Thevar

Fine dining in Singapore is supposed to mean French or Japanese. This is the shophouse that argues otherwise.

Thevar is the booking for a big occasion and a guest who thinks they have had every curry going. It is a modern Indian tasting menu with a Penang accent, it holds two Michelin stars in the 2026 guide, and it costs what that implies, so this is an anniversary rather than a Tuesday. If there are only two or three of you, ask for the chef’s table; if there are more, look at the private room.

Why it works

The proposition was always slightly unlikely: a Penang-born, French-trained chef cooking Indian food with European technique in a Chinatown shophouse. It opened on Keong Saik Road in 2018 and had two Michelin stars by 2022. In 2025 it moved across the river to 16 Mohamed Sultan Road, into a restored shophouse roughly twice the size, and the design takes its cues from Mano Thevar’s childhood home in Penang: terracotta walls, with Chettinad-inspired motifs worked into the pillars and rugs. There are 28 seats in the main dining room, a chef’s table for two or three, and a private room for up to ten with its own kitchen, restroom and entrance. More space, then, without the feeling of being processed; the room still reads as a dinner you were invited to.

What you’ll eat

It is a tasting menu: Indian flavours from the Malay Peninsula refracted through European technique. The restaurant’s own line is “Rooted in Tradition, Refined by Innovation”, which for once is a fair summary. A July 2025 menu ran from snacks such as rainbow trout on crispy idli and pork belly wrapped in betel leaf with sambal aioli, to a pani puri rebuilt around a carrot-juice tart shell, a lobster ishtu in a yuzu-coconut stew and an abalone khichdi. The main was Mysore-spiced lamb rack with biryani and raita, with Tajima wagyu as an alternative, and dessert was a roasted-date kulfi with parmesan in the mix, which is the kind of sentence that makes sense only after you have eaten it. The menu moves with the seasons, so treat that as a sense of range rather than a promise. If the Chettinad chicken roti is on, order it.

How to do it well

Book through the restaurant’s official reservation page and check the current menu price there. Dinner runs Monday to Saturday; lunch is Friday and Saturday only, and it is closed on Sundays. Lunch is the way to do it if you would rather walk out into daylight than into a taxi queue. Fort Canning and Clarke Quay are the nearest MRT stations.

Tell the team about the occasion and any dietary needs when you book, then let the kitchen lead. The pleasure here is a parent who arrived sceptical and leaves arguing about the kulfi.

Good to know Book through the restaurant’s official reservation page. Lunch Friday and Saturday, dinner Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday; check times and the current menu price on the official site. Fort Canning and Clarke Quay are the nearest MRT stations.

Thevar | 16 Mohamed Sultan Road, Singapore 238965 | Nearest MRT: Fort Canning, Clarke Quay