Vegetarian Japanese & Western Cuisine at Elemen, Millenia Walk: Dining Review

Vegetarian Friendly Meter –
Kid Friendly Meter –

Zen Ambience at the entrance of Elemen, Millenna Walk

Vegetarianism has always been a way of life for me. It is a healthier and fuss free option and has been serving my body well so far. As I pile on the years and some kgs too, I find myself constantly looking for unconventional yet tasty options for satiating the taste buds. On one such sojourn, we decided to try the much spoken about Elemen, Millennia Walk.

The Ambience

Opening its doors to public in 2015, Elemen, Singapore, attempts to serve healthy, wholesome Asian and Western food in a set meal and a-la-carte style. The ambience is non-fussy, clean and absolutely Zen like. The exterior is quiet and unassuming and merges into the neighboring set of shops – so keep a close watch, or you might miss this place.

Natural, straight line and clean interiors at Elemen

However, the interiors of this vegetarian restaurant are quite a contrast. Bright with natural hues and ample lighting and comfortable furniture, giving you a very tranquil feeling. It was a good start to the dining experience.

The Service

The service at Elemen is attentive and we had the manager of the branch dropping in quite frequently at all the tables to check on the guests. The menu includes a 5-course meal at SGD 23.80++ per person or the 8-course meal at SGD 32.80++ per person. The concept is somewhat similar to Su Food (a favourite restaurant), but has a more natural and healthy feel to the menu selection and the dishes are more unique and light on the palate. Also Elemen, Millenna Walk, has a more Japanese influence, as against Su Food’s Taiwanese influence.

We decided to go ahead and try the 8-course meal and here’s how our meal at Elemen, Singapore, went.

The Appetizers

The meal begins with a Starter. The elemen Appetizer is actually 3 appetizers – shitake mushroom with edamame in oyster sauce, black sesame tofu with sesame sauce and cherry tomato in vinegar – beautifully presented in a set of bite-sized portions. The staff advised us to eat these right to left to best experience the flavours. The appetizers were all nice but being the mushroom junkie that I am, the shitake mushroom was my favourite.

The starter is accompanied with Bread – Rosemary Breadsticks with Raspberry Yogurt Sauce to be precise. The bread was just perfect – fresh and soft, with a hint of herbs. The Raspberry Yogurt Sauce, however, was the star, lending it just the required amount of zing – a tangy treat for my tongue.

Salad & Soups

Soup, Salad and Apple Cider follow. There is a choice of 4 for each.

The salads sounded interesting – we tried Mushroom Salad and Quinoa Salad. The Quinoa Salad was a light salad, served in a very decorative style. However, I didn’t really take a fancy to this. For me, the Mushroom Salad was far more interesting, with 3 different types of mushrooms served in a soy sauce dressing. In fact, I didn’t even know the name of one of the mushrooms served as it was a rare one.

The soups at Elemen, Singapore, were fun – I tried the Double Boiled Burdock Roots with Monk Fruits and quite enjoyed it. Burdock is an underground tuber grown largely in Japan. It is believed to have numerous health benefits and contains powerful antioxidant. Ganesh tried the more conventional Wild Mushroom Cream Soup with Truffle Oil and wasn’t disappointed either. It was creamy with chunks of well-done mushroom and the truffle oil added the extra flavour.

The Apple Cider is just nice – sweet and bitter – exactly what my taste buds needed at that moment. I love my shot of cider so I enjoyed this very much.

The Mains

Pomodoro Pizza (Image Credit – Elemen’s Website)

Next came the choice of Mains. The choices in the main course at Elemen, Millenna Walk, were fancy. We chose the Traditional Pomodoro Pizza which seemed wood fired. It was light and delicious. My vote however, went to the Sizzling Quinoa Brown Rice that is served in a traditional hot stone bowl. The dish was a mix of brown rice and quinoa, with kale, mushrooms, broccoli and bell peppers; and had a sesame flavour to it. I thoroughly enjoyed both the dish and the experience of eating it off a hot stone bowl.

The Dessert

Coconut-Infused Jelly with Watermelon Sorbet

Choice of Desserts followed the mains and the ones we chose were a slight disappointment. Our first was Vanilla Sponge Cake with Glazed Raspberry Puree. The cake was too hard and the puree too frozen. The Coconut-Infused Jelly with Watermelon Sorbet was slightly better, but it had an overpowering taste of the watermelon sorbet and almost no coconut flavour in the jelly. Average!

The Drinks

Lemongrass Latte (Image credit: Elemen’s website)

The drinks sort of made up for dessert. I had a Lemongrass Latte which was delightful, combining two of my favourite flavours of coffee and lemongrass. I would have preferred it to be less sweet though. The Iced Lychee Green Tea was good too and finished our meal at Elemen, Singapore, nicely, but a double thumbs up to the Lemongrass Latte.

Verdict

Overall, our experience at Elemen was very pleasant for both the meal and the dining experience. Service is efficient, staff are courteous and the ambience is peaceful. The whole dining experience did leave us feeling refreshed from the inside out. Except for the desserts, I enjoyed the rest of our meal and would certainly go back to try the other dishes on their menu. The manager mentioned that they are looking to revamp a few dishes shortly, so will head back there and update this post soon.

All in all, I highly recommend, Elemen Singapore, for a celebratory meal or just a fancy dinner experience, for some great vegetarian food, some conversation and some quality time with friends/family.

Know Before you Go

Elemen, Millenna Walk, appeals on two counts – healthy eating and sustainable living. Make sure you have a chat with the friendly restaurant manager (who is ever ready to answer your queries) to better understand the food and the concept.
The place is quite packed over the weekend so we recommend you reserve your table ahead of time.

Elemen (Millenia Walk branch): 9 Raffles Boulevard, #01-75A/76 Millenia Walk, Singapore 039596 (Nearest MRT: Promenade)

Preethi Bashyam Sriganesh

Preethi is currently juggling two hats – mastering the art of zen raising a resilient, naughty and adorable young adult (aka her 3-year-old daughter) and working as a HR Marketer for a leading Technology MNC. Foodie, music lover, ardent toastmaster, travel buff and a motor mouth by choice is how we describe Preethi Bashyam Sriganesh.