Restaurant review: Path blazes a trail with creative mod-Asian fare at Marina Bay Financial Centre

The best meals aren’t just experiences – they’re journeys. With a name like Path, it’s clear from the outset that chef Marvas Ng is cooking up an adventure. Most recently Chef de Cuisine at Ocean Restaurant, he cut his teeth in French fine dining for over a decade in Hong Kong and China. Path is his inaugural restaurant, and it’s his venture into uncharted ground – a modern Asian concept that blazes a trail through classic French technique and winds up in familiar Chinese terrain.

Set in Marina Bay Financial Centre, the space lives up to the name: an all-white dreamscape that swirls with layered waves and curves, recalling the contours of a topographic map. Fluted columns draped with vines, plush leather chairs, and gold accents complete the dreamy effect.

Peek into the spacious kitchen, visible behind full-glass doors, and you’ll spot a secret corner with an emerald booth seat: the chef’s table. Here, guests can get a private omakase experience with front-row views of the chefs at work.

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Path was launched in partnership with 1855 – the group behind dining concepts like WAKANUI, The Spot, and Perch, as well as 1855 The Bottle Shop. It’s no surprise then that the wine list is impressive, with an extensive curation of Old and New World vino both by the glass and by the bottle.

You’ll find exclusives brought in by 1855 The Bottle Shop, including Alheit Vineyards’ flagship Cartology 2019 ($108) – a citrusy, expressive South African vintage made with Chenin Blanc and Semillon grapes from old bush vines.

Browse through the à la carte dinner menu and you’ll find an reinvented medley of influences drawn into concert: Mainly Chinese and French, but also Japanese, Spanish, and more. The Wakamatsu Strait Yellowtail ($36), for one, is a toss-up of tender pink yellowtail slices, Japanese-style pickled zucchinis, crunchy Chinese artichokes pickled in Sichuan chili, and ikura. It’s a delicate balance of fresh, spicy, and tangy notes, held together in a pool of spring onion oil.

Another light yet complex small plate is the Premium Kuhlbarra Fish Maw ($35). This locally farmed fish maw bursts with bouncy freshness, and comes bathed in a beurre blanc given an umami Asian twist with collagen stock, fermented black bean, chili, and sake. Joining the party is a familiar array of Chinese poached greens – kai lan, cai xin, Chinese lettuce – and to top it off, another playful cross of cuisines: caviar and tobiko.

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More familiarly Chinese is the ‘Suan Ni’ Hong Man ($24), a delightful take on the Sichuan classic suan ni bai rou (sliced pork with garlic sauce). Steamed yellow eel is crisped up with a deep-fried coating of corn flour, then braised in a rich housemade sauce of garlic and dou ban jiang (spicy broad bean paste) spiced up further with Sichuan peppercorns and pickled Chinese chili.

Chef Marvas has a soft spot for tableside theatrics, and it shows in his Hand-Dived Hokkaido Scallops ($58). These plump sashimi-grade scallops are wheeled out tableside and seared on a hot stone right before our eyes (and cameras).

As they sizzle, our server spoons over them a seaweed truffle sauce heightened with shio kombu, along with a sprinkle of furikake. Paired with the succulent scallops is a dish of pickled pumpkin – a tad too hard and raw in our books, but designed to cut through the richness.

Whole roasted cauliflower is trendy these days, but Path’s melt-in-the-mouth French Organic Cauliflower ($24) outshines them all. This underdog hit comes braised in a housemade vegetable stock for 20 minutes till fork-tender, with shiitake mushrooms and kombu infusing the cauliflower with umami notes. Its outer layer is then slathered with mayonnaise, before being blanketed in furikake, deep-fried quinoa, and multigrains. The result is pure buttery heaven, so tender you can scoop it up smoothly with a spoon. Would we visit again just to work our way through an entire cauliflower? You bet.

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More tableside theatre comes when our Signature Butter-Roasted Herb-Brined French Poulet ($72) is rolled out in a black box. As our server lifts the lid, a dramatic puff of smoke clears to reveal the whole golden-brown chicken, its roasted skin glistening seductively thanks to a coating of nearly a kilogram of butter.

Once carved and served, delicate Asian influences emerge – brined for 16 hours, the meat bears pleasant whiffs of Chinese herbs like angelica root. And if you can’t get enough of French-style butter indulgence, go ahead and slather on the accompanying sauce of butter drippings from the roasting process.

What’s a Chinese feast without some rice? Exclusively available as a supplement to a meat dish, the Signature Wild Forest Mushrooms Donabe ($38) is worth saving space for. A hearty mix of oat groats, pork belly, and porcini mushrooms, this claypot rice is lightly charred and flavourful in every grain.

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And if you’ve still got room to spare, round things off with the Crispy Japanese Amadai ($75). This tender fish comes paired with a divine black bean beurre blanc silky with housemade chicken stock, poured cleverly into a circlet of broccoli puree.

Dessert leans French with options like the oversized French Canelé ($18 for three). Cooked in traditional copper molds, these massive canelés boast a beautiful caramelised crust and moist insides, tinged with Jiangxiaobai baijiu in place of the usual rum. Like your dessert boozy? The Whiskey Bombe Alaska ($28) packs quite the kick with whiskey ice-cream enveloped in meringue and topped with Kirsch cherries.

Path is located at 12 Marina Boulevard, Tower 3, #01-05/06 Marina Bay Financial Centre, Singapore 018982, p. +65 6443 0180. Open Mon-Fri 11.30am–3pm & 6pm–10.30pm, Sat 6pm–10.30pm. Closed Sun.

This article was first published in City Nomads.