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No one goes to Tim Ho Wan for the frills. You would be hard-pressed to find them, anyway, what with the plain interior and brisk service that characterise each outlet.  But the popular dim sum chain’s new Marina Bay Sands outlet is a different animal altogether. Gone are the plain wooden panels and casual ambience. Suddenly, everything is glossy and green. The walls are studded with customised mahjong tiles. Designer lamps hang from the ceiling. Screens separate diners. There is even a private room you can book with a minimum spending of $500.  And yet, some things do not change. Under Tim Ho Wan Peak’s luxurious overcoat is a commitment to the unpretentious cooking and flavourful dishes that made it a household name.  Classic dim sum delights like the baked BBQ pork buns ($10 for three) are still on the menu, now joined by an expanded repertoire of Cantonese cooking, like roast meats. Pick from three succulent options: BBQ Spanish pork ($22.80), Cherry Valley crispy roast duck (from $26.80) and soya sauce chicken (from $20.80).  Other dishes pile on layer upon layer of umami richness. The olive fried Spanish pork jowl ($25.80) and wild silver cod in black vinegar ($42) are devilishly tasty, fried crisp and drenched in caramelised gravy.  The risoni pasta with Cherry Valley duck ($24) is another intriguing pick. It swops out grains for short cut pasta, which ends up tasting like plump, chewy morsels of premium rice, but retains that classic wok hei fragrance.  Not all dishes land, however. The smoking, bell-jarred baked creamy stuffed crab shell ($32), for one thing, is clearly designed to impress on Instagram. But it underwhelms in taste, with the thick gravy drowning out all traces of crab.  Still, it is a good place to satisfy your cravings for Cantonese cuisine on days when you long for familiar flavours, but in an elevated setting.  B2-02/03/04 Canal Level, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, 2 Bayfront Avenue Bayfront 11am to 10pm (Sundays to Thursdays), 11am to 11pm (Fridays and Saturdays) Australian chef Victor Liong was neither born nor raised in Singapore, but still finds in it a kindred spirit. Like the city, he is the product of various cultures. Born in Brunei to Malaysian-Chinese parents, he was raised in Sydney, Australia, and rose to prominence in Melbourne, where he opened his award-winning modern Chinese restaurant, Lee Ho Fook. Now, he is dipping his toes into yet another community, taking on Singapore’s diverse food heritage at Quenino, a restaurant in Cuscaden Road serving contemporary Asian cuisine. The menus ($180++ for seven courses and $240++ for nine) blend Australian ingredients with Chinese techniques and regional recipes, striving to balance experimental and familiar.  The food is meant to be playful yet refined. True to form, the dinner starts with a tart that is pert and poppable, yet loaded with serious ingredients like mud crab and Oscietra caviar, so you know it still means business.  The rest of the snacks – ama-ebi cracker, baby cucumber with caramelised lemongrass chilli and cashew cream – follow in the same vein, offering an interesting interplay of flavours and textures that make for an appetising, though not particularly mind-blowing, introduction to Liong’s cross-cultural odyssey.  A charred Spanish mackerel, perched on a seaweed tapenade and surrounded by a moat of Gula Melaka soy, is a foretaste of the umami fireworks that are yet to come, as well as Liong’s piscine mastery.  Next is a raw spencer gulf kingfish, which finds its perfect match in the burnt garlic white soya cream that pools around it. White fungi and radish slice through the buttery intensity with a hint of sweetness, helping to balance the dish.  Subsequent courses try their best to outdo one another. An earthy lentil butter laced with chorizo XO sauce and chunks of prawn follows, accompanied by a fantastic housemade flatbread that is crisp and pillowy in all the right places.  Then comes the threadfin fillet, crowned with pearl meat (the adductor muscle of the oyster), shrimp floss and samphire. It is succulent, aromatic and delicious enough to make you forget that it is the third fish dish on the menu.  Having coasted on the chef’s creativity up to this point, diners are now called to pull their weight. A disassembled “Peking” duck roll arrives. Slices of lacquered duck, skin glistening and flesh pink, are surrounded by fermented rice pancakes, sambal ijo, dragon chives, pickled fennel, ulam raja leaves and slivers of cucumber – an invitation to guests to craft their own ensemble.  Dessert is sweet corn ice cream – mild and not too sugary, thankfully – and a thoughtful selection of petit fours, inspired by local treats like pulut hitam.  The restaurant is now offering lunch sets as well on Fridays and Saturdays. Prices start at $68++ for a three-course menu and go up to $128++ for five courses.   Level 4, 9 Cuscaden Road Orchard Boulevard Noon to 3pm (Fridays and Saturdays); 6 to 10.30pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays) @queninosg on Instagram The Alexandra neighbourhood, as some may know, is the place to go for meatballs. Succulent, pan-seared rounds of meat drenched in velvety gravy, topped with a tart dollop of lingonberry jam. No, I’m not talking about the Ikea classic.  Across the road from the Swedish giant, a small deli has set up shop selling Scandinavian food. It is a bold move – a bit like trying to sell minimalist furniture in Ikea’s massive cobalt shadow – especially when customers have to fork out twice the price here (six meatballs cost $18 at Overbrod). But you also wait half as long and get a dish that is far better than anything the kitchen on the other side of Alexandra Road could churn out.  Overbrod also serves up less familiar Scandinavian dishes. Its Swedish fish stew ($24) is jam-packed with chunks of salmon, halibut, shrimp and potatoes, and steeped in a decadent lobster broth. It is served with four slices of fennel toast so buttery, I almost feel guilty using it to mop up the equally rich stew.   Wash the food down with some elderflower soda ($7) or pink gingerlily tea ($7). Caffeine is not Overbrod’s strong suit and the coffee menu is limited – pick from two cold brew flavours (from $6) or opt for the hot black coffee ($5). 01-14A, 370 Alexandra Road Queenstown 11am to 3pm, 5 to 9pm (Mondays to Fridays), 10am to 10pm (Saturdays and Sundays) @overbrod on Instagram