Tembusu features a Straits cuisine menu designed by fine-dining trained chefs.
Tembusu alfresco and indoor dining areas are pet-friendly.
Tembusu is located at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
The alumni of one of Singapore’s most acclaimed fine-dining restaurants reunite for the opening of Tembusu — a new Straits cuisine restaurant modernising the flavours of nostalgia.
Tembusu, a new restaurant specialising in Straits cuisine, has sprouted in the Singapore Botanical Gardens. Hidden within the greenery of the Ginger Garden, Tembusu takes its name from the tembusu tree, an evergreen variety native to Singapore that’s recognised for its majestic scale and resilience towards challenging environments. For the restaurant, the tree represents “a symbol of strength, rootedness and continuity — much like the stories that bring us together across generations.”
This restaurant opening marks the reunion of Dome Lim, Group Executive Chef of the Fleursophy Group, and Lime Koh, Tembusu’s Head Chef, who were culinary-school classmates and early colleagues at the acclaimed Les Amis. Now, in this latest chapter for both chefs, their next step with Tembusu involves modernising the familiar flavours of Straits cuisine without taking away what makes it taste like home.
For the uninitiated, Straits cuisine, also known as Peranakan cuisine, is a uniquely Southeast Asian food tradition that blends the flavours and cooking techniques from Chinese, Malay, and Indonesian cultures. Amongst its most popular dishes are buah keluak chicken and laska — the latter happens to be one of Tembusu’s signature dishes.
The restaurant’s rendition of the spicy noodle dish combines udon noodles with an aromatic seafood broth, and premium ingridients such as Andaman sea prawns and sakura ebi. Other dishes nostalgic to Singapore include their Homemade Kaya Pullman Loaf, featuring slices of toasted bread layered with French butter and coconut jam, plated on fine china, paired with two soft-boiled eggs.
Tembusu joins the growing number of dining spots finding their roots at Singapore Botanical Gardens. Between fine-dining at Pangium and casual cafés such as Bloomhouse by Little Farms, this new pet-friendly restaurant is making a strong case for reframing the UNESCO-listed attraction as the next ultimate dining destination.
Where: Tembusu, Singapore Botanical Gardens, Cluny Road, Singapore
When: Daily from 8am to 9pm
Contact: https://tembusu.sg