2 chic new spots in town with farm-to-table cuisine

Fancy lunch with a view? Two new spots to dine are joining the burgeoning list of downtown options with gorgeous views of the city centre – and they’re sustainable, to boot.

Oumi and Kaarla Restaurant and Bar – both by 1-Group – will be sharing a space on the 51st floor of Singapore’s buzziest new development, CapitaSpring tower at 88 Market Street.

The building’s earlier food tenants – Latin-European bistro Sol & Luna, and Bee’s Knees Urban café – opened their doors to diners February 2022 and October 2021 respectively.

As for the newcomers, Kaarla will offer Australian cuisine, and Oumi, modern Japanese. Both employ responsibly-sourced seasonal produce, such as ethically-farmed meat and sustainably-caught fish, from Australia, Japan and Singapore.

Aussie meals at Kaarla

Kaarla’s nosh spotlights produce from Australia’s coastal regions, including seafood and livestock, as well as native ingredients rich in vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants, favoured by the aborigines.

It’s all grilled in the restaurant’s centre piece: A fuel-saving, wood-fired oven crafted by Australian stone mason Samuel Fraraccio from sustainable materials.

Beyond the selection of iconic Australian wines, ‘garden-to-glass’ concoctions can be had at the restaurant bar.

The tableware, shaped from Singapore and Australian clay by local maker Mud Rock Ceramics, will also include leftover oyster and abalone shells in the future. Service trays are made from upcycled wood, and chef’s jackets from bio-cotton and recycled plastic bottles.

Japanese kappo at Oumi

Oumi, which serves contemporary kappo cuisine, boasts a menu of Japanese classics featuring indigenous Australian ingredients. To minimise food waste, a nose-to-tail approach wastes no part of the animal – for example, fish sashimi on rice alongside fried fish bones. Sets, sharing plates and an omakase menu are available.

To drink, pick from a selection including teas sourced from small-scale farms in Japan, artisanal sake and cocktails that combine Japanese and Australian ingredients.

The restaurant’s four-by-seven metre kitchen counter, as well as the bar in Kaarla, is made of recycled glass bottles.

Urban farm in the sky

Calling the launch its “most ambitious undertaking” to date, 1-Group said in a press release that it aims to showcase “Singapore’s innovative approaches as a regional hub for ESG and CSR”.

The two restaurants will get their herbs and edible plants from a 10,000-square-foot urban farm, named 1-Arden Food Forest, located on the same floor. To top it off, a bar – 1-Arden-Bar – will be launched in Q2 2022.

Created in partnership with urban farm Edible Garden City, the farm is split into five organic gardens, spanning 2,000 plants and 158 species – including belimbing, bandicoot berry, Okinawa spinach, and lemon myrtle.

It boasts regenerative farming practices for tastier, more nutritious produce. Apart from edibles, other plants are grown to attract birds to reduce pest issues, and insects like bees to pollinate the garden. Fertiliser is made from the restaurants’ food waste.

This article was first published in The Peak.