315/316
Cuisine: Shanghai · Double-Boiled Broth & Poultry
Price Range: $$ (mains $13.90–$36.90++)
Halal: No
Ambience & Design
The Soup Expert occupies a corner unit on the third level of Suntec City’s south wing, where natural light arrives in long afternoon diagonals. The interior reads as understated Shanghai-modern: bleached timber tables, matte ceramic tableware in pale celadon, and pendant lighting cast in brass-toned metal that warms the room without theatrics. The palette runs deliberately cool—ivory walls, smoke-grey upholstery—punctuated only by the amber glow of covered clay pots lining a display shelf along the back wall. Noise levels are moderate; the dominant sound is the low, contented murmur of diners leaning over bowls.
“The restaurant does not perform wellness — it simply practices it, in the same way a good TCM hall does.”
The Meal
Abalone Ginseng Soup — $14.90++
Presented in a lidded clay vessel, the broth arrives at the table still sighing. The liquid is a deep amber—almost topaz when held to light—with a clarity that speaks to patience: this is not a stock rushed with MSG but one built across hours of sustained low heat. Floating within are whole abalone, their edges frilled and slightly caramelised, alongside chunks of pork loin (pale ivory, yielding without disintegrating), chicken feet (collapsed into near-gelatinous softness), sliced ginger, goji berries that bleed a faint coral hue into the surrounding broth, and a single root of ginseng, its earthy bitterness arriving only on the finish like a considered editorial note.
The textural range is remarkable: the abalone offers a tender chew with a faintly oceanic mineral quality; the pork dissolves with pressure; the goji berries pop with a jammy sweetness. The broth itself coats the back of the throat with a silky, collagen-rich weight. One eats it slowly, which is the point.
Xian Mao Roast Chicken — $18.90++ (half) · $36.90++ (whole)
The chicken arrives burnished to a deep lacquer — a colour somewhere between chestnut and old rosewood — its skin blistered to a shatter-crisp texture that yields at the first press of a chopstick. The meat beneath is a study in contrast: bone-white at the breast, blush-tinted at the joint, thoroughly juicy throughout. The marinade, reportedly assembled from over ten spices, manifests as an aromatic complexity that the palate unpacks in stages: first sweet, then gently savoury, then a lingering warmth that is not heat but depth.
Seafood Claypot Vermicelli — $13.90++
Glass noodles, translucent and lightly tangled, arrive tossed in XO sauce of notable quality — the sauce lends a brine-forward, slightly fiery character that lifts the entire composition. Fresh shrimp sit curled atop, their flesh firm and sweet, shells still faintly pink. Soft cabbage, collapsed almost to cream, provides textural counterpoint. The egg yolk, broken tableside, introduces a gilded richness that rounds every other element.
Scores
Ambience ████████░░ 8/10
Flavour █████████░ 9/10
Texture Range █████████░ 9/10
Value ████████░░ 8/10
Overall █████████░ 9/10
02 · Ban Lan
Location: Scotts Square, #02-01/02
Cuisine: Fujian · Michelin-Recognised
Price Range: $$$$ (mains $29–$89++)
Halal: No
Ambience & Design
Ban Lan’s Scotts Road debut is the brand’s first venture beyond China, and the space communicates that significance quietly. The dining room draws on Fujian material culture — pale wood latticework patterned after traditional window screens, ceramic ware in celadon and blanc-de-chine, linen the colour of aged paper. Lighting is warm and directional, falling on tables rather than ceilings, which creates an intimacy that a space of this size might otherwise forfeit. Service is formal without stiffness; staff demonstrate genuine knowledge of the menu’s provenance. The room hums at a level that allows conversation without raised voices.
The Meal
Tie Guan Yin Tea-Smoked Crispy Sesame Chicken — from $46++
This is the dish that earns Ban Lan its reputation, and tasting it makes the claim credible. The chicken undergoes thirteen hours of preparation: marination in a proprietary spice blend, blanching, air-drying, baking, then a final flash in the fryer that produces a skin of extraordinary character — lacquered a deep tea-brown, shatteringly crisp, yet almost papery in its delicacy. The interior is another matter entirely: flesh of unimpeachable juiciness, perfumed with the floral-astringent ghost of tie guan yin, warm with spice but never aggressive. The sesame adds a nutty, toasty register that lingers in the retronasal passage.
Visually, the dish is a study in earth tones — mahogany skin, ivory meat, scattered sesame seeds like punctuation. It is presented on dark ceramic, which amplifies the warmth of those colours.
Steamed Crab with Hokkien Glutinous Rice Cake — from $89++
The crab, a specimen of generous proportion, arrives in a billowing cloud of fragrant steam. The roe — dense, intensely flavoured, a deep burnt-orange — commands the dish entirely. The Hokkien glutinous rice cake alongside it is pale and yielding, designed as a neutral vehicle for the roe’s oceanic richness. One presses a portion of rice cake against a lobe of roe and is rewarded with a mouthful of saline depth tempered by gentle starch. The crab flesh itself is pristine — white, sweet, firm.
Fuzhou-style Crispy Pork Ribs — from $29++
Marinated in traditional Hokkien rice alcohol, these ribs wear a glaze of amber that deepens to near-caramel at the exposed bone ends. The crunch of the exterior gives way to meat that pulls cleanly, infused with a fermented grain sweetness that is entirely distinct from the soy-and-sugar profiles that dominate lesser versions of this dish. A dish of considerable subtlety.
Scores
Ambience █████████░ 9/10
Flavour ██████████ 10/10
Texture Range █████████░ 9/10
Value ███████░░░ 7/10
Overall █████████░ 9/10
03 · LONGJING
Location: Suntec City, #01-384
Cuisine: Hangzhou · Zhejiang
Price Range: $$$ (mains $18.80–$29.80++)
Halal: No
Ambience & Design
LONGJING — named for the region’s famous dragon-well tea — presents a dining room that is perhaps the most considered of any restaurant in this survey. The design vocabulary is West Lake Hangzhou distilled: pale jade-green accents, ink-wash panels, the sound of water from a small recirculating feature near the entrance. Tables are set with dark chopstick rests and cups the colour of celadon glaze. The overall effect is one of composed serenity, a rare quality in a mall dining context.
The Meal
Steamed Yellow Croaker — $29.80++
The croaker arrives draped in Chicken Sauce — a pale, slightly viscous preparation of remarkable savouriness that pools at the base of the fish without drowning it. The flesh is white and flaking at the lightest pressure, carrying the clean sweetness that makes yellow croaker one of Zhejiang cuisine’s most beloved proteins. The sauce introduces depth in gradients: savoury first, then a faint fermented note, then a clean finish. Texturally, the dish offers almost no resistance — it is pure softness — which is precisely its point.
Minced Pork Pancake — $18.80++
This is the dish that best demonstrates LONGJING’s capacity for confident simplicity. Thin crepe-like pancake rolls encase thick slices of siew yoke (its fat rendered to near-translucency, its skin lacquered and crisp), fried tofu skin (pale gold, audibly crunchy), fresh cucumber batons (cool, green, sharp), and scallions. The sweet-savoury bean sauce binds these disparate elements into coherence. Each roll delivers a full spectrum of texture within a single bite: crispness, chew, yielding fat, cool crunch.
Ice Cream Leifeng Pagoda — $4.80++
The dessert is, genuinely, a work of edible sculpture. A cone of milk jellied pudding — ivory-pale, faintly trembling — is constructed in the tiered silhouette of Hangzhou’s Leifeng Pagoda, flanked by a flower-shaped jelly in soft blush pink. The flavour is delicate: lightly sweet, milky, with a cool, clean finish. The texture is unusual and pleasing — firmer than panna cotta, softer than agar, with a barely perceptible resistance before it yields entirely. One hesitates to eat it and then does so without regret.
Scores
Ambience █████████░ 9/10
Flavour █████████░ 9/10
Texture Range ████████░░ 8/10
Value ████████░░ 8/10
Overall █████████░ 9/10
04 · Xita Lao Tai Tai
Location: Bugis+, #04-06
Cuisine: Chinese BBQ · Claypot Charcoal
Price Range: $$$ (meats $32.90–$36.90++)
Halal: No
Ambience & Design
China’s declared number-one BBQ chain brings its claypot-stove concept to Bugis+ with a room designed around the theatre of live fire. Tables are set with individual recessed stoves, their clay lips darkened by sustained use. The lighting is warm and deliberately low — amber and charcoal — which flatters both the food and the diners consuming it. Walls are lined in a textured material resembling soot-darkened stone. The smoke is part of the experience; ventilation is adequate but not invisible. The atmosphere is convivial, even celebratory. On weekend evenings, the wait can exceed forty minutes.
The Meal
Special Marinated Beef Rib Finger Roll — $32.90++ for 140g
The cuts arrive raw, marinated in a glaze of deep rust-red that caramelises almost immediately on contact with the hot claypot grate. The finger roll — a cut of exceptional intramuscular fat distribution — transforms under the heat from a ruddy slab into a glossy, lacquered piece with edges curled and slightly charred. The sweet-savoury glaze develops a complexity through char that the raw marinade could only promise. The fat renders completely, leaving behind a texture of extraordinary tenderness — meat that requires almost no mastication, that collapses into a concentrated richness that is deeply satisfying.
Flagship Featherblade Steak — $36.90++ for 170g
Thicker-cut and less fatty than the finger roll, the featherblade rewards patient grilling. The exterior develops a dark crust — almost mahogany — while the interior remains a precise medium-pink, yielding to a firm bite with mineral depth. The accompanying Signature Sesame Sauce is a crucial element: creamy, nutty, with a sweetness that amplifies the meatiness of the steak rather than competing with it.
Free-Flow Banchan
The complimentary banchan — kimchi (acidic, lively, crimson), mashed potato (smooth, butter-pale), tofu skin (cream-coloured, silky) — provide a structural function beyond hospitality. Eaten between cuts of meat, they reset the palate and provide the Korean inflection that defines this style of Chinese BBQ.
Scores
Ambience ████████░░ 8/10
Flavour █████████░ 9/10
Texture Range █████████░ 9/10
Value ███████░░░ 7/10
Overall ████████░░ 8/10
05 · Yogurt Planet
Location: Millenia Walk, #01-105
Cuisine: Dessert · Stretchy Yoghurt
Price Range: $ ($6.60–$10.80 per bowl)
Halal: No
Ambience & Design
Yogurt Planet’s Millenia Walk outlet occupies a corner position with two-sided visibility — sensible retail strategy, and one that rewards the curious passerby. The interior is white-forward: white counters, white walls, white storage, interrupted only by the colours of the yoghurt itself and the vivid toppings lining the self-service station. The aesthetic is clinical in the best sense — clean, bright, unhurried. It invites lingering without demanding it.
The Meal
Stretchy Yoghurt — Emerald Flavour (Medium, $8.90)
The defining characteristic of Yogurt Planet’s product is, as advertised, its stretch: the yoghurt is prepared with a culture and technique that yields an extraordinary elasticity, pulling into long, glossy ribbons before separating. The texture is thick without heaviness — somewhere between Greek yoghurt and fresh mozzarella in its resistance — and the mouthfeel is cool, creamy, and remarkably clean on the palate. The Emerald flavour — a pale jade-green preparation with matcha-adjacent notes — is subtle enough to function as backdrop to the toppings.
The free-flow toppings station is the second half of the experience. One can construct a bowl of considerable complexity: fresh dragonfruit (magenta cubes against the pale green yoghurt, sweet and mildly vegetal), haw flakes (tart, papery, rust-red), flavoured sago balls (translucent spheres, faintly chewy, scattered like small planets), and mini cookies (golden, giving). The visual result is genuinely arresting — a palette of jewel tones against an ivory-green base.
Scores
Ambience ███████░░░ 7/10
Flavour ████████░░ 8/10
Texture Range █████████░ 9/10
Value █████████░ 9/10
Overall ████████░░ 8/10
06 · Lead General Hot Pot
Location: Tiong Bahru Plaza, #02-117
Cuisine: Chongqing Hotpot
Price Range: $$–$$$ (broths from $7++, proteins $24–$40++)
Halal: No
Ambience & Design
Hailing from the Ciqikou district in Chongqing — a neighbourhood of cobblestone alleys and tea houses — Lead General Hot Pot imports a sense of historical weight into its Tiong Bahru shopfront. The décor references Qing dynasty military aesthetics: brass insignia, dark timber furniture of slightly formal proportions, lanterns in deep red that cast the dining room in a warmth that the mala broth will soon echo. The four-compartment hotpot infrastructure — a deep cast-iron vessel fitted with a cross-partition — is itself a centrepiece, delivered to table on a raised platform, already steaming.
The Meal
General’s Inferno Spicy Beef Tallow Pot — $7++
The mala broth is the foundation on which all Chongqing hotpot is judged, and this one meets the standard with confidence. The surface is a deep brick-red, its fat pooling in orange slicks, disrupted by the bloom of dried chillies and Sichuan peppercorns breaking the surface. The heat is immediate and layered — first capsaicin, then the peculiar electric numbness of the peppercorns, then a sustained warmth that persists through the meal. The beef tallow contributes a round, animal richness that cheaper broths, made with vegetable oil, cannot replicate. Ingredients cooked in this broth absorb its character entirely.
General’s Fish Maw & Chicken Pot — $11++
The contrast between this and the mala pot is instructive. Here, the broth is a milky pale gold — translucent at the surface, cloudier in the depths — fragrant with a blend of over 25 herbs and spices. The flavour is nourishing and complex in the manner of a good Cantonese double-boiled soup: warming, slightly sweet, deeply savoury without any single note dominating. Fish maw, cooked in this medium, expands into soft, pillowy sheets that carry the broth’s flavour into each bite.
General’s Shrimp Paste & Signature Snowflake Wagyu
The shrimp paste ($24++) arrives hand-shaped into irregular spheres, their exterior slightly tacky, their interior dense and sweet with fresh prawn. Cooked in the mala broth, they develop a seared exterior while the interior remains just-set — a brief, pleasing texture. The Snowflake Wagyu ($40++) is the room’s prestige ingredient: sliced thin, its intramuscular fat visually resembling the frost-white patterning that gives it its name. Ten seconds in the broth is sufficient; the fat blooms and the flesh achieves that state of cooked-rare that makes the cut famous.
Scores
Ambience ████████░░ 8/10
Flavour █████████░ 9/10
Texture Range █████████░ 9/10
Value ████████░░ 8/10
Overall █████████░ 9/10
Closing Notes: What This Migration Means
Taken together, these fifteen establishments represent something more than a trend. They are evidence of a culinary self-confidence — China’s, and increasingly Singapore’s — in the seriousness with which cross-border F&B migration is now conducted. These are not approximations of Chinese cuisine recalibrated for export; they are, in most cases, the precise articles.
Of the six restaurants reviewed in depth, Ban Lan and The Soup Expert stand as the most essential — one for its technical ambition and provenance, the other for the quiet, daily pleasure of a meal that genuinely restores. LONGJING earns distinction for design intelligence and the Leifeng Pagoda dessert alone. Lead General Hot Pot makes the strongest case for hotpot as a considered dining form rather than a casual format. Xita Lao Tai Tai is the correct answer to the question of where to take someone who requires spectacle alongside substance. Yogurt Planet is a joy, and joy requires no apology.
“To eat seriously is not to be solemn. It is simply to pay attention.”
— End of Survey —
All prices are subject to change. None of these restaurants are halal-certified. Reviews reflect a single visit and the assessor’s subjective experience.