LOCAL Restaurant & Bar @ 30 Bencoolen: Lunar New Year 2018 Set Menu

Recently opened in November 2017, 30 Bencoolen Hotel has opened its doors to guests who want the ease of convenience. It is located near 3 MRT stations – Bencoolen MRT, Bras Basah MRT and Dhoby Ghaut MRT – all a walking distance away. Just from the outside, this hotel stands out with its stylish steel exteriors towering up 15 levels.

Pictures of the rooftop pool.

LOCAL Restaurant & Bar is located right next to 30 Bencoolen Hotel Lobby. With an open concept, this modern restaurant has such a friendly and welcoming environment, even allowing you to people watch while having your lunch here with your friends or family. Besides serving a breakfast buffet for the hotel guests in the morning, they open for Lunch (12.00PM – 2.30PM) and Dinner (6.30PM – 10.30PM) too.

LOCAL Interior

This Chinese New Year, Chef Elvin at LOCAL has launched a Set Menu available for dine-in only, from 1 February 2018 to 2 March 2018, that has elevated our usual Chinese dishes to a whole other level. Even though there is a fusion of cuisines, he has kept the popular CNY dishes we are ever so familiar with. All dishes can be ordered a la carte too.

To make Yu Sheng at this restaurant stand out, the Chef decided to put smoked Norwegian salmon into a tomato liquid jelly, which is konjac jelly infused with tomato, a popular western technique. When tossing the 30 Bencoolen “Sure HUAT” Yu Sheng, it looks as if these fishes are jumping around!

For the sauces, Chef has done a 6-hour process of infusing herbs into the Herb Oil he uses to drizzle on the Yu Sheng. Also, instead of using the usual sweet plum sauce, he has used a special Spring Onion & Ginger dressing for a savoury taste. If you were one of those that didn’t eat much of the Yu Sheng as it was too sweet, this might be fitting for your taste buds.
On top of that, he made gold chocolate coins – you can only tell how much effort was put into this Yu Sheng.

LOCAL 30 Bencoolen “Sure HUAT” Yu Sheng

Price: $39.80++ (6 pax)/ $69.80++ (10 pax)
Taste: 4/5
Heat: 0/5

Something I will never get sick of is this Special Stuffed Whole Suckling Pig (Boneless) – this milk-fed suckling pig was stuffed with glutinous rice.

Bringing the whole dish together was the Chef’s homemade caramelised pineapple sauce with hoisin sauce that was a perfect balance of sweet and savoury. The redness from the meat is due to the fact it was cured, and together with the glutinous rice, this dish was just so addictive. Advanced order of 3 working days is required for this dish.

Price: $250++ (10-15 pax)
Taste: 5/5
Heat: 0/5

Most of us are probably familiar with roasted chicken served in Chinese Restaurants, but the Chef once again decided to elevate it to the In-House Roasted Organic Corn Fed Chicken with Crispy Garlic, Almond and Prawn Cracker. Using a five spice marinate, this chicken was then sous vide to keep it tender and juicy while still having the crispy golden-brown skin we all live for.
To westernise this dish, homemade crepes with garnish are given for you to wrap your chicken with. As you can probably tell from now, the Chef loves making the most impressive sauces and the black bean sauce for this dish is no different. This mayo-based sauce complemented the chicken well, and fun fact – the sauce doesn’t drip when flipped!

Price: $39.80++
Taste: 4/5
Heat: 0/5

First thing I thought of when I saw this dish was: My grandma might actually like eating pasta now. The Drunken “Master” Tiger Prawn Linguine was a soup based dish infused with Shao Hsing “Hua Diao” Wine, Chinese herbs, cilantro, spring onion. Instead of using the usual Chinese types of noodle, the Chef decided to use Linguine! I just love how this dish was so suitable for both young and old. Plus, did I mention how fresh and juicy the deep sea tiger prawns were?

Price: $32.80++ (6 pax)/ $56.80++ (10 pax)
Taste: 4/5
Heat: 1/5

Ending off with desserts, the Chef still kept things traditional with a Chinese-inspired dessert – Sweetness of Great Harvest. This reminded me of orh nee (yam paste) but an even better version of it. In the bowl is a puree of sweet potato, pumpkin and yam, topped with gingko nuts. There are 2 dishes on the side – Coconut Milk Ice Cream and Glutinous Rice Ball.
This dessert was so interactive as you can eat it 3 ways, here’s how:
1) Have a taste of the puree alone.
2) Pour the ice cream into the puree and mix well.
3) When halfway through, place the Glutinous Rice Ball in and break open (watch the black sesame filling flow out) and mix well.
My favourite way was probably the warm puree with the cold refreshing ice cream, I’m drooling just thinking about it again.

Price: $28.80++ (6 pax)/ $45.80++ (10 pax)
Taste: 5/5
Heat: 1/5