True Blue Cuisine

Set in an antique-filled shophouse right beside the Peranakan Museum, True Blue serves Nyonya home cooking the way a Peranakan matriarch would, and the heritage setting is half the experience. Founder Benjamin Seck's family recipes run to ayam buah keluak, tangy assam fish, beef rendang and itik tim (duck and salted-vegetable soup). Everything is meant to be shared over rice, with little dishes of sambal belacan and achar on the side. The walls are hung with Peranakan porcelain, beadwork and family photos, making it as much a living museum as a restaurant. It's a calm, sit-down counterpoint to the laksa stalls — book ahead, especially at lunch.