Best New Restaurant

Whey

There was a huge shock when Barry Quek shuttered Beet, his debut restaurant, in

April 2020. Thankfully, after spending two short stints as a pseudo laksa hawker with Basehall (by launching Return of Lemak) and J.A.M. (with Uncle Quek, offering more street food flavours), the young Singaporean chef has made a bold statement with his modern interpretation of his home cuisine. Whey, opened in collaboration with ZS Hospitality, is a restaurant offering an entirely different culinary education when it comes to Straits flavours, where they meld and combine with Quek’s modern European training for dishes that are understated yet incredibly complex on the palate. Huge successes that get people talking are the housemade brioche and buah keluak emulsion, tender New Territories pork with bak kut teh aromatics, and a divisive but no less creative Mao Shan Wang durian ice cream with Kristal caviar. It’s this culinary verve that has cemented Quek as one of the city’s most innovative chefs and Whey as a hotspot for adventurous diners.