At ASIN, Chef Ace Tan shows how his vision for the future of Asian fine dining lies not in borrowing from Europe, but in rediscovering the shared culinary heritage, techniques and flavours that have long connected the region.
For much of the past decade, Asia’s most celebrated restaurants have often defined themselves by borrowing Western fine dining structures while seasoning them with local ingredients. ASIN, on the other hand, feels less interested in translating Asia for Western expectations than exploring the region’s remarkable culinary commonalities.
Founded by Chef Ace Tan — who previously helmed ASU at Labrador Nature Reserve — and Desmond Heng, founder of Japanese seafood and produce supplier Suguru Home Dining, ASIN (pronounced Ace-in) is not only a play on the word “Asian”, it also means “salt” in Tagalog and “salty” in Bahasa Indonesia, and represents foundational approach Chef Ace takes towards his food, given salt is such a fundamental ingredient across all cuisines.
ASIN is also refreshing in that it sidesteps the increasing predictability of contemporary tasting menus.
You won’t find, for example, obligatory references to Nordic minimalism, no Japanese-French hybrids disguised beneath elaborate narratives, nor any obvious attempts to recreate European haute cuisine with Asian ingredients. Instead it serves up what it calls progressive Asian cuisine, inspired by flavours from Southeast Asia and the East Asian nations of China, Japan and Korea.
But rather than presenting Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Southeast Asian cuisines as separate identities, Chef Ace treats Asia as one vast interconnected pantry where ingredients, techniques and histories naturally converse with one another. Here he also weaves in the seasonality of ingredients with the philosophy of 五行, or the five elements of wood, fire, water, wind, and metal that is central to traditional Chinese medicine. Not that he uses medicinal ingredients; Chef Ace simply believes that taking advantage of produce at their seasonal peak helps align the body with nature’s rhythm.
ASIN’s interior is also designed to change with the seasons. Walking into ASIN, you are immediately greeted by the dark brown main dining counter with ten seats, centred against a backdrop of three impressively large canvas paintings depicting the ingredients on the seasonal menu you are about to partake of. To the left is a semi-private cove with a table for four; on the right, a private dining area for eight that can be also be made private.
Your eye may also be drawn to a tree installation — created by Chef Ace’s partner — that anchors the space, resolving around neutrals and raw concrete flooring with the artwork and standing installation intended to be rotated with the seasonal menus, refreshing the interior for return diners.
ASIN’s tasting menu is a journey through eight courses, but there are also four additional courses that can be ordered for an extra supplement each.
Among the highlights? Our Summer menu started with 晶宝蚝煎 Oyster Omelette, which reimagines this Southeast Asian hawker classic as a single bite with a grilled oyster nestled in a kuzu and potato starch sphere. It’s topped with egg floss, garlic chives and a chilli holy basil sauce inspired by the flavour of the garlic-chilli sauce commonly eaten with this dish.
夏日脆卷 Summer Roll 2.0 is a fried spring roll filled with smoked Japanese aji (horse mackerel), cucumber and a dressing inspired by the Indonesia coconut curry opor ayam. A light bite, the roll is dipped half in powdered dehydrated tomato skins, and half in cornmeal, with the red and yellow hues reflecting the colours of summer.
The supplemental 五香虎虾卷 Ngoh Hiang 6.0 is a signature of Chef Ace. Originating from his grandmother’s recipe and now in its sixth iteration, here the classic prawn roll is elevated by using tiger prawn and Jeju pork mince wrapped in a delicate yuba skin, and accompanied by a sauce made by simmering prawn heads and shells with tuhau, a wild ginger indigenous to Sabah. The dish is completed with a Korean gamtae seaweed-wrapped fried prawn head for textural contrast.
The star of the menu for us is undoubtedly 姜母鸭 Jiang Mu Ya, or “ginger female duck”. This is Irish duck breast brined overnight in a trio of gingers — old ginger, sand ginger and galangal — then dry-aged for seven days before being slow roasted to yield a perfectly medium rare interior and a paper-thin crispy skin. The duck is paired with seasoned short-grain rice mixed with mountain yam, and a watercress duck consommé, for a homely and comforting course.
For a touch of indulgence, diners can have an extra supplemental main course of 胡椒韩牛 Pepper Hanwoo which features Korea’s highly prized Hanwoo beef. Only available in Singapore since end of 2025, ASIN ages premium tenderloin in beef tallow and shio koji, before searing over binchotan for a crust and then slow-roasting it. The “pepper” part of the dish’s name? It refers to the use of gourmet Sarawak peppercorns in two ways — white peppercorns pressed onto the outside of the beef before cooking, and black peppercorns in the sauce.
What we truly enjoy is how every dish contributes to a larger conversation about Asia — not as a collection of isolated national cuisines, but as a region connected by migration, trade, preservation, fermentation and shared culinary memory. The underlying philosophy of eating with the seasons and seeking elemental balance informs the experience without ever feeling preachy, while the food itself remains immediately pleasurable.
ASIN ultimately feels less like another contemporary Asian restaurant and more like the emergence of a distinctly Asian fine dining language, one that avoids measuring itself against European traditions, nor leans on overused luxury ingredients — think caviar or truffle — to justify its ambition.
If this is where the next generation of contemporary Asian dining is headed, it is an encouraging direction indeed.
[Photo credits: ASIN]
ASIN
Address 38 Carpenter Street, #01-01, Singapore 059917 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 6-11pm, Wednesday to Sunday
Tel (65) 9722 9638
Web https://www.asin.sg
Instagram @asin.sg
Reservations book here
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