National Kitchen by Violet Oon

A food column, a monthly paper, a Hall of Fame. Then a restaurant to serve the notes.

National Kitchen is where to take visiting relatives who want something more considered than a food-court tour: Peranakan and Singapore dishes that rarely make it on to a hawker signboard, served upstairs in the old City Hall building with the Padang outside the verandah. It works best as the second half of a National Gallery visit, or as a long weekend lunch you have no intention of rushing. It is not the place for a quick bite before a show.

A food writer's archive

Long before her name went above a restaurant door, Violet Oon was a journalist. Born in Malacca to Peranakan parents and raised partly in Katong, she started cooking with her aunts at 16 to record family recipes, began a food column at the New Nation in 1974 and ran her own monthly, The Food Paper, from 1987 to 1996. The tourism board made her Singapore's food ambassador in 1988. When National Kitchen opened at the National Gallery in 2015, the menu set out to revive dishes many Singaporeans had forgotten, without dumbing them down for tourists. Think of it less as a museum café and more as the Gallery's second exhibition, served on plates. Her two children co-own the restaurants and worked with her on the later openings; the brand has other addresses now, but this is the one that suits the story.

The room

Colonial-style furnishings, Peranakan touches and archival photographs tracing Singapore's food history on the walls. Choose between the formal dining hall and the verandah, which the Gallery pitches for bar bites and sunset cocktails; it is one of the few restaurant tables in town that shares its view with a national landmark. Ask for the verandah when you book if that is what you want.

What to order

The cooking spans Peranakan and broader Singapore dishes, with a main menu, a plant-based menu (the restaurant puts forward a kunyit lemak king oyster mushroom), a drinks list and, from Friday to Sunday, a Singapore High Tea Set in the afternoon. Order to share, ask about anything unfamiliar, and lean towards the dishes you have never seen at a hawker centre; the familiar ones are what hawker centres are for.

How to do it well

Do a focused hour in the galleries first, then come up for lunch. Enter from Coleman Street, a short walk from City Hall MRT, and check Gallery access notices during big city events, when the way in can change. Book through violetoon.com, especially if you are after the weekend high tea.

Good to know Lunch 12–3pm and dinner 6–10.30pm daily, with high tea 3–5pm Friday to Sunday and public holidays; book through violetoon.com. It is at #02-01, City Hall Wing, National Gallery Singapore – enter from Coleman Street (City Hall MRT). Ask for the verandah when booking if you want it, and check Gallery access notices during city events.

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National Kitchen by Violet Oon | City Hall Wing, Level 2, National Gallery Singapore, 1 St Andrew's Road, Singapore 178957 | Nearest MRT: City Hall