By day, Tian Kian Tat is not a chef, he’s an IT specialist. But the tall, smiling Singaporean loves food so much that, along with a few friends, he has opened a tiny restaurant to serve as an outlet for his culinary creativity. At night, he becomes the patron of 5 Tables (it literally has five tables — room for around 12 diners) and unleashes his passion for feeding people. Whether walking in for the first time alone or as a repeat customer, Tian greets all diners like old friends whose bellies are to be made full and where wine glasses are to be kept brimming.
The dinner menu is short, made up of four mains plus a choice of starter, soup and dessert (RMB150/three courses). A sample starter is six seared Dalian scallops, sweet beneath their sprinkling of curry powder, served above little yin-yangs of cauliflower and caper puree with a swirl of spicy lobster oil. Their subtle, creamy pumpkin soup also stands out from other offerings around town. Tian puts together a surprisingly sophisticated menu, and a competent Chinese chef in the kitchen (he previously cooked at Maison Pourcel) executes them, for the most part, beautifully. We were blown away one night by a piece of tender cod napped with anchovy cream sauce and served over a bed of luminous, fresh corn-potato mash mixed with earthy enoki mushrooms. At lunch (RMB58/78 for two courses), it was a capably cooked, smoky sea bream poised over an elegant bowl of subtle, creamy pesto studded with tender cubes of potato and carrot.
Not everything was perfect. A lunch of seafood pasta sported curls of cuttlefish just a bit past prime and a too-sweet tomato sauce. A well-flavored apple, pear and peach crumble still felt a bit amateur despite the flourish of candied rose petals and fruit caviar. However, these hiccups never marred our overall experience because Kian’s passion is addictive. What he has created is accessible upscale dining at its best — fine without being precious and comfortable without being sloppy. Eating here is like being invited into Tian’s exclusive dining room and treated like the world is yours.
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