Origin Grill & Bar restaurant review - Singapore, Singapore

Since it opened in 1971, Singapore’s Shangri-la Hotel has been something of a local landmark both for its soaring marbled lobby dripping with chandeliers, and its always impeccable collection of restaurants.The latest to join its stable occupies the ground floor spot vacated by the much loved Nadaman. 

Created by design studio A Work of Substance as a homage to Singapore’s past as an important entrepôt, the space unfolds as a series of set-pieces. Just off the bijou coppery-arched foyer is a capacious bar – a moody blue cavern framed by velvet curtains and fuelled by a cocktail menu spiked with jackfruit marmalade, torch ginger flowers, and bamboo and osthmanthus fortified wine. 

In the main room – furnished like an old-fashioned train station platform with hand-stitched Tripolina leather chairs and globe lamps – executive chef Heidi Flanagan works up a lip-smacking seasonal grill of snow-aged Niigata wagyu, Fremantle octopus and Lombok lobsters on the charcoal and wood oven.