Loca Niru has quickly become a name that stands out in conversations around Singapore’s tasting menu scene. The restaurant blends Japanese technique with French sensibility, and that combination has now been recognised with a recently awarded Michelin star in 2026, a result that has diners and critics alike asking what exactly is on the plate.
The answer lies in a menu that reads like a love letter to the seasons. Loca Niru positions itself as a Japanese-French fine dining restaurant, yet it never leans purely on tradition. Each course draws from French technique while keeping Japanese technique and plating sensibility at the centre, while drawing on seasonal Southeast Asian produce. Seasonality shapes Japanese fine dining, which reflects throughout the menu, from canapé to dessert.
A Menu Built on Small, Deliberate Moments
The tasting menu opens with Hassun, a trio that sets the tone for the whole evening: Sakoshi oyster with an oyster jus jelly and a kedongdong and Japanese pear sherbet, lobster with salted Japanese citrus and finger lime, and braised wagyu beef with yam dough and a Southeast Asian take on shichimi. Three very different textures and temperatures on one plate, each pointing to a different part of the meal ahead.
Hamachi follows, yellowtail paired with pickled plum, a fermented plum sauce and Oscietra caviar. The plum brings a clean sourness that cuts through the richness of the fish, while the caviar adds a briny finish that lingers just long enough.
The Essence of Loca Niru
The standout is Isaki. Wakayama grunt and scallop cake are paired with an award-winning Nyonya beurre blanc, finished with garlic tuile and Oscietra caviar, a sauce that fuses French classical technique with Peranakan flavour in a way few kitchens attempt, let alone pull off. It arrives alongside Buah Keluak Bread. In our view, it is the kind of course that shows why Loca Niru stands apart from other tasting menus in the city.
Menu Highlights
Roasted Challans Duck Breast anchors the main course, its richness balanced by duck sausage served with Palermo pepper purée, a pineapple chutney sharp with acidity and spice, and a lavender-infused jus. It is accompanied with an iron pot rice that reworks Japanese soboro rice for the season: Nagano Koshihikari carries duck soboro and sweet corn, lifted with sansho pepper and rounded out with Malaysian paku pakis fern.
Dessert opens with White Peach & Soursop, pairing the delicate sweetness of white peach with the tropical sweetness of soursop and mangosteen, layered with yogurt mousse and white wine jelly. This is followed by Mango & Roasted Barley Tea.
Service That Matches the Food
Service throughout reflects the same care as the food, attentive without being intrusive, and paced so each course has room to be appreciated rather than rushed through. That sense of occasion is helped along by the setting itself: Loca Niru sits within the House of Tan Yeok Nee, a National Monument, and part of what makes a meal here memorable is dining inside a building with that much history built into its walls.
Book your table and experience the Summer Menu today.