Theme restaurants often bring out the cynic in me. That is because they are often very gimmicky, with dishes put into the menu more to fit the theme than because they taste good.

But Wood, a month-old restaurant in VivoCity that specialises in cooking with wood, has got me all fired up with enthusiasm. Cooking with wood or charcoal, as opposed to gas or electricity, is wonderful because the smoke imparts aroma to food. Even just using a different type of wood can affect the taste of the food.

At Wood, executive chef Jake Klein uses charcoal, walnut, cherry wood, mesquite, hickory, cedar and even barrel staves (wood from old wine barrels) to roast, grill and smoke the food. The 36-year-old chef from Miami, who was executive chef at Pulse Restaurant in New York’s Rockefeller Center before coming here, has also worked in Hong Kong and travelled around Asia, cooking in kitchens in Macau and Thailand.

Not surprisingly, Asian touches can be found in most of the dishes at Wood. While some, like the grilled onion salad with sweet soy vinaigrette ($14), have just a hint of the Orient, others are out-and-out Asian.

One of these is something called Ang Mo’s chicken satay with spicy peanut sauce. It costs $14 for six sticks of satay, which makes it the most expensive I’ve eaten. But it’s also the best. The difference is that the chicken comes in plump chunks instead of tiny pieces and is expertly grilled, leaving the meat still juicy.

It comes with a thick peanut sauce, but the meat is so aromatic with its marinade of spices that I prefer not to mask the taste with the sauce. The latter is not wasted, though. It makes a very nice dip for the pieces of raw onion and cucumber that come with the satay.



The food here is truly wonderful. I’ve been to the restaurant twice and was impressed both times.

You should definitely check out the smoked foie gras pizza with persimmon ($28). What makes the thin, crispy pizza work is the well-balanced flavour of the toppings. The exquisite mesquite-smoked goose liver has its richness tempered with the sweetness from the slivers of persimmon as well as a sprinkling of arugula leaves. A drizzle of red wine star anise reduction adds depth. But despite all
that stuff on the pizza, no one taste overwhelms. One thing, though: Do not leave it on the table too long. The pizza loses its crispiness pretty fast.

Seafood lovers will enjoy the wood roasted Manila clams, squid, red leg prawns with chilli, kalamansi and basil ($26) for the freshness of the ingredients. Nothing is overcooked, and the flavours – despite the chilli and the kalamansi – are light enough that you can drink up the juices in the bowl.

And if you like crab, fork out $50 or so for the ginger salt baked Sri Lankan mud crab (market price) as your main course. It’s a whole crab buried in a bed of salt and ginger and baked in a casserole. The idea is similar to the Chinese salt baked chicken, and the result tastes just as wonderful. The salt penetrates the shellfish just enough to flavour it, without making it overly salty.

Meat lovers will melt over the cardamom coffee smoked wagyu beef brisket ($30). It’s served thinly sliced, and is tender with a layer of luscious fat that almost melts in the mouth. Neither the cardamom nor the coffee is overly strong, allowing you to savour the meat. The only problem is that the leaner sides of meat are rubbed with a bit too much salt.

There are also two rice dishes that are worth trying. One is a smoked duck confit claypot rice with Indonesian sweet sauce, ginger and basil ($28). The shredded duck meat is a tad dry but the rice is good, with a nice crust at the bottom of the pot.

The other rice dish, stone grilled clam rice and prawns ($28; pictured at top of article), is probably inspired by the Korean hot stone bowl rice. It comes in a similar stone bowl that is filled with rice cooked with clam juice and flavoured with diced tomato and ginger. A few prawns are placed on top before the bowl is baked in a wood fire oven. It comes to the table scorching hot. The rice is delicious as it is, but if you want some spice, you can stir in some chilli powder mixed with a bit of sesame oil.

Desserts, however, are the weakest link here – even though they continue the wood theme in creative ways, being either baked, roasted or smoked. Both the banana dulce le leche pizza ($18) and wood-roasted berry crumble ($16) I tasted are passable but lack the richness of sinfully good sweets. It’s a pity to see a sizzling meal end with a sputter. Light up some better ideas, however, and Wood is destined to be one hot restaurant.

Wood Restaurant & Bar
1 HarbourFront, VivoCity #01-53
Tel: 6375-9663
Open: 11.30am -  2.30pm, 6.30 - 10.30pm
Food: 4/5
Service: 3½/5
Ambience: 4/5
Price: Budget from $80 per person

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Feb 10, 2008.