The Future Of Dining In Singapore Is At New Bahru

Forbes

17-07-2025

Pasta at Somma is a beautiful blend of land and sea.
This is a story about food and culture and real estate, so let's start with some context, with the foundation, if you will.
There are influential hospitality groups around the world, like Major Food Group in New York and Miami, JKS Restaurants in London and Black Sheep Restaurants in Hong Kong, that have transcended dining and become culture-defining lifestyle brands. The Lo & Behold Group, with a wide-ranging lineup that includes three-Michelin-starred Odette and the newly transformed Tanjong Beach Club, is very much that hospitality group in Singapore.
And at the 200,000-plus-square-foot New Bahru in Singapore's River Valley neighborhood, Lo & Behold has added real estate developer, landlord and curator to its roles.
New Bahru is a shopping/dining/lifestyle destination in Singapore's River Valley neighborhood.
New Bahru, a shopping/dining/lifestyle complex and creative cluster where we saw visitors playing pickleball in a former high school auditorium on a recent Saturday evening, is the type of ambitious adaptive-reuse endeavor that reminds us of what Atlas Capital has done at Row DTLA in Los Angeles or even what Two Trees Management put together in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Lo & Behold, which has its own office at New Bahru, has added cool boutiques (including toy shops and bookstores that cater to the families who live nearby), the serviced Alma House apartments, plant design studio Soilboy, new-school spa Hideaway and buzzy restaurants like chef Rishi Naleendra's Kotuwa and chef Bjorn Shen's Artichoke (with its always-in-demand Smalls tasting counter tucked in the back).
Lo & Behold, helmed by managing partner and co-founder Wee Teng Wen, also operates its own dining/drinking portfolio at New Bahru. These venues are a great gateway into the energy and creativity of new-school Singapore. On a Tuesday at 8:30 p.m., we visit chef Keirin Buck's Bar Bon Funk, a drinking den that spins vinyl and makes riffs on classic cocktails like a Reverse New York Sour (playfully described as Teeling Irish whisky, oxidized wine, infinity mango, lemon, no egg) as well as terrific original concoctions like A Glass of Milk (Avallen Calvados, Le Pira gin, fermented strawberry honey and 'multiversal' nut milk). We happily devour fried baloney sandwiches and fried chicken with Bon Funk's own hot sauce and own hot maple syrup as we notice that the crowd is more stylish (and in an effortless sort of way) than what we've seen at some of Singapore's most luxurious dining and nightlife hot spots.
Bar Bon Funk is a new-school cocktail bar with a vintage vibe.
New Bahru also has its own fine-dining destination. Lo & Behold and Puglian chef Mirko Febbrile debuted Somma last September and have since received widespread acclaim for their efforts. This is the kind of restaurant that's calibrated to attract the attention of Michelin Guide inspectors and 50 Best voters. Febbrile, who earned a Michelin star as head chef of Singapore's Braci when he was just 25 and then went on to stage at European restaurants including Noma, even has his own lab for experimentation and fermentation at New Bahru.
There are nods to Noma, including everything from the welcome greeting when you enter to the uniforms and the open prep area, at Somma. But the food is distinctly Febbrile's own. Somma is a tasting-menu restaurant that serves Italian-inspired cuisine that's both avant-garde and primal.
In his tasting notes, Febbrile notes that Khorasan spaghettone with red carrot, mantis shrimp bisque and sea snails is a tribute to both 'the vegetable roots that have long been the backbone of Southern Italian diets' and the 'rich seafood tradition of Puglia.' This dish is vivid, deeply delicious and fully formed, with every bite of pasta tasting like land with a hit of the ocean. The sea snails, cooked for 12 hours in parsley oil, add texture and umami. There's caviar in the beurre blanc-style sauce that also features clams and carrot vinegar. It's a marvelous dish, complex and comforting at the same time.
Order the pig snout add-on, which Febbrile says is his favorite dish at Somma, and you'll get a slice of slow-cooked pig snout that is a nod at cotechino but doesn't hide what you're eating. Surprises abound at Somma, where your night might begin with drinking broth out of an artichoke and conclude with a study in corn and cocoa.
Enjoy local favorites like nasi lemak at The Coconut Club.
During our final hour at New Bahru, we grab a late-night dinner at The Coconut Club, where mai tais pair nicely with beef-cheek rendang. Every table seems to be here for some version of nasi lemak, a coconut rice dish that is one of Singapore's most popular hawker-stand items, but the coconut shakes are also quite popular. The Coconut Club has turned street food into vibrant destination dining. The Lo & Behold Group clearly understands that celebrating heritage and history is important as you create the future.