Tanica

Out goes the seafood steakhouse, in comes the sambal.

Tanica is a good choice for a client lunch or a long Sunday off Orchard Road, as long as you come in on a set menu rather than ordering freely. It has replaced Fysh, the seafood steakhouse that ran The Singapore EDITION’s disco brunch, and the hotel has swapped surf-and-turf for spice and herbs. If you last came here for the party brunch, the room is the same and nearly everything else isn’t.

Why it’s worth a look

The room is the hotel’s best asset and it stays: a tall, arboretum-style hall wrapped in greenery, which is about as close as Cuscaden Road gets to lunch in a garden without the midday sun. The name is a blend of botanical and tannins, which tells you the two things the place cares about. The kitchen works almost entirely off a wok and a Josper charcoal grill.

The cooking takes regional flavours and dresses them for a hotel. The dish to order is the asam pedas seafood risotto, cooked in the sour, spicy tamarind broth usually kept for fish and topped with ama ebi, sea grapes and grilled wing beans. It is the sort of idea that sounds like a gimmick until you remember that rice was always going to go well with asam pedas. The other is a 72-hour wagyu short rib in the style of iga bakar kicap, glazed in sweet soy and cut with sambal; that is three days of cooking aimed squarely at the moment it leaves the bone.

How to do it well

Use the sets. There is a three-course weekday set lunch, which is the way to impress someone without the à la carte bill, and a Sunday semi-buffet brunch with carving, pasta and dessert stations. The brunch is a calmer affair than the disco years, and better for it if you came to talk to the people at your table. Check current prices on the restaurant’s site before you book, as the menu is new.

Tanica also serves breakfast, which makes it a useful polished meeting spot in the Orchard hotel belt before the shops open. Orchard Boulevard is the nearest MRT station. It is not halal-certified, which rules it out for some client lunches; check before you send the invitation.

Book the set lunch when you need the table to do some of the work for you, or Sunday brunch when the plan is to stay until three. Order the risotto either way.

Good to know At The Singapore EDITION, 38 Cuscaden Road, near Orchard Boulevard MRT. Serves breakfast, lunch and dinner; hours are in the facts box. Tel 6329 5000. Set lunch and brunch prices come from October 2026 press coverage, not the restaurant; check tanicasingapore.com before booking. Not halal-certified.

Tanica | The Singapore EDITION, 38 Cuscaden Road, Singapore 249731 | Nearest MRT: Orchard Boulevard