Singapore’s F&B scene is seeing yet another loss as one-Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant Esora has announced its upcoming last day of operations after eight years.
In an Instagram post on Saturday (Sept 27), the kappo-style fine dining restaurant said that its last day will be on Dec 29.
Likening its imminent closure to the “transcience” of “every season”, the restaurant said in the post: “We warmly invite our cherished guests to share a final meal and memory in the spirit of autumn. Thank you for walking this path with us.”
Speaking to AsiaOne regarding the reason for closure, the restaurant’s spokesperson explained that it was due to market changes: “The restaurant industry will always be subjected to market forces despite the best efforts of our teams.”
Wee Teng Wen, founder and managing partner of The Lo & Behold Group added that “Singapore’s dining landscape is deeply influenced by shifting consumer tastes and economic tides”, and that “Esora’s closure is part of this broader change”.
Established in 2018, Esora is located in River Valley and is part of The Lo & Behold Group — the hospitality company behind lifestyle hub New Bahru and several other popular F&B concepts like Claudine, Fico and Bar Bon Funk.
It received its one Michelin star in 2021 and has maintained it since.
In 2022, Esora fired its former chef Shigeru Koizumi after an internal investigation into multiple accounts of mistreatment of staff.
He was replaced by head chef Takeshi Araki, who helmed three-Michelin-starred Nihonryori RyuGin in Tokyo.
According to the restaurant, it is “one of the first modern kappo-style fine dining restaurants” in Singapore.
For those who aren’t familiar, kappo-style dining is a multi-course experience where diners watch the chef prepare seasonal ingredients right in front of them.
The news of Esora’s upcoming closure follows two other Michelin-starred restaurants’ exit in recent months: European fusion fine dining restaurant Alma by Juan Amador and Restaurant Euphoria, which served French-style gastro-botanica (using botanical elements) cuisine.
Both restaurants shuttered in August.
AsiaOne has reached out to Esora for more information.
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carol.ong@asiaone.com
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