It is not uncommon for car showrooms to offer guests refreshments like snacks and coffee. Posher establishments might even go the full hog with freshly brewed lattes. But few, such as soon-to-open Na Oh in Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre Singapore (HMGICS), can say that they are offering a full gastronomic experience backed up by some serious star power.
The casual Korean restaurant in the car showroom and plant will be headed by none other than chef Corey Lee, a Seoul-born culinary phenom who’s racked up cooking credits at fine-dining institutions like The Restaurant Marco Pierre White, Guy Savoy, and three-Michelin-starred The French Laundry in California.
He now focuses his efforts on his own modern Asian restaurant Benu in San Francisco, where his expression of Korean cuisine found fame and glory when it received three stars from the Michelin Guide, making him the first Korean chef to earn that rating.
The chef is now placing Korea in the spotlight once again, thanks to his culinary collaboration with South Korean car giant Hyundai. After all, it’s not every day you get to nosh on a full-blown tasting menu in a car showroom – not that this is your usual car showroom.
You see, HMGICS doesn’t just serve to show off the company’s snazziest new toys, but also develops and tests them onsite.
Notably, these include a two-storey vertical farm completely manned – in a manner of speaking – by robots, working tirelessly to produce nine different vegetables ranging from ice plant and red coral lettuce to swiss chard for the fixed tasting menus at Lee’s new restaurant.
These four-course menus, which will be served a la jinjitsang as a meal with a variety of accompaniments, are designed to deliver authentic, seasonal fare at an inclusive and approachable price point.
Offerings in the starter summer menu include refreshingly ice-cold dishes like mulhwe (seafood in a cold kimchi broth) and naengmyeon (cold beef noodles, here crafted with made-to-order buckwheat noodles and thinly shaved, salt-cured beef striploin), along with the well-loved staple of samgyetang (ginseng and chicken soup).
Na Oh opens on 15 June 2024 where it will operate from Wednesday to Sunday for lunch and dinner. Bookings are highly recommended.