New & Noted Restaurants

The COOK

What: A new breed of hotel dining

Where: 1388 Huamu Lu, near Fangdian Lu. Tel: 6169 8886

Why: There’s an entire room of cheese. What more incentive do you need?

Too often all-day dining restaurants in hotels conjure up images of limp vegetables kept lukewarm under a heat lamp. Not so with the newly-opened Kerry Hotel, a five-star establishment that manages to break the mould right down to its F&B outlets.

The COOK imports cuisines from around the world to make up its ‘theatre dining kitchens’, but that’s where the similarities to its F&B peers end. Instead of an all-you-can-eat affair, diners are armed with a swipe-as-you-go card, assigned to not just your table, but your seat as well, ensuring your organic salad doesn’t land on little Johnny’s placemat when it’s delivered to your table.

Each station (and there’s 11, for those who are counting) is manned by a preternaturally friendly group of chefs – from the fromager who espouses poetry about the manchego in the cheese room to the sushi master who reaffirms your every sashimi decision with an approving hai! There’s so much quality and variety even the pickiest of eaters and the snobbiest of gourmands will find something to love.

Take the Curry Laksa. The best hawkers from the markets in Malaysia were hand-picked for the Asian Noodle station where they deliver their signature street food with five-star ingredients. The result? A bowl of unparalleled flavour. Charcoal roasted chicken wings from the Chinese Station rightfully garner lines of swipers who can’t resist ordering a chicken coop worth of the chili sauce and lime seasoned poultry. The Western station delivers hearty portions of meat and potatoes, from ribeyes and lamb chops to truffle fries and mash. Toro flown in fresh three times a week from the Tsukiji market, coffee beans ground on site, an entire leg of Iberico ham – the culinary wonders never cease.

The best part? It’s all cooked-to-order and delivered piping hot by service staff who flit from station to table. If this is hotel dining, sign me up.