Petra, a new Mediterranean-Levantine restaurant, opens at Dempsey Hill on Saturday 24 October, and reservations are already open. Petra takes Level 1 of 40C Harding Road, with a kitchen led by former Aniba Singapore executive chef Anas Shami and Dawid Nowosadzki, who held head chef roles at Ottolenghi and NOPI.
The restaurant is named after the ancient city in the Levant carved from rose-coloured stone. It is built for long lunches as much as dinners, with daytime service seven days a week and an all-day Saturday.
Who is cooking
Shami is Petra’s executive chef. His cooking began at home with his mother’s and grandmother’s food. He entered professional kitchens young, started out in pastry and then cooked in Berlin, Kyiv and Greece before joining the opening team at Aniba in Singapore, where he rose to executive chef. His food there drew on the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
Nowosadzki is the consultant chef. He has more than 17 years in kitchens across London, the Middle East and Japan. His years in the Ottolenghi group included head chef roles at NOPI and Ottolenghi, and he has also held senior roles at Soho House and an executive chef post in Doha.
His most recent job was head chef at Koma in Hakushu, Japan, a vegetarian deli-restaurant he co-founded, where he handled menus, product development and events. Vegetable-forward, produce-led cooking runs through his career, and Petra’s kitchen is centred on produce in the same way.
What the menu covers
The menu runs in three parts. Mezze covers house-made dips and breads baked on site. The section from the fire has wood-fired seafood and grilled meats. A patisserie section closes the meal with Mediterranean-inspired sweets and seasonal desserts.
Launch dishes include hummus with flatbread, a hamachi tartare and muhallabia, the milk pudding found across the Levant.
Hours and bookings
Weekdays run as two services. From Monday to Thursday, Petra is open from 11.30am to 3pm and from 5.30pm to 10.30pm. Friday has the same lunch hours, with dinner running to 11pm.
Saturday is one long stretch from 11.30am to 11pm. Sunday runs from 11.30am to 10.30pm.
Tables are booked online through SevenRooms, by phone on +65 9863 4505 or by email at [email protected]. Napier MRT station on the Thomson-East Coast Line is the nearest train stop to Dempsey Hill.
Private dining and events
The dining room is set amid Dempsey’s greenery and runs from daytime meals into sunset drinks and evenings over food and wine. Petra also has a private dining set-up for intimate dinners, long-table celebrations and larger events, with the space and menu shaped around each booking.
Petra opens to the public on 24 October at 40C Harding Road, Level 1, Dempsey Hill, Singapore 249548.
