Top table: Burnt Ends
Could this be the home of Singapore’s most sought-after steak? Pat Nourse gets the lowdown.
Burnt Ends? That’s Texas brisket, isn’t it? Yes it is but that’s not what Burnt Ends (burnt ends.com.sg) does. Singapore is about as far from Texas as a place can be and chef Dave Pynt grew up in Perth, earned his grill stripes in Spain, found a following doing pop-ups in East London then moved to South-East Asia to open this restaurant in Singapore’s Chinatown in 2013. So the chef doesn’t mess with Texas? Indeed. Burnt Ends calls itself a “modern Australian barbecue” restaurant. Burnt onions, snags with holes stabbed in them, white bread, that sort of thing?
Though the Ends came in at number 10 on the 2019 Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, chef Pynt is adamant it isn’t fine dining. In the long, narrow room, most seating is arranged bar-style around the open kitchen to offer a good view of the custom-made grills and a four-tonne dual oven of Pynt’s design, fired with coal or almond or apple wood. From these come tasty things big and small. You’ll find hot little potato cakes topped with raw Wagyu – a two-bite play on steak and chips. A line of smoke ties a soft-yolked quail egg to a healthy dollop of caviar, while a dusting of white pepper and some charred green onion make a luxury of grilled chicken necks. Hello, yes. What about the bigger stuff?
Pynt and his crew roast a hell of a good chook, throw whole king crabs on the grill and offer a host of meats priced by the 100 grams. That could be onglet with burnt onion and bone marrow, Western Plains pork tomahawk, beef from Victorian cattle farmer David Blackmore (including ribs that have been dry-aged for up to 63 days) and, for the real baller move, striploin that clocks in at SGD$65 (about $69) per 100 grams. Is there anything for those who blink when faced with steak priced at almost $700 a kilogram? The Burnt Ends’ sanger: pulled pork shoulder, coleslaw and chipotle aïoli. What about something for diners who don’t dig on swine? Some of Burnt Ends’ stand-outs are vegetal: garlic shoots and gremolata or a classic pairing of eggplant and miso. The blackened leek showered in hazelnut and black truffle is no slouch, either. Crikey. What’s for dessert? Marshmallow on a stick?
Bingo. And what a marshmallow. Or the berry tart. But why choose when you can order both?