A Greek wonder on the island of Singapore

estiatorio Milos

A fine diner in a shopping centre is an incongruous setting but this is Singapore where shopping is one of the few experiences that rivals eating as one of the locals’ favourite pastimes. Moreover, we’re in The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands – a paean to excess consumption and Instagrammable luxury in all its tacky glory.

I suspect it’s one thing of many I don’t get about luxury brands – the need to so heavily brand the actual items so everything and everyone is no more than a billboard. It’s not style, it’s advertising where everyone overpays to be a trumped-up mobile brand hoarding.

Yet for all the tackiness, The Shoppes do play host to some seriously good restaurants and Lunch Magazine may have just found its new favourite – estiatorio Milos.

Part of the Greek-born Costas Spiliadis’s empire of Greek restaurants, estiatorio Milos is a relaxing Cycladic haven in a fairly soulless shopping mall that lives next to a casino. Beginning in Montreal in Canada, his restaurants can now be found in New York, Dubai, Miami and Las Vegas and of course Greece.

What sets the Singapore iteration apart is the super stylish interior melding the muted tones of white marble and light-coloured timber with the fluid curves of a seaside cove on a secluded Greek isle. There is a big open kitchen where a team of chefs cook the freshest of seafood over coals using the simplest of ingredients. Natural flavours such as oil and salt provide an authentically Greek more intimate feel to the well-lit main dining room. A room filled with the mix of herbaceous aromas of oil, woodfire and fresh oregano matched with happy chatter from contented diners.

My companion and I begin with grilled shrimps shipped in from New Caledonia which are beautifully cooked over the coals and are a sweet flavourful beginning.

We move onto a grilled Nova Scotian lobster sitting on a bed of creamy Athenian-style pasta, endive, radicchio and fennel. It’s a divine mix of richness brought on by the buttery lobster flavours pierced by the earthly tang cutting through from the endive, radicchio and fennel.

All of this is matched with a Block 2 Chardonnay from New Zealand’s excellent Felton Road vineyard.

To complete the mains, a whole Tsipoura (Sea Bream) also cooked over the coals with an idyllic blend of salt, oil, fresh oregano, thyme and capers matched with Greek fried potatoes and grilled vegetables. A magnificently fresh flavoured dish that transports you to your favourite seaside locale anywhere in the world.

All of the ingredients are in my eyeline and I’m able to pick my all the seafood from an ice-filled display (market stall) a few metres from where I sit. It’s exquisitely fresh although the food miles involved and the short time it took to transport to Singapore are probably not worth dwelling on for too long.

We finish with a Greek yoghurt ice-cream topped with caramelized walnuts and Thyme honey sourced from the island of Kythira. It’s a gorgeous palate-cleansing way to end the evening. A surprisingly wonderful dining experience in one of Singapore’s busiest tourist traps.