Candlenut

Five years in, diners wouldn't try the new dishes. So he stopped letting them choose.

Candlenut is the Peranakan dinner to book when you want someone else to decide: take the Ah-Ma-Kase, the family-style tasting menu scaled to the table, and let the kitchen play grandmother. It suits relatives visiting from abroad, the friend who claims to know Peranakan food and any group big enough to share properly. The compromise is price: this is Peranakan cooking at Dempsey prices, so go when the occasion and the head count justify it.

How the bossy menu happened

Candlenut began in 2010 as a family affair, Malcolm Lee with his mother and three retired housewives in the kitchen. Five years in he was close to giving up, because diners would not try his new dishes. In July 2015 he scrapped the à la carte menu and served only a tasting menu at dinner. A year later, in July 2016, Candlenut won a Michelin star, billed as the world's first for a Peranakan restaurant; Lee says the team was "probably the last restaurant to know" it was coming. It kept the star in the 2025 Michelin Guide and holds a Black Pearl 2025 award.

The tasting menu got a name with a wink. Ahma means grandmother, and Ah-Ma-Kase is meant to feel like dinner at grandma's house. It now runs at lunch and dinner alongside an à la carte menu, so the bossy option is a choice rather than an obligation.

What's on the table

Lee, a fourth-generation Peranakan who trained at At-Sunrice, calls his cooking Contemporary Straits and says it is about rediscovery rather than sentimental preservation. Family is all over the menu: Aunt Caroline's Babi Buah Keluak, made with Iberico pork jowl from his aunt's recipe, and Chef's Mum's Chicken Curry, alongside blue swimmer crab curry, wing bean salad and kueh salat. If you go à la carte, the babi buah keluak is the one to insist on. The buah keluak ice cream is the dish most likely to start an argument at your table; order it anyway.

The room

Candlenut moved from the ground floor of Dorsett Residences to COMO Dempsey in November 2016, into a space by Italian designer Paola Navone of OTTO Studio: straw lanterns, woven baskets and a vintage ice kachang machine. It is built for communal, talkative meals rather than hushed ones.

How to do it well

Book through SevenRooms and bring a group, so the family-style format has room to work. Arrive hungry and order rice. Getting there is the usual Dempsey shuffle, Napier MRT and then a short walk or bus, so build that into the evening.

Good to know 17A Dempsey Road; Napier MRT, then a short walk or bus. Lunch daily 12–3pm and dinner 6–10pm, with bookings via SevenRooms. Check the current menu before you go.

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Candlenut | 17A Dempsey Road, Singapore 249676 | Nearest MRT: Napier (then a short walk or bus)