Let’s not waste time. I avoid course meals in Singapore. There is too much effort poured into dishes that vanish in a single bite. You pay a premium for tweezers, pacing, and plating. You leave unsatisfied. I prefer food with substance. I want to eat, not be entertained.
I broke my rule for Belimbing. The restaurant operates under the Lo and Behold Group. That corporate detail did not sway me. What swayed me was the kitchen. Head Chef Marcus used to cook at Naked Finn. Naked Finn is one of my most frequented seafood places. I know their sourcing. I trust their execution. When they cook a fish, they respect the fish. I expected Belimbing to carry that same respect into a tasting menu format.
Boy, was I wrong.
The entire meal proved me right about the flaws of course meals. Too much effort for too little value. Let me walk you through the dinner.
It started with an amuse-bouche. Chopped tuna, marinated and placed on a piece of bread. It was not even mid. I did not know what I was eating. Good raw tuna has a clean, metallic sweetness. It should taste like the cold ocean. Here, the marinade buried the fish completely. The bread offered no meaningful textural contrast.
It just sat there. The bite lacked purpose.
The appetizers followed. The kitchen leaned heavily into local profiles. They paired elements of laksa, curry, and assam with premium seafood. We had a grilled Spanish octopus. The char was decent. The tentacle had a slight resistance before yielding to the teeth. The familiar local flavor worked well against the smoke. The taste was good. But the portion was horrendously small.
One bite. Gone. It was a tease, not a dish.
Then came a raw shima aji. They placed the sliced fish inside a tomato and poured a green sauce over it. This dish confused me. A good chef knows how to highlight the star of the plate. Here, the hierarchy was completely broken, something you rarely see in Singapore’s top chef-driven dining experience where the ingredient is always the point. Was I supposed to focus on the clean fat of the shima aji? The sharp acidity of the tomato? The herbal notes of the green sauce? They fought each other on the palate.
The fish tasted lost. Clean flavors require clear intention.
This dish had none.
The meal shifted to two bowls of soup. The first was a clam custard. It looked and felt like a standard steamed egg. It came dressed with an assam pedas sauce. The execution of the custard was technically fine, but the pairing felt forced.
The sour, fiery punch of the assam pedas dominated the delicate egg. Whatever clam flavor existed in the bowl disappeared completely. It was just heat and acid. Next was the Choux Farci. It featured grilled cabbage with fermented mushroom and daylily.
It existed. I ate it. It left zero impression.
Then came the mains. The first was a Crispy Scale Marble Goby. It sat in a pool of candlenut and cashew nut curry, finished with a seaweed laksa verde. Let’s be honest. Frying the scales of a marble goby is a Naked Finn invention (probably by Marcus himself i guess?). It is nothing new to anyone who eats there.
The fish itself was cooked well. The scales stood up and shattered correctly in the mouth. The flesh was moist. But the sauces ruined the plate. Candlenut, cashew, laksa verde. It was entirely too complicated. A rich, fatty fish needs something sharp and acidic to cut through it. Instead, it drowned in heavy, competing, nutty fats.
The second main was a Carrara Wagyu Tri Tip Steak. It was too chewy. Tri tip is a lean cut. It needs careful handling, precise slicing, and perfect heat to break down the muscle fibers. This felt rushed. My jaw worked much harder than it should have.
They served it alongside a coconut curry, a curry leaf matah, and some kangkong. It was just weird. The beef did not belong with these sides. The flavors refused to marry. It felt like two different meals forced onto the same plate.
Following the Naked Finn tradition, the savory courses ended with carbs. A claypot rice. It was topped with confit squid, buah keluak, and pomelo. The squid was tender. The buah keluak provided a dark, earthy base.
The pomelo offered a brief hit of acid. But altogether, it was nothing to shout about. It lacked the deep, foundational crust and smoky wok hei of a proper claypot rice. It just filled the stomach. Barely.
Dessert arrived. I ate it. I do not even remember what it was. That tells you everything you need to know about how the meal ended. A forgettable finish to a confusing dinner.
The whole experience felt like a shadow of Naked Finn. A much more expensive, lesser shadow. The menu at Belimbing tries too hard to elevate local flavors but loses the essence of the primary ingredients in the process. It feels like an exercise in over-complication. It was not fulfilling. It was expensive. The flavor combinations were simply weird.
The pacing of the service was standard. The room functioned as it should. But what good is pacing when the portions leave you hollow?
I walked out of the restaurant. I was still hungry. That is the ultimate failure of any restaurant. I had to go downstairs to The Coconut Club. Ironically, it is owned by the exact same restaurant group. I sat down and ordered satay just to feel satisfied. I ate four sticks. The bill for the satay was around $24. Mindblowingly expensive for skewered meat. But at least I knew what I was eating. At least the intention was clear.
I think I will skip course meals in the future. Good food needs no explanation. Belimbing spent the entire night explaining itself, and I left unconvinced.
At least the place was pretty.
If you want good seafood, go to Naked Finn.
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