Belimbing, a new sister concept by The Coconut Club, officially opens its doors on April 15 above the brand’s Beach Road flagship. Helming the kitchen is former Naked Finn head chef Marcus Leow, who joined The Coconut Club as its R&D chef in late 2024. Initially tasked with expanding the group’s interpretation of Singaporean comfort food, Leow quickly proved himself as a creative force worth spotlighting. Recognising his potential, managing partner and chef Daniel Sia offered him the reins to lead a new dining experience shaped by Leow’s vision for Singaporean cuisine.
At Belimbing, Leow describes the food as “new-gen Singaporean”—a personal, modern take rooted in local ingredients but reimagined beyond nostalgia. “We’re not trying to do nostalgia,” he explains. “I want the food to taste like home, but not necessarily in the way your grandmother made it.” Even the restaurant’s name serves as quiet metaphor: the belimbing fruit, familiar yet underutilised, mirrors the current state of Singaporean cuisine—rich in potential but rarely given room to evolve. Belimbing seeks to shift that narrative by inviting local flavours to travel, adapt, and return with fresh perspective.
Leow’s ingredient-first approach celebrates what grows in Singapore’s own backyard. Instead of shying away from local ingredients with sharp or astringent profiles, he uses modern techniques to transform them. Belimbing, for instance, is fermented with red chillies and mellowed with crème fraîche to create a complex condiment. It’s piped into kueh pie tee shells alongside Argentinean red prawns, gong gong clams, and pickled honey melon. Pink guava, another underused fruit, is turned into a rempah that adds sweet and spicy notes to a cold curry made with mussel jus and The Coconut Club’s cold-pressed coconut milk—served with aged amberjack and a soy sauce made from fish trimmings.
Other dishes push the boundaries of what’s expected. A starter inspired by rojak features fried kailan stems and firefly squid in a prawn paste caramel, balanced by pickled jambu and strawberries and topped with crisp kailan leaves. For Leow, these combinations are about showing that Singaporean food doesn’t have to be static. “Why shouldn’t we use new techniques, pair ingredients differently, or present dishes in ways that make people rethink what’s possible?” His influence comes partly from Australian chef Sam Aisbett, under whom he worked at Whitegrass in 2016. Aisbett’s bold pairing of foreign flavours with local ingredients pushed Leow to reimagine how Singaporean produce could be used.
That same philosophy carried through Leow’s time at Magic Square—a young chef incubator known for reshaping local cuisine—where he worked alongside Abel Su and Desmond Shen. He then led Naked Finn for four years, before stepping into his new role with The Coconut Club and Belimbing. “At Naked Finn, the seafood dictated the menu. Here, I start with the flavours I want to build, which brings a completely different dynamic,” he says. While modern Singaporean cuisine isn’t new, with pioneers like Wild Rocket and Mustard Seed paving the way, Belimbing stands out by offering Leow’s unique take—personal, expressive, and rooted in possibility. “Everyone’s doing it differently, and that’s what makes it exciting,” he says. “I’m just telling my version of the story.”
Belimbing’s offerings include a four-course dinner priced at S$88, which delivers generous portions and layered flavours across each course. A standout main of fried chicken arrives with yellow curry, tempra sauce, and rice—presented in a style reminiscent of scissors curry rice, but elevated. For lunch, a two-course menu is available at S$58, alongside an à la carte selection with dishes ranging from S$18 for an assam pedas clam custard to S$45 for grilled short ribs with black garlic percik and green curry. With Belimbing, Leow isn’t just reinventing Singaporean food—he’s expanding the conversation around what it can be.
Source: CNA Luxury
