NEW MENU 

Melting Pot Café 
The Holiday Inn Atrium’s executive chef Daniel Koh travelled all the way to Melaka to learn the secrets of Peranakan cooking from a reallife bibik (a notoriously secretive species when it comes to their recipes). The results can be tasted in a daily lunch buffet that includes itik tim, babi pongteh, ayam buah keluak and kueh pie tee. Average mains $18

Post Bar
Busy suits can now grab lunch (and a drink) in Post Bar at The Fullerton Hotel and dash. Fast service is promised, while the menu includes Creole prawns; fatoush salads; an oddly named ‘One Pan Full O’ English’ (a cast iron pan crowded with bacon and eggs, potatoes, roasted tomatoes and onions); and a ‘Posh Chicken Bun’ (a ciabatta enfolding a deepfried, corn-breaded chicken breast and Parma). 

BACK IN BUSINESS 

Aurum
After a short run in the muchmaligned wheelchairs and morgue/ surgery setting, Aurum has reopened in smaller and less grim premises around the corner. Billed as one of Singapore’s ‘first avant-garde and post-modern cuisine’ restaurants, Aurum’s M.O. fuses molecular gastronomy with Asian flavours. This translates into dishes like foie gras cooked in Armagnac and soaked in liquid nitrogen, and abalone poached at 60 degrees for four hours. 
Average mains $50. 

Dharma’s Kebabs at BQ Bar
When Dharma’s closed a couple of years ago, we were a little distraught. Its fragrant kebabs and soft naans hot from the tandoor were a mainstay between noisy Friday night drinking sessions at Boat Quay. The good news is that it’s back, including the chickpea onion patties, fish and chicken tikka, huge chunks of beef tenderloin, and fat naan rolls of lamb served with thick potato wedges and curry sauce. Average mains $16 (no GST or service charges). 

JUST OPENED 

Majestic Bar
Enid Blyton is spinning in her grave. A bar inspired by one of the most beloved English fairy-tale writers of our time? The new Majestic Bar, in a restored colonial shophouse next to the Majestic Hotel, is styled as a ‘metaphor of an enchanted forest experience inspired by Enid Blyton’. This translates into a decor of a tree trunk, branches and leaves rising through the three-storey building. Throw in a drinks menu with names like Hunk Martini, Absinthe Without Leave and Bumble Bee, and you have an ending you don’t find in most bedtime stories. 
Average drinks $12-$35.