Loca Niru, the one-MICHELIN-star restaurant inside the House of Tan Yeok Nee on Penang Road, is hosting its first four-hands dinner on 27 and 28 October 2026. Seoul’s two-star Chef Allen Suh is flying in to cook alongside the house team. A seat costs S$428++, and for food nerds in Singapore this is a rare chance to eat a Korean two-star kitchen’s cooking without booking a flight to Seoul.
The splurge comes as part of the restaurant’s first anniversary, which runs through to December with a champagne partner, Laurent-Perrier, attached to almost every part of the celebration. Whether all of it suits you comes down to your wallet and how much you care about who is cooking.
From Osaka to a Star
Loca Niru opened on 6 November 2025 in the 140-year-old House of Tan Yeok Nee. Within a year it had earned one MICHELIN Star, and its executive chef, Shusuke Kubota (everyone calls him Chef Shu), picked up the MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2026 Young Chef Award. We flagged him in our roundup of Singapore restaurant anniversaries earlier this month, and this collaboration is the first real chance to watch him cook beside a peer.
His route here is a long one. The MICHELIN Guide’s profile says he trained in Osaka, France and Tokyo, including at the one-star Sincère under his mentor Shinsuke Ishii, before moving to Singapore in 2020. Those three stops explain the plate: Japanese restraint, French technique and a growing fascination with Southeast Asian produce. In that same profile, he says he wants to understand those ingredients and the culture behind them rather than lean on lazy “fusion” labels.
Two dishes have stuck around since opening night and become his signatures. The first is a Nyonya beurre blanc, a French butter sauce given a Peranakan twist, which debuted with isaki (grunt fish). The second is the house-made buah keluak bread, built around the black nut that Peranakan cooks have long used in their dishes. Kubota calls the first year “a conversation with the seasons,” and says the restaurant’s rule is unchanged: “let the season lead and let ingredients speak.”
The Chef Flying in From Seoul
Chef Allen Suh runs Restaurant Allen in Seoul, which holds two MICHELIN Stars in the guide’s 2026 Seoul selection. He opened Restaurant Allen, his more personal project, in 2021, and it collected a star in its first year and a second the year after.
His cooking reads Korean produce through French technique, and he treats the sourcing of each ingredient as part of the menu’s story. That’s close to how Kubota works, except one kitchen gets there through Korea while the other gets there through Japan and Southeast Asia.
Kubota is clear about what he wants out of it. “A four-hands dinner only means something if both kitchens come out of it changed,” he says, and adds that he wanted “each dish answering the other, not two menus served one after another.” That ambition sets this event apart from guest dinners where each chef plates a few courses and leaves.
What’s on the Plate
Suh brings butter-poached lobster on a risotto of Korean Baek Mi Hyang rice, finished with Parmigiano sabayon and fried ginkgo nuts. He follows it with charcoal-grilled soy-marinated beef short rib served with galbi jus (the sauce from Korean barbecued short ribs) and butter-fried kimchi, which sounds like the course people will be posting.
Kubota replies with a Hassun, the seasonal platter course from Japanese kaiseki dining, of Botan Ebi with daikon and yuzu, plus yellowtail with Japanese pear. Then comes Samegarei, a Hokkaido roughscale flounder finished with his Nyonya beurre blanc. Pitting the lobster rice against the flounder makes sense, since each chef is putting forward the dish that best explains his kitchen.
The Math on S$428++
Here’s the honest bit. The “++” on Singapore menus means service charge and GST go on top of the listed price. The four-hands menu costs S$428++, and the optional alcoholic pairing adds S$208++, so with the pairing the listed total is S$636++ per person before those charges. That’s well into anniversary-dinner territory.
For context, Loca Niru’s regular eight-course menu costs S$298++, so the collaboration carries a S$130 premium for the visiting chef. Closer to home, the Willow x Akar four-hands in May 2026 cost S$338++.
Is it worth it? If you’re the kind of diner who follows chefs the way other people follow footballers, yes, because three services with a visiting two-star chef don’t come around often. If you mainly want a lovely meal in a beautiful old house, the regular menu gets you the same room and the same signatures for less.
Champagne, Twice Over
Laurent-Perrier, the champagne house founded in 1812, is Loca Niru’s collaborating partner for the anniversary. Beyond appearing in the four-hands pairing, it shows up in two more ways, and one of them is the sleeper pick of the whole programme.
An Evening with Laurent-Perrier on Thursday, 26 November 2026 is a private dinner for 12 guests. It runs to eight courses with five champagnes, including Ultra Brut, Brut Vintage 2018 and the prestige Grand Siècle Iteration No. 26, while brand ambassador Olivier Six talks guests through the house’s history. At S$368++, it costs less than the four-hands menu before any drinks, and the champagne is included. For a champagne fan, that’s the strongest value on this list!
Then, from 17 November to 16 December 2026, the regular Autumn Menu (S$298++) gets a S$188++ wine pairing of six labels, including Laurent-Perrier’s Héritage Brut NV and Cuvée Rosé. Dishes include rice-straw-smoked Modori Katsuo (returning autumn bonito) and sugarcane-reared Kajiya Wagyu. This is the gentlest entry point if a first visit is the goal.
So Who Should Book?
If you can only do one, pick based on what excites you. The four-hands is for the chef-obsessed who want to see two kitchens push each other. The champagne dinner suits anyone who would rather spend on Grand Siècle than on a visiting chef, but with only 12 seats it won’t stay open long. The Autumn Menu is the date-night option that won’t leave you eating instant noodles until payday.
🗓️ Date: 27 and 28 October 2026
⏰ Time: Dinner on 27 October; lunch and dinner on 28 October
📍 Location: Loca Niru, House of Tan Yeok Nee, 101 Penang Road, #02-01, Singapore 238466
🍽️ FIRST ENCOUNTERS: Eight-course four-hands menu at S$428++ per guest, optional alcoholic pairing at S$208++ (featuring Laurent-Perrier)
🥂 An Evening with Laurent-Perrier: Thursday, 26 November 2026, 7pm, eight courses with five champagnes at S$368++ per guest, 12 seats
🍂 Autumn Menu with Laurent-Perrier Pairing: 17 November to 16 December 2026, S$298++ per guest, pairing at S$188++
📱 Reservations: WhatsApp +65 8227 4313 or call +65 6592 5815
A restaurant turning one with a star, a young chef award and a two-star guest from Seoul is the kind of first year most kitchens only daydream about. With just three services for FIRST ENCOUNTERS and a dozen seats for the champagne dinner, the smart move is to decide quickly. Message Loca Niru on WhatsApp at +65 8227 4313, or check the Loca Niru website and Instagram (@locanirusg) to lock in a seat before they’re gone!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of Loca Niru and Restaurant Allen.
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