The Michelin Guide is a highly coveted honour for any restaurant. In a ceremony held in Singapore on Tuesday, several gourmet dining places, moderately priced eateries and hawker stalls were recognised by the prestigious platform.
On Tuesday, the official Michelin website revealed in a statement that there are 56 restaurants that hold at least one star in the city this year, compared to 52 in 2022. While there were no additions to the two or three-star categories, five restaurants—Born, Poise, Seroja, Sushi Sakuta and Willow—were awarded one Michelin star for the first time.
The biggest winner of the night was the restaurant Seroja, which focuses on Malaysian cuisine. It’s the first eatery in Singapore to win an acclaimed green star. It was lauded for its sustainable approach which includes creating non-alcoholic beverages with vegetable trimmings. The restaurant was bestowed a one Michelin star, with chef and owner Kevin Wong receiving the Young Chef trophy for the year.
“It’s a great feeling and good assurance for my team. Cooking cuisine from my own culture is something to be proud of,” said Malaysia-born Wong to the Singapore-based newspaper Straits Times on scoring a hat-trick.
On 15 June, the Michelin Guide also unveiled 17 new establishments selected for the Bib Gourmand, which recognizes restaurants that offer value-for-money experiences. More than half of these were hawker stalls. Some of the hawker stalls that feature on the list are Kwee Heng, Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee, Beach Road Fish Head Bee Hoon, and Du Du Shou Shi. These stalls are famous for dishes like sliced fish bee hoon, consisting of fish with rice vermicelli, stir-fried noodles, braised duck rice, and tu tu kueh, a type of steamed rice cake.
Along with the Young Chef trophy, two other special prizes were given, one for the best service and another for the best sommelier. Desmond Wong from the two Michelin-starred restaurant Shoukouwa was lauded for impeccable service, while Makoto Iwabuchi from the one Michelin-starred Sushi Sakuta went home with the trophy for best sommelier.
