TOGETHER WE FEAST

May your long-awaited festive blow-out be one of a new culinary discovery at one of these local debuts or reinvented establishments.

- NAFEESA SAINI, JOCELYN TAN and YANNI TAN

LA D'ORO 

Mandarin Gallery #01-16/17, ladoro.sg 

Chef Yohhei Sasaki, previously of il Cielo, has set up shop in a new locale: La D'Oro, located at Mandarin Gallery. The renowned Japanese chef has more than 20 years of experience and is now zeroing in on Japanese-Italian cuisine.

Highlighting the intersection of both cuisines with the best of seasonal produce from both countries, chef Sasaki deftly intertwines Japanese precision with the flavours and generosity of Italian cooking.

La D'Oro puts comfort first. The chef's signature Linguine with Hokkaido Sea Urchin sees a rich uni sauce coating each pasta strand, elevated with yuzu juice to lighten up the dish. Look forward to the all-day dining menu with each item created with distinctive inspiration, such as Japanese Sakoshi Bay oysters, Insalata Caprese, Tagliatelle Hokkaido Snow Beef A5 Bolognese and Pizza Bismarck.

The restaurant is impressively sleek, with palazzo bi-fold doors, banquette seating, warm light fixtures and a large wine cellar housing close to 400 renowned Italian names. It also houses a hidden 12-seater omakase space called La D'Oro Fine Dining. It is here that he showcases the best of his Italian Japanese cuisine according to the season.

Every omakase experience here ends with the 'Secret Noodles'. The spin on Aglio Olio omits the olive oil and instead uses a house-made stock derived from simmering chicken, kombu, niboshi (dried sardine) and vegetables for eight hours. A firm 100 per cent semolina flour pasta is cooked in the stock. Slurp it with chopsticks, ramen-style.

OCEAN RESTAURANT

Equarius Hotel, BIM West Car Park & Sentosa Gateway, rwsentosa.com/oceanrestaurant