A Pioneering Chef’s Newest Restaurant Delves Into Singapore’s Famed Street Foods

The chef behind popular Southeast Asian restaurant Laut has followed up with another restaurant, this time with a menu inspired by the street hawkers of Singapore.

Chef and owner Salil Mehta opened Laut Singapura today at 31 East 20th St. in Gramercy/Flatiron area with his wife and business partner Stacey, just a couple of weeks after he opened cafe and dim sum parlor Baodega nearby. Mehta, who is most known for his pan-Asian cooking at Union Square restaurant Laut, pivots to the cross-cultural food of Singapore for the new spot.

The menu at Laut Singapura pulls from classic Singaporean street snacks and other traditional fare. It’s a cuisine influenced by several Asian countries like Malaysia, China, Indonesia, and Thailand, and chef Mehta translates that into a menu divided into several sections: roti, panggang (Indonesian grilled foods), kerabu (Malaysian salads), small bites, woks, fried rice, noodles and soups, and entrees.

Noah Fecks/Laut

Dishes include jumbo prawns in a salty duck egg sauce; chicken and beef satays; and crispy rice salad with chile, mint, and Thai dressing. Singapore’s version of Hainanese chicken (poached chicken in a pandan chicken stock over rice) and chile crab with Chinese buns are also on tap. See the menu below.

Laut Singapura has partnered with Chinatown Ice Cream Factory for desserts, which includes a durian sundae.

The restaurant is in a 60-seat space with eight seat-bar designed by the chef himself. Expect blue velvet seats, marble-topped tables, exposed brick, tropical plants, and a flower mural in the dining room.

Mehta has been busy in recent weeks. Last month, he also opened Baodega in the Flatiron District with varied Shanghainese fare and dim sum. The chef has had a successful run at Laut, which he opened in Union Square in 2010. The restaurant became one of the first Malay restaurants to score a Michelin star in 2011, though it no longer has it. He also ran Chinese-Indian restaurant the Chinese Club, which has since closed its locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

His newest addition to the NYC restaurant scene Laut Singapura is open Monday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., though it closes from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. On Friday, it operates from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Saturday from noon to 11 p.m.; and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m.

Noah Fecks/Laut [Official]