What to expect
KAI is a single table. made up of either individuals, couples, or small groups of up to 6-8 guests at one sitting, one shared table, one menu. Dinners run 7–10pm.
There are no choices to make at the door. Bookings require at least 72h in advance; last minute requests can be considered, subject to availability.
The menu is set, the pacing is ours, and the evening moves at the rhythm of the kitchen.
What arrives at the table is the result of weeks of testing, sourcing, and refinement — not improvisation.
This is not a restaurant. There is no walk-in, no à la carte, no second seating after yours. The format exists because some food is worth slowing down for. KAI is best suited to guests aged 16 and above, given the length and pace of the tasting format.
French technique was the starting point. Southeast Asia became the direction.
KAI takes the discipline, precision and restraint of classical French cooking and applies them to the ingredients, flavours and culinary traditions of Southeast Asia — the food I grew up with. The cooking is rooted in coconut, chilli, lime, aromatics, fermentation and heat, with each course designed to reveal something familiar in a different way.
These respond to French technique in ways that are genuinely unexplored. A tribute paid to a territory that truly deserves the attention.
Each KAI menu is a rotation — a chapter built around a specific culinary tradition, season, or place within Southeast Asia. Menus change when the story changes.
Before KAI
KAI Private Dining isn't Issachar's first venture as a chef-owner in Tanjong Pagar.
Kaixo opened as a Basque tapas bar in 2012 at 96 Tanjong Pagar Road. An earlier chapter of KAI Private Dining, beginning in 2022, explored French and Japanese influences.
This current chapter — Southeast Asian flavour, French technique — is where the path has led.