Wow. Burnt Ends. It’s been on my list for a very long time, to the point where I’d made it a running joke that I’d always “try” to get to Burnt Ends on every Singapore trip but then never end up doing so.

However since this was an intentional trip, I decided to see just how good my restaurant booking skills were. They don’t advertise on their website how their bookings get released (at least not that what I could find), and sleuthing on Google turned out to be only partially accurate.

I did manage to use my fancy restaurant sense to guess, and managed to get it right! From my powers of observation, they release tables on a rolling 45 days in advance at 10AM Singapore time! Huzzah!

I did scope out the location a little earlier, since they’d changed locations between me first learning about them and finally making this booking. It’s a little bit in the middle of nowhere (read: it felt like a mini resort with food and wellness), but close to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The bakery, restaurant, and bar are all in one neat spot!

I loved choosing the chef’s table to eat at, and was greeted by the chef in charge (not Mr Pynt, but definitely looked like he was running the show). Since I chose the chefs menu (it was too hard to decide a la carte!), he asked me how hungry I was, on a scale of 1 - 10. Luckily I hadn’t eaten too much beforehand, but it’s hard to gauge exactly what the scale means in various restaurants, so I baselined 10 as “leaving the restaurant and eating a cheeseburger”, and said 9. A fist bump from the chef signalled the beginning of the feast!

Their drinks menu is predominantly alcoholic, but on the last page they say they can make most mocktails. I spotted two signature cocktails, I didn’t take a photo of the drinks menu but this one that I started with, was a savoury version. I asked for it non alcoholic and the main ingredients are olive, pickle juice, lemon, with a salt rim. It was fantastic! I finally got a drink with pickle juice in it haha. It was so good that I felt I was drinking it too fast, the diner beside me had a cocktail and was drinking at a much slower pace! But I looove pickle juice!

The first dish, smoked quail egg and caviar. How cute, it fits on a spoon! They had so many of these prepped for tonight, and it was recommended to eat it in one bite since the yolks are soft boiled. That was some really great soft boiled-ness!

Grissini and taramasalata. Look at these chives! These chives are chopped so much better than the ones at Maison Boulud! This was actually a fairly large looking piece even though the bread was so thin! But it held together well while eating.

Look at this sneaky shot! The lighting down on the bread and quail egg station just makes the loaf stand out, so I couldn’t resist taking a picture of it. Also, the chefs were slicing this bread using a normal knife, not a serrated bread knife, it was fascinating! They were slicing it super thin for all the appetisers that were served on toast. It was also interesting seeing one chef instruct the other on how to cut the toast to the right size for the toppings!

Yes!! This was the dish I really wanted! The steak frites, and they also gave me the fish and chips! I love the look of the steak frites. So tiny, fancy, and luxurious! But funnily enough it was the fish and chips I loved more! There was a lot more flavour to it, since the fish looks like it was marinated, whereas the wagyu was mostly shining by itself. And that potato! So crispy on the outside, and on the inside it was that smooth waxy texture that I love.

The beef and uni was something I requested specifically, because I know I would love this combo! It was a sweet and creamy uni, and a gorgeous piece of fatty beef!

I also requested the duck heart, because it’s incredibly hard to find duck hearts. It was very tender and went so well with the sauce! And again, look at those chives, so nicely cut!

It was funny because at this point a diner seated next to me started talking to me, asking if I was liking my meal so far. Turns out this was a regular, and so there was a lot of banter between him and the chef! The regular was joking that I didn’t actually like the food that much, but the chef countered that he always knows! Part of the shenanigans also included the chef giving the regular a burger and saying it was from the kids’ menu!

Oooh a tempura eggplant dish! This was described as eggplant and miso, but what really stood out to me was the spices that that the eggplant was garnished with. They were packed full of flavour and tasted so good! Funnily enough, I wasn’t a fan of the eggplant itself, since I’ve spoiled myself with rosa bianca eggplants which have the kind of texture I love - any other type of eggplant won’t do!

Pork taco time! This was an item that wasn’t on the menu so it must have been a special that night, and it ran out fairly quickly. I’m pretty sure I heard all the chefs say that they were out about an hour into service. They make and press all the tortillas in the kitchen, that was pretty cool to watch!

Eel and bone marrow on toast! It was hard to take a shot of this since it was pretty much black on black, but it tasted really good! This is one of the toast dishes that I saw the chefs slice the loaf of bread really thinly for!

I’d finally finished the first mocktail so I asked if their other signature cocktail could be made non alcoholic. I definitely liked the olive-pickle-juice one better, as this one was more on the sweet side. The waitstaff did mention that this one wouldn’t taste like the alcoholic version and would lack some intended smokiness and creaminess, but I was okay with that, it’s all part of the differences between an alcoholic vs non alcoholic version. It was still nice though, and I imagine it’d be great for people who want a slightly sweet mocktail. And they brand their ice cubes!

Ok, you can’t tell from the photo, but this was a pretty big scallop! Bigger than the Rottnest Island scallops for sure. This was a scottish scallop with a sauce made out of its frills, topped with crunchy crumbs and shiso. I absolutely loved this dish, but when would I never not like scallops!

Ha! Also not on the menu, this was maitake mushroom congee. And the most interesting thing about this dish? It’s made me want to try risotto again. For me, congee is more watery/soupy, both from the hawker centres and how I make it at home. But this rice had an aspect of al dente-ness to it, which which was actually really nice, which makes me wonder if I now have a changed perspective on risotto - a dish that I’ve never actually liked that much because something about the rice texture was never to my liking. Interesting, right? I’m glad I got given such a large piece of mushroom for one person, since I love mushrooms!

Ok, what even! After I’d finished the congee, I got given a lobster pick. I started laughing to myself, because I remember seeing marron on the menu, and I was in disbelief that they would give me either half or a whole marron - surely not? And, coming from the land of marron, I couldn’t help but think, I can buy live ones and cook them myself. However, what I got was far more amazing! I was genuinely surprised and impressed when a gigantic oval plate came out with a huge crab leg on it! This was the prize!

This was a Japanese king crab leg, and oh my goodness it was drenched in butter, garlic, and capers. It was so incredibly good, and after struggling to use the lobster pick, I decided to dig in with my hands and teeth instead, which proved to be much more effective! The staff were also prepared for this alternate strategy, because they gave me the little magical expanding towel! However with the sheer amount of butter everywhere, that poor little towel wasn’t enough, so it made sense for me to wash my hands properly in the bathroom! This was soo good, and the hilarious thing is that looking back at the receipt, this (half serve) was about the same price as the tiny morsel of beef and uni from earlier. How crazy!

And the final savoury course. Of course it would be steak! A gorgeous 100g onglet steak with salad. I am very glad that I received this cut, I’m all about those more sinewy, flanky cuts because they taste so good! I was definitely really full at this point and wondered how I was going to fit any more food. I was definitely counting on dessert going into my second stomach!

While I was waiting for dessert, a couple had been seated beside me and had started ordering their dishes. During the lull they asked me how everything was and what my favourite dish was so far. The crab claw was so impressive that I definitely mentioned that one, and to my surprise, the chef had leaned over the counter and was listening intently to what I had to say! What a hilarious moment! So memorable!

A number of desserts had started going out a while before I finished all my savoury courses so I could see the lineup of desserts. I wondered which I would get, and made an educated guess that it would probably be the chocolate fondant. However, I couldn’t rule out the cheesecake. I was fairly certain it wouldn’t be the tarte tartin. I guess this is me profiling chefs profiling me? To reach that kind of conclusion! What does that mean? I have a theory that there’s an assumption that women order chocolate desserts, because a number of times, I’ve had a male friend order chocolate desserts, while I’ve ordered a fruit based dessert, and every time I’ve been handed the wrong one and had to do a swap haha. So I think usually people order the other way around, but it’s definitely a generalisation!

And I got the chocolate fondant! Yay! This was so good and the molten inside oozed out after cutting through the fairly solid but giving shell! And the smoked ice cream definitely really smelled like smoke, it was amazing! It was reminiscent of the smoked eggplant ice cream that I had at Ginza Midai! My goodness I was so full, I thought that was the end!

So you can imagine my shock when I realised that there were still petit fours to finish off the night! Oh no how was I supposed to eat more delicious food! I loved the look of the citrus burnt marshmallow, I called it poop on a stick and had a good giggle! The others were a financier, white chocolate, and a pate de fruit! I was so done after this!

495SGD later, I had definitely eaten too much! But apparently that might not have even been the most expensive restaurant meal I’ve had! I think it’s superseded by Waku Ghin, and Inua being the most expensive? I’m starting to lose track! It was a really great night and a standout was definitely the energy at the chef’s table and the fact that the main chef was so interactive! I got so many fist bumps and even a hi five at the end, it was just as great as when I got to shake Lennox Hastie’s hand! I’m such a fangirl haha. Definitely a great experience! Remind me next time that I should max out at about 7/10 in terms of hunger though!

Burntendsburntendsburntends