SHISEN HANTEN BY CHEF KENTARO

Mandarin Orchard Singapore, Level 35, 333 Orchard Road, S(238867)

TEL: 6831 6262/66 shisenhanten.com.sg

The London roast duck, while not Sichuanese, is tender, with a good layer of fat under a nicely crispy skin. The sautéed chilli peppers and chicken is like a ramped-up version of popcorn chicken. The hot-and-sour soup’s dominant flavours are salt and pepper, but it improves as it cools down with the acidity, helping to amplify the sourness. Better than the soups is the wok-fried fish with shishito peppers, which has a beautifully nuanced broth that turns it into a facsimile of a soup, filled with lotus root and floral peppers, with a pleasing sourness.