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By virtue of its location on level two of a forlorn industrial building in Singapore's staid Kallang River Basin precinct, you'd expect nothing but canteen cuisine from Kilo, tel: (65) 6467 3987. But Javier Perez and Sharon Lee, proprietors of this newly minted restaurant, are delivering food that's more blue ribbon than blue collar.

With the help of chef Bryan Lee, who worked at the duo's previous venture, Raw Kitchen Bar, Perez and Lee have fashioned a menu of seriously fun fusion cuisine. It's influenced in doses by Perez's birthplace of Puerto Rico and by the couple's frequent business trips to Bangkok, where they co-own a Japanese-Thai restaurant.

"Kilo started with a Japanese menu but, along the way, we melded bold South American and Thai accents, and our guests seem to be enjoying it," says Sharon Lee. The ceviche, for instance, is re-imagined as a Thai-style salad, with heaps of baby spinach tossed with cubes of tuna, salmon and octopus in a soy dressing spiked with fish sauce and lime. Mains, such as the balsamic duck leg and baked salmon, are less playful but the latter is worth a repeat order just for the accompanying mound of divine, parsley-scented rice infused with basil and lemongrass.

"We wanted Kilo to be underground, hence the offbeat location," explains Perez on a packed Friday evening. As he speaks, he serves our concluding course of lemon tart — just rich and satisfying enough to make me hope that the restaurant's name isn't a reference to the extra amount one weighs upon departure. 


• EVELYN CHEN
• A meal at Kilo is worth the weight