This season of Asia’s Finest Tables by UOB presents a gastronomic lineup of award-winning chefs and bespoke dining experiences across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, exclusively curated for selected UOB Cardmembers in the region
When deciding where to dine, discerning guests gravitate towards restaurants where talented chefs practise culinary artistry of ingredients, ideas, and memories into one unforgettable experience on a plate.
Guided by a clear vision, they shape flavour, temperature, texture, and narrative, refining every detail until each dish aligns with their intent, backed by awards and accolades that quietly attests to that dedication. Standout creations such as Breton lobster and dry-aged Penang duck promise to delight the palate, among many other highlights.
Through Asia’s Finest Tables by UOB, selected Cardmembers are invited into the world of MICHELIN-starred and award-winning establishments, with priority access to some of the region’s most sought-after dining destinations. Guests enjoy not only signature creations, but also UOB exclusive dishes at a preferred rate for two, each experience paired with a glass of Taittinger Prestige Rosé Champagne per diner.
This edition features seven acclaimed restaurants across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.
To book your tables, visit https://priority-access.com/uob
NAE:UM, One-MICHELIN Star (Singapore)
Awarded its first MICHELIN star in 2022 and retaining the accolade in 2025, Chef Louis Han’s cuisine is shaped by quiet introspection. The restaurant’s name, taken from the Korean word for “scent” or “aroma,” signals a menu rooted in memory and heritage. Each dish traces a chapter of Han’s personal journey, inviting diners into his experiences and cultural roots as the narrative unfolds through flavour, emotion and recall.
Chef Han’s cooking is at its most compelling in Kongguk, a humble Korean cold soybean broth interpreted with quiet restraint. Here, premium ingredients subtly elevate the familiar: truffle lends a gentle earthiness, while spring chicken adds a clean, savoury depth without disturbing the broth’s inherent purity. The result is a contemplative composition defined by contrast — creamy yet light, soothing yet delicately refreshing.
Equally memorable is the poached lobster with ssamjang rempah and potato porridge, a tribute to Singapore’s affection for this all-occasion staple. Chef Han’s interpretation is deepened by the fragrant rempah, threaded through Korea’s mother sauces of doenjang and gochujang, allowing the flavours to unfold in quiet succession. The lobster’s succulent sweetness pairs beautifully with the porridge’s softness, creating textures that feel at once new and familiar.
Omakase @ Stevens, One-MICHELIN Star (Singapore)
In 2025, Chef Kazuki Arimoto (Omakase @ Stevens) earned the restaurant its first MICHELIN star, alongside being named a recipient of the MICHELIN Guide Singapore Young Chef Award. Chef Arimoto approaches contemporary Japanese cuisine with composure and precision, allowing each course to unfold with clarity of intent. His cooking expresses harmony, vibrancy, and balance, where flavour, form, and craftsmanship come together with quiet assurance.
This is a regal dish that is a study in exacting subtlety. Pearls of caviar arrive nestled in their tin, spooned over finely chopped sakura seabream lightly cured in kombu. Beneath, a translucent layer of dashi jelly lends gentle buoyancy and savoury nuance, tempering the salinity above. Cucumber spheres punctuate the dish with cool crispness, while shiso flowers release a delicate whisper of perfume at the finish while crisp rice crackers add a satisfying crunch. With each bite, you are invited to slow down and enjoy Chef Arimoto’s mastery of carefully calibrated flavours and textures.
The seafood narrative continues with Breton lobster prepared using the arroser technique, basted steadily in hot fat until the flesh turns supple and luminous. The method coaxes both maximum tenderness and flavour, preserving the lobster’s natural sweetness. A sauce built on Daiginjo sake, polished to 50 per cent, is layered with white wine and shallots, yielding a measured complexity.
Behind the artistry with Chef Louis Han from NAE:UM, and Chef Kazuki Arimoto from Omakase @ Stevens
To book your tables, visit https://priority-access.com/uob
AKAR, One-MICHELIN Star (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
At AKAR, tradition is refracted through technique. Awarded its first MICHELIN Star in the MICHELIN Guide Kuala Lumpur & Penang 2026, the restaurant presents modern Malaysian tasting menus that interpret local produce through Japanese and French discipline. Chef Aidan Low navigates these influences with assurance, allowing indigenous ingredients to take the spotlight.
Inspired by the woven geometry of ketupat, Pahang Patin Lawang is lightly aged, cured in petai miso, wrapped in betel leaf, and encased in finely plaited spring-roll skin. An emulsion drawn from fish bones and infused with rendang spices is layered with dried seafood XO, creating a depth that feels at once nostalgic and reconsidered.
Ketupat is a beloved Malay specialty of compressed rice, packed into a small, intricately woven casing of young coconut or palm leaves and gently boiled until the grains swell into a firm, compact cake. Revered within the traditional Malay culinary repertoire, it holds a central place at festive tables.
Cherry Valley duck from Penang is brined in a house pepper cure and dry-aged for two weeks before being rendered slowly over Ipoh binchotan charcoal. The skin fractures delicately, giving way to the tender flesh. It is paired with Koshihikari rice from Hokkaido, perfumed with log-harvested shiitake and the unmistakable aroma of kulim. A blackened macadamia purée lends quiet sweetness, while a jus sharpened with velvet keranji introduces lift and balance.
Behind the artistry with Chef Aidan Low from AKAR
DC Restaurant, One-MICHELIN Star (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
At DC Restaurant, honesty and simplicity precede flourish. With 14 years of professional experience and classical French training, chef Darren Chin builds his cuisine on firm fundamentals and a philosophy of candour and restraint. Influenced by la Jeune Cuisine, he pares away excess, allowing natural flavours and quality ingredients to take centre stage.
Songkhla River Prawn: Fresh Mafalde Pasta | Sakura Ebi | Abalone Essence | Sauce Americaine
A dish with amazing depth, the wild Songkhla river prawn is gently roasted to preserve its natural brininess. Meanwhile, the prized head butter is coaxed into a sauce américaine enriched with abalone essence to complement and deepen the prawn’s character. As for the accompaniments, fresh mafalde gathers the sauce and every nuance of flavour with its ruffled edges, while sakura ebi, warmed just until translucent, release a measured aroma that lifts the dish with subtle umami.
18-Month Comté Choux: Apricot | Dry Sherry
This composed course pays homage to patience and time itself. The nutty depth of aged Comté is balanced by macerated apricots that lend restrained sweetness, while dry sherry introduces a faint almond note. The textures are calibrated rather than indulgent, leaving a clean and lingering finish on the palate.
To book your tables, visit https://priority-access.com/uob
GAA, Two-MICHELIN Stars (Bangkok, Thailand)
Helmed by Chef Garima Arora, GAA has become a benchmark for modern Indian fine dining, reimagining humble, everyday ingredients through inventive technique and global sensibility. Her signatures turn the familiar into the unexpected such as unripe jackfruit transformed into a roti with pickled vegetables; corn distilled into a delicate “corn milk” dessert; and betel leaf presented in both savoury and sweet expressions.
Chef Arora began her career as a journalist in Mumbai before retraining at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, later honing her craft in some of the world’s most exacting kitchens, including Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant in Dubai and Noma in Copenhagen under René Redzepi. In 2024, she became the first female Indian chef to helm a two-MICHELIN-starred restaurant — a milestone that firmly positions her at the forefront of contemporary Indian cuisine.
The signature pork belly is grilled until the fat renders and the meat takes on a quiet smokiness. Kerala tamarind cuts through with clean acidity, while pomegranate offers a flash of brightness. Finally, touches of coriander and onion introduce balance and texture, keeping the richness focused and finely drawn.
It is a dish that challenges expectation from the first bite. Organic chicken liver, seasoned with warming spices, is frozen and shaved thin so that it dissolves almost instantly against the heat of lightly smoky pav. The savoury depth is tempered by the cool sweetness of longan, creating a mouthfeel that feels surprising yet carefully orchestrated.
Behind the artistry with Chef Garima Arora from GAA
POTONG, One-MICHELIN Star (Bangkok, Thailand)
Craft, discipline, and ambition anchor POTONG. Chef Pichaya “Pam” Soontornyanakij, named The World’s Best Female Chef 2025 and Asia’s Best Female Chef 2024, became the first Asian and Thai woman to receive the global title. Her flagship restaurant, voted number one in Bangkok by Top25 Bangkok Restaurants, presents a Progressive Thai-Chinese tasting menu shaped around five elements: salt, acid, spice, texture, and the Maillard reaction. Each dish reads as part of a larger discourse on flavour and texture.
Wagyu Beef Tenderloin | Pepper Velouté | Thai Herbs | Smoked Oil
The Thai wagyu tenderloin is cooked gently, allowing its natural richness to remain centred. Here, the marbling loosens gradually under heat, yielding a texture that is supple, with each slice releasing depths of flavour. Fresh Thai herbs add brightness to every bite by cutting through the fat. A final drizzle of smoked oil lingers softly, adding a faint scent of char that elevates the dish.
Crispy Mantou & Caviar
The crisp-edged mantou arrives warm, its golden exterior yielding to a soft interior with a light, even crumb. Crowned with caviar, the bite is defined by contrast, crunch pairing with the pop and clean salinity of roe. The temperature shift between bread and caviar sharpens the experience, while the restrained portion keeps the richness in check.
Kindling, PRESTIGE Gourmet Awards 2025 – Indonesia’s 30 Best Restaurants (Gold Award)
Chef-owner Vallian Gunawan presents a contemporary take on Franco-Asian tasting menu shaped by technique and lived experience. Indonesian by birth, he spent over a decade training in Singapore and working in MICHELIN-starred kitchens such as L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Saint Pierre, and Odette before roles in Hong Kong and Bali refined his craft. Kindling, housed in a restored bungalow in Jakarta’s Cikini district, channels this journey into a menu that marries Asian flavours with French technique.
The Greenland halibut arrives gently roasted, its pearly flesh basted in nutty brown butter with garlic and thyme until just yielding. Beneath it, a ragout of leeks and oysters brings a savoury profile, subtly perfumed with kaffir lime leaf. Chef Gunawan’s creative touch includes a flavourful ginger flower sauce that is poured over the dish before finishing with fried chilli and a slick of kaffir lime oil. Baby coriander leaves add a fresh, lifted note, tying the dish together in a composition that is at once delicate and quietly complex.
The 12-day-aged duck is roasted slowly on the crown, its meat is the perfect shade of pink and is fork tender. The leg is folded into a dumpling filled with rich braise and the saline-sweet depth of preserved olive.
On the plate, black garlic gel lends a mellow, almost molasses-like earthiness, while a tamarind reduction introduces a gentle, balancing acidity. Kernels of Hokkaido white corn offer bursts of sweetness, brightening the composition.
At the table, a glossy duck bone jus, perfumed with angelica root, is poured, followed by a cup of clear, pure and concentrated broth. It is a dish that reveals its layers gradually, rewarding the diner with delicious depth and nuance.
Be among a select few to savour culinary excellence at MICHELIN-starred and award-winning restaurants, enjoying priority access to exclusive menus for two at preferential rates, each experience crowned with a glass of Taittinger Prestige Rosé Champagne.
Enjoy priority access to the most exquisite dining experiences in the region with Asia’s Finest Tables by UOB. To book your tables, visit https://priority-access.com/uob from 13 March (12pm).
