First look at Loca Niru, the restaurant in the 140-year-old Teochew mansion in Orchard opening to public for the first time

After a restoration, the House of Tan Yeok Nee, Singapore’s oldest surviving Chinese mansion, has been transformed into a lifestyle and events space, with a fine dining restaurant on the second floor.

The conserved building on Penang Road opposite the Istana Park, completed around the year 1885 by businessman Tan Yeok Nee as a family home, is known as the last of the ‘Four Grand Mansions’ of Teochew architecture built in Singapore in the 19th century.

Over the years, it has housed the Salvation Army, an orphanage for girls, a university campus and a traditional Chinese medicine hall.

Now, it will open on Nov 1 to the public for the first time in 140 years. Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in the building’s history, with its traditional courtyards, restored murals and a heritage gallery showcasing the house’s history.

And, on the upper floor, there will be the opportunity to dine while gazing out the original casement windows at the intricate roofs adorned with ceramic artwork, created using traditional Teochew inlaying techniques and depicting animals and mythological motifs.

Restaurant Loca Niru, helmed by chef Shusuke Kubota (formerly of Omakase At Stevens), offers a menu melding French techniques with Japanese ingredients and approaches, and with a dash of Southeast Asian flair thrown in. It opens on Nov 6.

The tasting menu, which takes you through eight courses for S$298++, begins with a non-traditional “hassun” course served as a trio of snacks including a sweet prawn tartare with pomelo in a tart shell, cured sturgeon in a pie tee shell with celtuce pickles and Oscietra caviar, as well as a crispy fried frog roll with herbs and curry leaf aioli.

From there, the flavours develop and deepen, and so do the ideas. A fish course of pan-seared Japanese grunt fish with scallop mousse-stuffed zucchini flower and pickled zucchini is dressed with a “Nyonya beurre blanc” sauce that is Kubota’s cleaner take on rempah-based flavours, made using classic French techniques.

It’s a dish that’s representative of the cuisine here. Kubota, who trained in French cooking and worked at Michelin-starred Les Crayeres in France, is originally from Nagano and has lived in Singapore for five years. He’s made the most of his time here to explore the flavours of the region, with laksa being one of his favourite dishes.

“I don’t want to 'just anyhow' say this is a Nyonya sauce,” Kubota asserted, expressing himself using Singlish rhythms. Instead, it’s his own interpretation of Peranakan-inspired flavours. “I’m not Singaporean or Malaysian. I just want to respect each flavour and culture.”

That was something foremost in his mind when developing the concept. The restaurant’s exterior “looks very Chinese. Going too Teochew doesn’t make sense for me because I’m Japanese, and if I go too western, it also doesn’t make sense. If you look at the interiors and the menu, it doesn’t feel very French or Japanese or Chinese."

Instead, "It creates something new, eventually, I feel. My cooking philosophy is always to respect old techniques in making something new.”

Served alongside the fish dish are deeply, darkly flavoured buah keluak buns with a chewy and airy texture, which you should absolutely use to mop up any remaining sauce on your plate. “Many chefs use buah keluak in dessert because it’s a little chocolatey. I wanted to do something different,” Kubota shared.

A dish of steamed dumpling served in kombu and milk foam showcases Southeast Asian vegetables like burdock, jicama, yacon, tomatillo and Savoy cabbage from Malaysia.

And a dessert of shine muscat grape and kedongdong jelly is topped with coconut mousse, because coconut “feels very Southeast Asian and summery”.

“Because I live in Singapore, I wanted to use Southeast Asian ingredients. So, Loca Niru is a bit contemporary, a bit of fusion cooking, but the base is French and Japanese techniques, with Southeast Asian and Japanese ingredients,” Kubota explained. “I think you can feel the Frenchness, but also the Japanese delicacy of flavour, and Southeast Asian flavours. That is Loca Niru's cuisine.”

The name ‘Loca Niru’ is a Romanised derivative of the Zen idioms 'Hakuba Roka ni Iru’ and ‘Hakucho Roka ni Iru’, describing a white horse stepping into a field of white reeds and representing perfect balance and coexistence.

That was what the restaurant set out to achieve in establishing itself as a new dining spot in a storied conservation building. There were a lot of restrictions as to what could be done due to the property's heritage status, Kubota shared. But, once again, “I wanted to reflect history by keeping the structure, but also to make something new.”

Loca Niru opens Nov 6 at House of Tan Yeok Nee, 101 Penang Road.