Halia which means “ginger” in Malay, is also the name of a popular restaurant located in the Botanic Gardens. And the Botanic Gardens is really known for two things. For having lots of plants and for being not very easy to get to.
Lucky for us, Halia opened a second branch more conveniently located in Raffles Hotel two years ago. Most Singaporeans did not know this, and even if they did the atas vibe of Raffles Hotel combined with Halia’s classy ambience may have scared some away. In truth, prices here are affordable, in the range of $40-68 per person.
Halia at Raffles Hotel had a simple goal – to make their European with Asian touches cuisine more accessible to Singaporeans. They had originally focused on the ginger theme associated with their namesake, but have since taken on new themes which has differentiated themselves from their flagship restaurant at the Botanic Gardens.
We were here recently to check out their new communal dinner priced at $270 for 4 people.
Christabel holding up a Chilli Crab baguette!
While we were here, we saw two very big groups enjoying their dinner. It looked like the communal menu got on well with the working crowd in the area. Oh and here’s a tip – if you order a Singapore Sling at Halia, something special happens. No, we’re not telling you what!
Anyway, here’s a look at Halia’s communal dining menu.
The Lemongrass here was extraordinary. I think we drank 5 cups between the two of us. So make sure you get that instead of the common iced tea. The cauliflower soup did not leave much of an impression. I enjoyed the goat’s cheese but my dining companions didn’t really touch it.
The house smoked salmon pate came in a smoke-emitting instagram worthy jar.
Lastly, their signature Chilli Crab dip was a real treat to have. The firmer texture of the baguette finally answered the question “Why do people only use man tous with chilli crab?”. It was a feeling I was unaccustomed to and I’ll rather have my man tous over the baguettes any day. But it was interesting to try it out and the chilli crab dip was divine so I’m not complaining.
Overall, we were off to a good start!
The Zhajiangmian here was very interesting. Instead of noodles, they had vegetables drenched in Zhajiangmian sauce. As Head Chef Ciaran Armstrong explained, it’s a dish you’ll either love or hate. I give the chef props for creativity but I did not enjoy it.
What I loved the here was the twice-cooked spatchcock of spring chicken. Whenever I cook things twice they come out burnt and dry. Oh well I guess that is why I am not a chef. It was the mixture of extreme tenderness and lightly roaster flavour that made it so good.
A whole lot of preparation goes into The Gunpowder’ Wagyu, which is marinated for 4-6 hours before being cooked sous-vide for over 30 minutes. It was good enough to be eaten without the sauce. I let the chef know how good the accompanying whipped potato was he told me how their flagship store had just asked him for his recipe!
So yes, Chef Armstrong is really big on experimenting with ingredients, and he was sharing with us how he took a year to perfect one of his recipes. You don’t want to know what goes into his sauce because its complexity alone will scare you.
The Coconut parfait looked nice but felt a tad dry and crumbled too easily. The chocolate sticky toffee pudding was a huge hit with all of us, with the butterscotch sauce being the perfect accompaniment to the sea salt and vanilla ice cream.
We first visited Halia two years ago while doing a feature for our “Mad for Singapore” Korean travel guide. I remember my first experience was magical – I loved every dish I had.
Ever since then, we had returned multiple times on own with our friends. It was one of our favourite restaurants to go to in the city because of its classy ambience, good food and convenient location.
This time there were some hits and misses, but I’ll still be recommending my friends to give Halia a try. Their communal menu serves a total of 12 dishes making it extremely good value for money. It’s one of those places suitable for savouring a fine dinner in the company of your friends.
The good food paired with their sophisticated dining environment, makes it one of my favourite restaurants to go to in the city. Especially when I want to take someone “somewhere nice”, without having to break the bank.
The communal menu is available daily from 6pm – 10:30pm.
Address: 1 Beach Road, #01-22/23, Raffles Hotel, Singapore 189673
#3 has free massages, cooking utensils, and wine.
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