editorial

With a name that nods to the founding year of the Raffles hotel, Singapore’s grandest new restaurant offers a fresh take on the city’s culinary heritage.
<figure id="attachment_157305" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-157305" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-157305" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Le-Vert-Verdant-Forest-Dessert-and-Bar-Area.jpeg" alt="The Verdant Forest dessert features avocado soufflé with pistachio kombu ice cream and matcha chocolate; the bar at 1887 by André." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Le-Vert-Verdant-Forest-Dessert-and-Bar-Area.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Le-Vert-Verdant-Forest-Dessert-and-Bar-Area-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Le-Vert-Verdant-Forest-Dessert-and-Bar-Area-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Le-Vert-Verdant-Forest-Dessert-and-Bar-Area-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-157305" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: The Verdant Forest dessert pairs avocado soufflé with musk melon, pistachio kombu ice cream, and matcha chocolate; the bar at 1887 by André. (All photos courtesy of Raffles Singapore)</figcaption></figure>
Eight years after closing his acclaimed Restaurant André at the peak of its fame, Taiwanese chef André Chiang has returned to the Lion City with a bang. This time, he’s overseeing <a href="https://www.1887byandre.com/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1887 by André</a>, which has taken over the former Raffles Grill at the venerable Raffles hotel on Beach Road. It’s arguably the most talked-about opening in <a href="https://destinasian.com/travel-guide/singapore" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Singapore</a> this year.
Reimagined by Bangkok-based designer Bill Bensley, the dining room is a full-throated exercise in Victorian tropical excess: silver-foiled traveler’s palms, heart-shaped punkah fans waving beneath a hand-painted ceiling that evokes the sky glimpsed through a greenhouse canopy, and a gleaming cabinet of the hotel’s original silverware—some of it buried for safekeeping during World War II—positioned like a jeweler’s vitrine near the entrance. At the far end is a semicircular bar that accommodates walk-ins.
But as dazzling as Bensley’s makeover may be, the menu is where things truly get interesting. Chiang spent more than a year mining the hotel’s archives and emerged with a 60-dish à la carte selection that spans 140 years of Raffles history, Singaporean street food, and his own repertoire—all at once, in no particular order. Diners chart their own path. A laksa paella sits alongside duck Apicius roasted in oak and spices; bak kut teh reworked as a French blanquette shares the menu with foie gras royale and a soupe à l’oignon built on salt-baked oxtail, theatrically served in a hollowed-out onion. Likewise, a gelatinous turtle soup recast from a 1917 recipe features grouper and double-boiled chicken in place of turtle meat. Three themed set menus offer a more guided route for the indecisive.
Chiang’s return to Singapore marks a new chapter in other ways, too: it comes just over a year after the closure of his two-Michelin-starred Taipei restaurant RAW, which will reopen as a culinary academy in the months ahead. For a chef who has never stopped moving, 1887 by André may well have the staying power he seeks.
<figure id="attachment_157306" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-157306" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-157306" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Raffles-Silver-Beef-Wagon-and-Bak-Kut-Teh-Blanquette.jpeg" alt="A silver beef wagon at 1887 by André; the restaurant’s bak kut teh–inspired blanquette." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Raffles-Silver-Beef-Wagon-and-Bak-Kut-Teh-Blanquette.jpeg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Raffles-Silver-Beef-Wagon-and-Bak-Kut-Teh-Blanquette-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Raffles-Silver-Beef-Wagon-and-Bak-Kut-Teh-Blanquette-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Raffles-Silver-Beef-Wagon-and-Bak-Kut-Teh-Blanquette-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-157306" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: A silver beef wagon at 1887 by André; the restaurant’s bak kut teh–inspired blanquette.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_157304" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-157304" style="width: 1800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-157304" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Chef-Patron-Andre-Chiang-Chef-de-Cuisine-Ben-Wang-and-Sous-Chef-Roy-Kuo.jpg" alt="André Chiang (left) with chef de cuisine Ben Wang (center) and sous chef Roy Kuo." width="1800" height="1200" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Chef-Patron-Andre-Chiang-Chef-de-Cuisine-Ben-Wang-and-Sous-Chef-Roy-Kuo.jpg 1800w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Chef-Patron-Andre-Chiang-Chef-de-Cuisine-Ben-Wang-and-Sous-Chef-Roy-Kuo-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Chef-Patron-Andre-Chiang-Chef-de-Cuisine-Ben-Wang-and-Sous-Chef-Roy-Kuo-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Chef-Patron-Andre-Chiang-Chef-de-Cuisine-Ben-Wang-and-Sous-Chef-Roy-Kuo-768x512.jpg 768w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Chef-Patron-Andre-Chiang-Chef-de-Cuisine-Ben-Wang-and-Sous-Chef-Roy-Kuo-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/1887-by-Andre-Singapore-Chef-Patron-Andre-Chiang-Chef-de-Cuisine-Ben-Wang-and-Sous-Chef-Roy-Kuo-1568x1045.jpg 1568w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-157304" class="wp-caption-text">André Chiang (left) with chef de cuisine Ben Wang (center) and sous chef Roy Kuo.</figcaption></figure>
This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">June/July 2026</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Past Perfect”). Buy a single issue or subscribe <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

André Chiang (left) with chef de cuisine Ben Wang (center) and sous chef Roy Kuo.

1887 by André is an Ode to Singapore Food History