Esora's Takeshi Araki resurfaces at AO, behind a bakery counter

The last time most people ate Takeshi Araki's food, it was a Michelin-starred procession. Now it comes past a bread counter.

Go if you liked the idea of Esora more than its price or its hush. Takeshi Araki was head chef at the Michelin-starred kappo on Mohamed Sultan Road from 2022 until its last service on 29 December 2025. His new room, AO on Claymore Drive, is the opposite in almost every way: open all day, family-friendly, à la carte and built for sharing. The compromise is the setting, a lively room you reach through a bakery rather than a hushed counter; the next step is a weekday table for three or four.

AO comes from Cloud Restaurant Group, which also runs the Cloudmills bakery, with Araki as culinary director. You walk in past the Cloudmills counter and carry on into a dining room by Grafted Studio: natural wood and stone, an open kitchen and dog-friendly alfresco tables.

The idea is Japanese technique applied to flavours from all over. Bluefin tuna tartare arrives on toasted sushi rice. Chicken wings are deboned and stuffed with black-truffle mochi rice. A duck rillette comes with foie gras terrine shaved over it. The "Sakura-dai" sea bream ramen adds swordfish chashu, black garlic oil, yuzu and crispy sakura ebi. To finish, there is a burnt blue cheesecake with wildflower honey, and tofu ice cream in three flavours, including kaya gula melaka. Our order would be the stuffed wings and the ramen, the two plates that show the technique most plainly on paper, and the kaya gula melaka scoop to end on something local.

There is a neat bit of symmetry to the timing. Esora's old Mohamed Sultan Road shophouse now belongs to Johanne Siy's Árō, so one address has produced two of the season's most-watched openings.

Go at the start of the week with three or four friends, and order more plates than seems wise.

Good to know AO is at 1 Claymore Drive, #01-01. It's open daily, 11am–10pm, and you enter through Cloudmills. Call +65 8092 6532 to check availability.

Want more of what’s new? Here’s everything else on the list.

AO | 1 Claymore Drive, #01-01, Singapore 229594