Jake Kellie

Born on the Central Coast in Australia, Jake Kellie has cooked in heavyweight kitchens around the world including The Ledbury in London, The Fat Duck in Bray and was head chef at Singapore barbecue restaurant Burnt Ends for more than three years before returning to Australia and opening his own restaurant Arkhé in Adelaide. Despite his age, Kellie has compiled an impressive international CV that includes stages and guest dinners around the world as well as finishing runner-up at the 2018 San Pellegrino Young Chef finals. Working in Singapore didn’t just give him access to ingredients from all over the world, but a diverse spread of food options ranging from high to low.

arkhe.com.au
Follow Jake

My Favourite Restaurant In Singapore

My favourite restaurant in Singapore at the moment is Hashida, a super-intimate Japanese restaurant. I went there on New Year’s Eve and had one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time. It was stunning. Super tasty, and the seafood was unbelievably fresh. Hatch (chef Kenjiro Hashida), who’s the chef there, is a legend and he’ll always have a chat or share a glass of Champagne or sake with you. It’s really fun vibes. His signature is toro (super fatty tuna belly), it’s so delicious. He carves it off the belly, lightly warms it over charcoal until the fat starts to melt, and then you just eat it like sushi with a nice bit of rice and a little bit of soy on top. It’s fucking delicious. That’s one of the joys of being in Singapore. We’re exposed to all the different fresh seafood you can get from Japan.  Another thing at Hashida I hadn’t seen in Singapore was Hatch pulling out fresh ikura (salmon roe) that was still in the egg sack. It was crazy.  

Supper At The End Of The Week

There’s a place called Dong Fang Mei Shi (Oriental Chinese Restaurant), that’s open till 5am, that we eat at pretty much every Saturday after work for a late-night supper. We’ll just go and crush like eight or 10 plates of food, have a laugh and a beer. They specialise in food from Dong Bei (in China’s north-east), so we’ll get things like these super-spicy pork ribs and eggplant; egg white omelette with braised tomatoes, fried garlic shoots and meat and chive dumplings.

Noodles And Fried Dumplings

There’s also a hawker I go to called Ji Ji Wonton. That’s pretty local and not too far from where I live so I go there a fair bit and crush a bowl of noodles and some fried dumplings.

Where I Go To Drink

When it comes to bars, I think we’re really spoiled for choice in Singapore. Atlas is definitely one of my favourites. The building is absolutely stunning. Every time I walk in, I’m dumbfounded by how beautiful it is. If I’m feeling a bit rowdy and want to get on it, I go to Employees Only. It’s very much a hospo bar and a good place to go for a cheeky Negroni on the way home. The music is super loud, the drinks are really good, and the hospitality there is great, they really look after you.

Where I Go To Drink (The Sunday Edit)

On a Sunday, if I’m feeling up for it, there’s a really Aussie place called Boomerang. It’s a sports bar, and I can go there and watch the footy and have a few beers. At Manhattan Bar they do a Sunday brunch, which is dangerous. It starts at 12 and ends at 3pm. To get your money’s worth, you’ve got to get there at 12. Oh man, I went there at the start of the year and let’s just say it was a great Sunday spent. Manhattan’s quite big so they have different booths where you can make your own smoothie or do your own Bloody Mary. They also have normal classic cocktails as well, so yeah, it’s good fun.  

Our guides are fact-checked and updated regularly. Read more here.

This is where you say something cool and awesome about this website and business. Can be whatever the hell you want.

Copy link
Powered by Social Snap
%d bloggers like this: