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Singapore’s first and only Chilean fine-dining restaurant at the <a href="https://mondrianhotels.com/singapore-duxton/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mondrian hotel</a> has done more than what travel agencies could do—piqued diners’ curiosity about the country and its produce.
With a single slab of luminous rose quartz carved into a dining counter, and a dusky-toned color palette that conjures dreamy sunsets and the Atacama Desert, chefs, co-owners and real-life partners Francisco Araya and Fernanda Guerrero transport diners to their South American homeland. Between them, their experience includes Mugaritz and El Bulli in Spain, and their own Michelin-starred 81 Restaurant in Tokyo, along with stints in China. At Araya, the couple celebrate their Chilean roots with Japanese ingredients and Asian inflections, earning the place its first Michelin star barely a year after opening.
Ditch the low-carb diet at the door. It’s impossible to resist pastry chef Guerrero’s tray of breads featuring Chilean marraqueta rolls and a sourdough potato bread with smoked chili butter, especially when umami cochayuyo (bull kelp) butter is served alongside. Araya’s twist on the traditional Brazilian moqueca stew uses kinki (Japanese rockfish) simmered in a sauce made with its bones and coconut milk for an elegant and comforting main. Guerrero presents an homage to the White Continent—a few days’ voyage from Chile’s southernmost tip—in a delightful second dessert. The liquid nitrogen-topped ensemble of goat’s-milk ice cream, freeze-dried crispy milk, cinnamon crème anglaise, dulce de leche, and Patagonian berries arrives at the table like an Antarctic landscape, with snowy white fog and frosty textures, appealing to every inner child. —Mavis Teo
<a href="https://arayarestaurant.com/?DestinAsian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arayarestaurant.com</a> 
+65 8870 0871 
<a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/rUcGdWoF9FGAZPJM7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mondrian Singapore Duxton, 83 Neil Rd., #01-08, Singapore</a>

Pouring the sauce of the Brazilian-inspired moqueca fish dish; counter seats in Araya’s intimate dining room.

Araya: South American Panache