Starchitect Kengo Kuma’s first public project in Singapore is new Japanese restaurant Suzuki. Is it as good as it looks?

NEW RESTAURANT

Suzuki #01-09 Mondrian Hotel Singapore 089813 Tel: 9755 7899 Open for lunch and dinner Tues to Sun: 12 pm to 2:30 pm; 6:30 pm to 11 pm.

WE’VE seen many a block of hinoki in Singapore – that sweetly-scented hunk of cypress wood that tells you no pennies were saved in the making of the sushi restaurant it sits in. But it’s really rare to see a collection of Japanese indigenous materials gathered in one place – hinoki, bamboo, ancient stone – looking like they got lost on the way to a building supplies convention, or a prefectural antenna shop.