Fine Dining Near Me in Orchard: Les Amis and Its Four Trolleys

Les Amis opened on 15 March 1994 as Singapore's first independent fine dining restaurant, and in August 2026 the tenth MICHELIN Guide Singapore again gave it three stars. The dining room is at 1 Scotts Road, #01-16 Shaw Centre, Singapore 228208, where Scotts Road meets Orchard Road. Lunch starts at 12pm and dinner at 7pm, seven days a week, and the two autumn tasting menus cost $420 and $550 before service charge and GST. If fine dining near me means Orchard, this is the oldest French benchmark in town.

The name is French for friends, and the restaurant's own history page says it was founded by a few friends who loved French culture and wanted a restaurant run to the standards they had met at top tables in France. That was 1994, when Singapore had almost no independent fine dining. Les Amis now describes itself as the only restaurant in Asia holding three Michelin stars, a five-star Forbes Travel Guide rating and a Wine Spectator Grand Award at the same time.

Recognition in 2026 has been steady. The MICHELIN Guide Singapore released on 4 August 2026 kept Les Amis, Odette and Zén as the city's only three-star restaurants, and the guide counted Les Amis among 12 restaurants that have held a star in every Singapore edition since 2016. Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2026 ranked it No. 38, and that listing credits pastry chef Cheryl Koh alongside the head chef on the pass.

Sébastien Lepinoy started cooking in 1990 at 15, and he told Exquisite Taste in March 2026 that his most important mentor was Joël Robuchon, with whom he worked from 1993 to 2010. He moved from Hong Kong to Singapore in 2013. According to Asia's 50 Best, his first moves were to cut menu prices by 40 per cent and persuade the owners to gut the kitchen for a custom-made Charvet cooking suite. His title on the restaurant's site is Director of Culinary and Operations.

Lepinoy says that after arriving in Singapore he dropped the Asian accents of his earlier career and committed fully to classical French cooking. Most produce is flown in from France, a point both the MICHELIN inspectors and the restaurant's own menu notes make. His other change was theatrical: about eight years ago, while chasing the third star, he brought back service trolleys for bread, cheese, ice cream and champagne, at a time when most fine dining rooms had abandoned them.

The autumn menus posted on 15 October 2026 offer two tasting routes, each served to the whole table. Le Menu Automne Classique, at $420, runs from caviar on petals of Roseval potato with condiments and herbs, to a silky chestnut velouté with pork belly, to black forest venison crusted with truffle and juniper berries beside a grapefruit compote. Autumn cheeses come from the trolley or on a plate, and dessert is a baba soaked in agricole rum with lightly whipped crème fleurette.

Le Menu Automne Tradition Française costs $550 and goes richer: Normandy blue lobster prepared Belle Mer style, hand-dived scallops in Château-Chalon sauce, line-caught sea bass with oscietra caviar, sorrel champagne sauce and artichoke, then Challans duck breast from the Vendée with glazed turnips. It ends with a warm apple soufflé scented with Calvados and served with cider ice cream. The venison also appears on the Asia's 50 Best description of the current tasting menu, so it is the safest bet as a house dish.

A la carte is the other way in. The Roseval potato caviar is $155, caviar with blue lobster jelly and cauliflower cream is $115, and a 125g tin of Petrossian caviar with blinis for two costs $595. The venison and the Blackmore wagyu tenderloin with crisp potato soufflées are both $155, and every dessert is $45. The menu page also lists a three-course prix fixe at $205, offered Monday to Thursday only and not on public holidays, which is the lowest price of entry here.

Wine is half the reason regulars come. The list runs to more than 1,800 labels, and over 90 per cent are French, weighted heavily to Burgundy and Bordeaux. The pairing card dated 14 October 2026 offers three tiers. Classique is $160 for three glasses, Découverte is $360 for five, and Plénitude is $720 for six, a lineup that includes Dom Pérignon Plénitude 2 from 2006 and 100ml of 2002 Château d'Yquem poured from an Impériale.

Corkage is allowed but priced to discourage casual use: $200++ per bottle for the first two 750ml bottles, $300++ for each bottle after that, and $300++ for any bottle of spirits. Tables of one to five guests get a one-for-one waiver for every bottle bought from the list at $300 or more before tax and service, while tables of six or more do not. Sommelier questions can go to la.sommelier@lesamis.com.sg before the visit.

Reservations go through the restaurant's SevenRooms page, and the concierge team answers Monday to Friday from 10am to 6pm. It will not take bookings through Instagram or other social media. Tables of six or more must contact the concierge directly. For five guests or fewer, cancelling with less than 48 hours' notice costs SGD 250++ per guest. Larger parties prepay the full menu price on booking, get 50 per cent back if they cancel with less than two weeks' notice, and nothing back inside 48 hours.

The dress code is smart casual, and the restaurant spells it out: long trousers and covered shoes for men, with tailored trousers recommended, and no shorts or flip-flops for anyone. Children are welcome from age 10. The kitchen cannot adjust dishes for dairy allergies or intolerances, so anyone avoiding butter and cream should book elsewhere, since this is a cuisine built on both. Payment is by Visa, Amex, Mastercard or JCB, and a celebration cake from the pastry team can be ordered in advance.

One honest timing note. Lunch seats from 12pm with the last seating at 1:15pm and the last order at 1:30pm, and the a la carte blue lobster carries a stated 20-minute wait. On a working lunch with a hard 2:30pm return, skip the lobster and order the venison or the prix fixe. Dinner seats from 7pm to 8:15pm, and the restaurant closes on certain holidays, so book festive dates early.

The restaurant's day-in-the-life gallery describes the room better than any review. By 8am the team polishes the marble floors and Italian leather chairs, vacuums the carpets and cleans the antique crystal chandeliers and full-length windows. Bakers arrive at 7am and bake a dozen kinds of bread twice a day, once for lunch and once for dinner. At 10:30am, linen is laid and the bread, cheese, ice cream and champagne trolleys are prepared before the maître d'hôtel unlocks the front doors at noon.

The main dining hall seats 56, and the Les Salons events arm can seat 36 more across a mezzanine and private rooms: Rooms 1 and 2 hold four to six guests each, Room 3 takes seven to 14, and there is a Chef's Table and a Magnum Room. The restaurant pitches itself for business lunches, proposals and birthdays, and the MICHELIN listing tags it for date night. Asia's 50 Best notes white-gloved service, with dedicated servers for cheese, truffles and caviar.

Orchard MRT station, an interchange on the North-South Line (NS22) and the Thomson-East Coast Line (TE14), is the nearest stop. SMRT lists Exit 1 for Shaw House, which stands next to Shaw Centre at the Orchard Road and Scotts Road junction, and Les Amis faces the HSBC Tanglin branch on the ground floor. Shaw House itself replaced the 1958 Lido Cinema. The 21-storey rebuild finished in 1993 and houses the Lido cineplex and an Isetan store.

After lunch, walk up Scotts Road to Goodwood Park Hotel at 22 Scotts Road. It opened on 21 September 1900 as the Teutonia Club's Deutsches Haus, designed by R. A. J. Bidwell of Swan and Maclaren, and its turreted Tower Block was gazetted a national monument on 23 March 1989.

Les Amis, 1 Scotts Road, #01-16 Shaw Centre, Singapore 228208, opposite HSBC Tanglin branch. Lunch daily from 12pm, last seating 1:15pm. Dinner daily from 7pm, last seating 8:15pm. Closed on certain holidays. Autumn tasting menus $420 and $550, three-course prix fixe $205 Monday to Thursday, wine pairings $160, $360 and $720, all plus service charge and GST. Late cancellation SGD 250++ per guest. Ages 10 and up. Nearest station: Orchard MRT, Exit 1.