WITH the opening of the swanky St Regis hotel on Tanglin Road over the weekend, well-heeled guests in search of the luxurious life have a notable new address to include in their BlackBerries. The latest star in the St Regis galaxy is a glittering, multi-chandeliered spearhead for the hotel company's ambitious expansion plans in this part of the world over the next few years.

Les Saveurs' executive chef Frederic Colin.

The hotel traces its tradition of gracious hospitality to the original St Regis in New York, a grand hotel built at the turn of the 20th century by John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthiest, and perhaps the most famous, of the passengers on the ill-fated Titanic.

As might be expected of a top-tier brand, St Regis comes equipped with all the trimmings - and we're not just talking turkey here. The entry-level rooms are perfectly luxurious, but if can-you-top-this extravagance is more your style, there's the $10,000-a-night, 3,600 sq ft Presidential Suite, whose marble-clad bathroom has more amenities than most private clubs.

Along with the opulent accommodation, the butler service, the art-filled interiors and the drool-worthy, ultra-luxe spa comes a food and beverage experience to match. The St Regis has six outlets catering to a variety of discerning tastes and moods, including the club-like Astor Bar and adjoining Decanter wine bar, the Yan Ting Cantonese restaurant, LaBrezza, an informal and appealing poolside space serving Mediterranean-inspired cuisine and the Drawing Room, featuring specialty teas from Dammann Freres in Paris.

The primary dining room is Les Saveurs, a modern French restaurant located in a large, high-ceilinged and suitably posh space just off the lobby. While some St Regis hotels feature signature restaurants by celebrity chefs such as Alain Ducasse (in New York) and Jean-Georges Vongerichten (in Bora Bora), the Singapore property has taken a slightly different direction, opting instead to go for an all-day dining concept with fine-dining sensibilities.

In other words, every meal here, from breakfast through dinner, is given the five-star treatment. Not for guests something so gauche as a well-stacked buffet table - not even on Sunday brunch. Instead, the food and beverage team, led by executive assistant manager Franck Hardy and executive chef Frederic Colin, have created a unique high-end culinary realm.

Despite the all-purpose nature of Les Saveurs, hotel owner City Developments (CDL) has given chef Colin the leeway to leave no ingredient unturned in the quest to provide a top-notch dining experience. 'Mr Kwek (CDL executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng) asked me to do French cuisine with the most beautiful ingredients in the world,' says chef Colin, who also expressed a desire for Les Saveurs to make it to the short list of Singapore's top fine dining destinations.

His father and grandfather were both chefs with restaurants in Paris and he says he has wanted to be a chef since he was seven. 'I'm convinced that if you have good quality products - scallops from Brittany, tomatoes from Italy, olive oil from the south of France - we will succeed in getting the taste of the ingredients to come out,' says Colin, 33, who has worked in exotic locations all over the world. 'I'm trying to get the vibe of the country wherever I am. Singapore is the New York of Asia - cosmopolitan and eclectic. I can feel that the Singapore dining scene just wants to explode.'

In addition to separate menus for different times of the day, the restaurant features a six-course festive tasting portion dinner menu ($155, plus $98 with optional wine pairings), a seven-course Christmas Eve menu ($190, another $108 with champagne and wines) and a nine-course menu for New Year's Eve ($238 and $128 for wines).

At a dinner tasting of the festive season menu over the weekend, we started with a delicious foie gras bonbon, crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. This was followed by a trio of oysters in the shell, served fresh or with a different sauce. Then came a roasted langoustine with a healthy dollop of Oscietra caviar and an apple-celery mousse, and an organic fava bean soup. The meat course came in the form of a poached turkey roulade with foie gras and chestnut. For good measure, we also sampled a wagyu ribeye, served with French fries cooked in duck fat.

Understandably, there are a few kinks in the service, and fine dining in a less-than-intimate space might take a bit of getting used to, but the cuisine at Les Saveurs shows definite promise. Even the table butter - from a small producer called Bordier - is top drawer. As advertised, Monsieur Colin lets his ingredients do most of the talking, with each dish presented simply yet creatively. He intends to do the same for everything else on the various menus, whether it is the Asian breakfast ($40), the Alaskan chilli crab ($38) or the black truffle risotto ($45).

It won't take long for Les Saveurs to catch on with ladies who lunch, the business crowd and those for whom dining at the St Regis holds a certain cachet. Les Saveurs represents a beautiful challenge for him, says Colin. 'When everything is a la carte from breakfast to dinner, you can still have a fine-dining experience,' he says. 'French cuisine is not like in the 80s anymore - I'm using Japanese ingredients, adding Latin touches - plus I have the luxury to look for the best.'

Les Saveurs
The St Regis Singapore,
29 Tanglin Road.
Tel: 6506-6866 or 6506-6888
www.stregis.com

Rating: 7.5/10

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