Fine Dining Near Me on Mohamed Sultan Road: Meta's Jeju Abalone Tasting Menu

Meta's eight-course dinner costs S$328++ per diner, with service charge and GST added on top, and the dish that has outlasted almost every menu change is Jeju abalone served with kamtae seaweed, lily bulb and juk, a Korean rice porridge. Chef-owner Sun Kim's restaurant sits at 9 Mohamed Sultan Road, #01-01, Singapore 238959, on the River Valley side of the Singapore River, and it holds two stars in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Singapore. If fine dining near me means somewhere near Robertson Quay, start here.

Meta's own directions point you to Fort Canning MRT on the Downtown Line, which the restaurant puts at around a six-minute walk from the door. Mohamed Sultan Road is a short street of shophouses off River Valley Road, with Thevar and Sushi Oono both within a few doors. Number 9 is on the ground floor, unit #01-01, so there is no lift lobby or hotel concourse to navigate before you reach the door.

Buses are the easier option from Orchard or the east. The nearest stop is UE Square, before Mohamed Sultan Road, served by routes 32, 54, 139 and 195, which leaves only a few steps to the restaurant. Drivers can park at UE Square Mall or in the lots along Mohamed Sultan Road itself. With the first dinner seating at 6pm, leaving the CBD by 5:30pm on a weekday gives you a buffer against the evening crawl on River Valley Road.

Sun Kim was born in Busan and raised in Seoul, where his mother ran a gamja-tang restaurant serving the pork bone and potato stew. At 26 he moved to Sydney, studied at Le Cordon Bleu and kept applying to Tetsuya's until Tetsuya Wakuda hired him; he worked there from 2011 to 2013, then followed Wakuda to Waku Ghin in Singapore in 2014. Kim told Tatler in June 2026 that Wakuda remains his idol and taught him most of his techniques.

Kim opened Meta on Keong Saik Road in November 2015, at 31. The name is short for metamorphosis, which he describes as a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. The first Michelin star came in 2017 and the second in 2024, and Meta has appeared on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants since 2021, ranking No. 77 in 2026. After a second address a few doors along Keong Saik, the restaurant moved to Mohamed Sultan Road in 2023, and Tatler named it Restaurant of the Year at its 2026 Best Awards in Singapore.

The 42-year-old chef avoids calling Meta simply a Korean restaurant, saying the label puts him in a box. In practice the foundation is jang, the family of fermented sauces that includes gochujang and doenjang, alongside perilla oil, omija berries and kimchi, layered over Japanese produce and French technique. Kim also told Tatler he is planning a more casual Korean comfort-food restaurant, though he has kept the details private, so for now Meta remains his only room.

Meta serves one fixed tasting menu dominated by seafood and vegetables, with a few meat courses and some sweet treats, and asks diners to set aside 2.5 hours. The abalone is the reason to come. Kim stacks it with Korean seaweed overnight, steams it, grills it over charcoal and brushes it with butter, then sets it over porridge infused with several seaweeds, anchovy dashi, abalone liver and sesame oil, his take on the jeonbokjuk Koreans eat when they are unwell.

Menus change with the seasons, so treat the published spring 2026 line-up as a guide to the kitchen's style rather than tonight's card. It ran bibim guksu, cold mixed noodles with fermented chilli and perilla oil; gyeran jjim, steamed egg custard lifted with omija, basil and crème fraîche; the abalone; and barbecue Wagyu with jangajji pickles, celtuce and green pea rice cooked in a cast-iron pot, a dish Kim built from a childhood memory of refusing his mother's pea rice.

The meat course has been served Korean barbecue style, with side dishes and a rice bowl alongside, and Restaurants for Kings notes that a supplementary Oriental Chicken has a following of its own. On the drinks side, the MICHELIN inspectors single out the non-alcoholic Korean drink flight as worth ordering instead of, or as well as, wine. A roasted barley tea has been served as an intermission between the savoury courses and dessert, a quiet reset before the pastry section begins.

Dinner is S$328++ for eight courses every night. A six-course version at S$288++ exists only Monday to Thursday and only on request, and lunch on Friday and Saturday costs S$248++. Beverage pairing adds S$280++ per person and the non-alcoholic pairing S$120++. Skip the six-course dinner if this is your first visit: it saves S$40 but trims the menu that best shows Kim's full range, and it is not offered at the weekend anyway.

Bringing wine costs S$200++ corkage per 750ml bottle, but Meta runs a 1-for-1 policy, so buying a bottle from the list lets you open one of your own. The pastry team will make a celebration cake for S$25 with at least one day's notice. Every booking needs a S$200 per diner authorisation hold on your card, all reservations are final, and changes must reach the team by email at least 72 hours ahead or the full menu price is charged.

Head counts matter too. If a table of five arrives as three, the two missing S$200 deposits, S$400 in total, are forfeited, although you can transfer the booking to another person or reschedule outside the 72-hour window. Children are welcome from age seven if they can eat the full tasting menu. The kitchen can adjust for some restrictions but not non-seafood, dairy-free, egg-free, vegan or gluten-free diets, so Meta is the wrong booking for those guests.

The Mohamed Sultan room is built around a counter that faces the pass, with a handful of tables behind, and Restaurants for Kings describes the lighting as low and even and the sound as easy for conversation. The 50 Best describes black awnings outside, concrete floors and gleaming glass panels. Inside, the palette is neutral, with textured wall panels, clean lines and cushioned seats, and a counter booking puts you level with Kim's brigade plating through the night.

The guide lists Meta as good for date night and for solo dining, and a single diner at the counter has a show to watch between courses. The 50 Best calls it the place to impress a date or prove to friends you know the city's food scene, while Restaurants for Kings pitches it for closing a business deal or a birthday dinner. Dress is smart casual, and the house rules ban flip-flops, slippers and shorts, which matters on a humid night by the river.

Fort Canning Park, bounded by River Valley Road, Clemenceau Avenue, Canning Rise and Hill Street, is served by the same Fort Canning MRT station, and NParks keeps all 22 hectares open 24 hours. Built between 2018 and 2019 for Singapore's bicentennial, its nine historical gardens include the First Botanic Garden, the Raffles Garden and the Spice Garden, which NParks calls the most diverse in Singapore. A loop under the old trees fits neatly before a 6pm seating.

If Meta is full, the plan B is literally across the road. Thevar, chef Mano Thevar's restaurant, has relocated to a restored shophouse at 16 Mohamed Sultan Road and also holds two stars in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Singapore. Its multi-course menu is rooted in Indian traditions with European technique, and the inspectors call the Chettinad chicken roti a must. Thevar serves dinner Monday to Saturday from 5:45pm and lunch on Friday and Saturday, according to its Michelin listing.

Meta is at 9 Mohamed Sultan Road, #01-01, Singapore 238959. Dinner runs Monday to Saturday, 6pm to 11pm, with a 6pm first seating and a second 8:30pm seating on Friday and Saturday only. Lunch is Friday and Saturday from noon, last seating 1pm. Dinner is S$328++ for eight courses, lunch S$248++, and each guest needs a S$200 card hold.