Jaan by Kirk Westaway

Devon carried to the pass

The Devon memory arrives first as produce, butter, salt, soup. Kirk Westaway, Executive Chef at Jaan by Kirk Westaway in Singapore, has led the room since around 2018, turning a former French fine-dining address into a modern British kitchen with its own grammar. His line is not nostalgia as decoration. It is childhood in South West Britain put through a disciplined tasting menu, with seasonality, provenance, and the integrity of produce doing the work. Westaway came to Singapore in 2011 as a sous chef and moved through the ranks before taking the helm. The restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2016, and its second in 2021. Those stars belong to this address, as does the harder shift beneath them: British food made legible in a city where high dining has often looked elsewhere for its authority. Westaway calls the philosophy Reinventing British, and at Jaan it means the old forms stay close enough to be felt, then change under the knife.

Leek, potato, butter, salt

The craft here sits in the conversion of plain British references into controlled, layered plates. A leek and potato soup becomes mushroom stock, truffle trimmings, truffle juice, roasted potato essence, airy potato mousse, and macadamia nuts at the base. The hen’s egg returns as dippy eggs with soldiers, sharpened by produce and restraint rather than theatre. Bread service keeps the British staple at the center of the table: hay, hot stones, Devon butter, Cornish sea salt, and herbs from the restaurant’s in-house aquaponics farm. The tasting menu gives Westaway enough room to move through roasted venison, wild seabass, Scottish scallops, and Cornish turbot without losing the through-line of the place. The wine program follows that same discipline. Jaan has been named Singapore’s first Krug Ambassador, and the pairings are built to sit beside the kitchen’s preference for clarity, depth, and produce rather than weight for its own sake.

The room above the city

The work happens on the 70th floor of Swissôtel The Stamford, in an intimate 35-seat room where every table faces the skyline. The height could have swallowed the craft; instead, the room keeps the scale narrow. Soft lighting, a crystal forest chandelier, custom furniture, and bespoke tableware all fold back into Westaway’s Devon frame, so the view is not the only subject. Service is formal, but the best details are bench-side and small: butter crowned at the table with Cornish sea salt, a soup built from several quiet preparations, a familiar British idea arriving with its edges cleaned. Jaan also carries the pressure of its public standing, with 2 Michelin stars and a place at 39 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. The kitchen’s answer is not to grow louder. At Jaan, it returns to leek, potato, egg, bread, fish, and the long way around them.