Go for the views at Forage at Mandai Rainforest Resort, but stay for its harvest-to-table spread

When Mandai Rainforest Resort by Banyan Tree began accepting reservations and stays earlier this year, it was met with much fanfare. It not only marked the hospitality group’s first property in Singapore, but also its 100th one worldwide. 

With stays starting as early as April this year, you would have likely seen its unique treehouses all over your social media feed, set against the scenic coastline of Upper Seletar Reservoir.

If you’ve contemplated a stay, whether it’s for a slice of serenity, or even to get that shot for the ‘gram, here’s another way to enjoy those views.

Forage is a specialty restaurant that opened its doors around the same time the resort did, serving up chef-determined course menus, with daily-sourced ingredients, including some from the resort’s edible garden.

The restaurant, one of Mandai’s newest and also likely the fanciest, is open to the public — even if you’re not a resort guest — for dinner, by reservation-only. 

It sports floor-to-ceiling glass panels, as well as a thoughtfully-arranged seating arrangement across its restaurant, giving you an unobstructed view of Upper Seletar Reservoir, from sunset to dark.

Forage’s course menus start from S$138 for a five-course Discovery menu, and go up to S$198 for an eight-course Experience menu. At this point of time, the restaurant only runs one dinner seating at 6pm, daily.

The kitchen is helmed by chef Marcus Tan, who has a decade of fine-dining experience under his belt. He has had stints at one-starred Michelin spots such as Ma Cuisine and the now-closed 28 Wilkie, and the two-starred Saint Pierre. 

The harvest-to-table-inspired menu changes seasonally — the dishes served up are influenced by the harvest from the resort’s edible rooftop garden, as well as sustainably sourced ingredients from local producers.

For example, it gets its poultry from Toh Thye San Farm, and Ah Hua Kelong for its farmed seafood and fish. 

Experiencing Forage at Mandai’s menu

Getting to the restaurant is relatively straightforward, though it is a bit of a trek — it is one of the locations further into the Mandai area, after you’ve passed the various parks.

Once you’re at the resort and Forage, however, you’ll get the sense that you’ve entered a different side of Singapore, with the surrounding calmness, and abundant greenery. 

Our evening at Forage began with a glass of complimentary champagne, as part of the tasting menus offered. 

You can opt to sip it in the restaurant, in cool air-conditioned comfort, or wander out to its al fresco stairwell that leads up to the rooftop pool. We chose the latter, because it’s the best chance to get that prized shot of its treehouses from a bird’s eye view, all with a bubbly in hand. 

The eight-course meal, which we experienced in late-September, started off light, with an amuse bouche featuring a trio of tarts — mostly vegetarian — such as a mixed mushroom tart cooked with Madeira wine, with hints of umami. 

Diving into the appetisers, the soybean, leek, and Kaluga hybrid caviar is an interesting blend of sweet, savoury and umami, featuring a mildly sweet soybean custard, with ponzu-marinated leek, seaweed sauce, and Kaluga hybrid caviar. 

It gradually sets the tone for the mains, which lean mostly towards fresh seafood, though it ends off with chicken and wagyu.

Of its various seafood-based mains, the Beijing cabbage, shiitake mushroom, and crustacean broth, as well as the lobster, tamarind, bunga kantan, and laksa leaf, was particularly memorable.

The former is a take on the Taiwanese braised cabbage dish, where chef Marcus serves up 36-hour-braised cabbage as a terrine, surrounded by a moat of crustacean broth. 

The cabbage is sweet and soft, and complements the robust broth so well that I set out to meticulously ration both ingredients to ensure I’d get a taste of both in each spoonful. 

The latter — also a briney, flavourful dish — is chef Marcus’ take on assam pedas, a sour-spicy fish stew, but with a fresh lobster coin wrapped in bacon, much like a surf and turf. 

Here, he incorporates elements from the edible garden, such as ginger flower, tamarind, and laksa leaf, into the sauce. While it isn’t quite a broth, the accompanying sauce is so tasty that you’d be forgiven for slurping it up like one. (Or you could also use the rustic bread that comes at the start to mop it up.) 

The meal closes off with two heavier protein mains — a chicken 4-ways and a wagyu striploin. 

The chicken main is a fun interpretation of the Taiwanese dish san bei ji (or three-cup chicken), where chef Marcus has presented chicken in four ways. Our favourite of the lot was the chicken in a stuffed roll, which resembled a ngoh hiang. 

There’s also a surprise component at the end — also chicken — that was comforting and a welcome prelude before the sweeter components came in.

You’ll see elements of the garden in your dishes right up till the end. The dessert finale — a vanilla and white chocolate parfait — came with a sorbet of tarragon and mint, and flavoured with stevia, all of which are grown in-house. 

With prices starting at S$138 for a five-course menu, the promise of a fresh and sustainably-sourced meal, and with stellar views, we think Forage at Mandai should be next on your list for a special night out, whether it’s with your special someone or even your family.

If you want to couple that with a stay at the adjacent Mandai Rainforest Resort by Banyan Tree, we don’t think that’s a bad idea at all, either. 

For more places to explore around Mandai, check out our full guide to our fave Mandai food spots, or also visit Cavern, Singapore’s first cave restaurant, located nearby at Rainforest Wild Asia.