Small's Fish K-BBQ Review: Is Singapore's Hardest Reservation Still Worth It?

Small's today feels less like Bjorn Shen's test kitchen and more like a tightly packaged omakase concept that is playing safe - which hurts more because getting a seat here now is almost impossible. For us, that gap between reputation and reality was something we kept asking ourselves during the meal.

Counter Seating, Now with a much larger service and dining space

Why We Came?

Small's is incredibly important. It used to be where Bjorn Shen went to break his own rules. It was his personal R&D lab and a place for wild ideas that was too fragile for his main Artichoke restaurant. Over time it migrated into the back of Artichoke at Bras Basah and now into New Bahru, still hidden behind Artichoke, now a 7 seater reservations only counter that regularly fully books out the moment reservations are dropped.

Small's historically distilled that rebel streak into themed omakase runs, bread sushi, seafood pizza, noodle bars that were meant to provoke as much as please. The current all-fish Korean BBQ menu is marketed as "probably our most popular theme yet". When we finally got in for this rerun, we wanted to know, is the Small's still what we remember it to be?

First course and an absolutely delightful Abalone

This visit lands in Small's New Bahru chapter, where Artichoke, Smalls and Bjorn's new Jellyfish venture has taken up residence. Artichoke itself has gone through a reinvention into a pizza parlour and Small's has expanded from his 4 to 7 seats, running 2 seatings a night with a reservation system and price point of Economy set at 138 ++ and Business set at 162 ++ for the fish K-BBQ.

Our menu for the night was the Business Course:

• Egg Custard

• Buckwheat Noodles

• Butter Roasted Abalone

• Daily White Fish

• "Pork Of The Sea"

• River Eel

• Tuna Galbi x2 Cuts

• Assorted Banchan

• Pollack Roe Lunchbox

• Ginseng Fish Broth

• Shaved Ice Hwachae

It is effectively three chapters of food built around a counter-side grill, shared pacing and the same menu for everyone. The opening chapter sets expectations high. A first platter of buckwheat noodles eaten 2 ways, egg custard together with a butter roasted abalone in liver sauce is everything you see in Small's DNA. The abalone liver sauce stood out with a deep, saline and unapologetically rich flavour. The sort of thing you instinctively want to run your finger through to get every bit of sauce.

Banchans and Rice Lunchbox

The second chapter widens the frame into a "BBQ table" mode, a spread of banchan, a pollack roe lunchbox to shake and mix just like kids in Korea, and a ginseng fish broth that echoes samgyetang without its heavy chicken fat flavours. On paper, a table full of side dishes fits the K-BBQ fantasty and some elements like the wild garlic leaves showed promise. In practice, the nine banchan spread felt like quantity over clarity. Many of the small plates were surprisingly muted. We found ourselves wishing that we had been served 3 perfectly executed banchans rather than a huge plate of mostly average banchans.

The heart of the menu is the progression of fish on the grill. A daily white fish (Pomfret for today), "pork of the sea" swordfish styled like siew yoke, river eel and a tuna galbi course make a clear point, this is K-BBQ structure re-cast with seafood. The tuna galbi is easily the standout, both cuts so fatty and tender they genuinely evoke well marbled beef. It is the one moment where the theme clicks completely and you forget you are not eating meat. But that only throws the rest of the line up into question. Outside of the abalone and the tuna, too many dishes land as merely fine. Perhaps this approach of everything unseasoned for the guest to explore did not help as well. From our previous Small's experiences, Small's has got seasoning nailed to perfection. The team hits flavours. But this menu? Unfortunately I could not say the same.

Our drink option for the night was a bottle of Propose Blue Yakju from J&J Brewery. Yakju is a Korean rice wine and at 15 % alcohol, it was crisp and had a delightful sweet and acidic balance. An absolute delight for the night. Along with this sits a handful of other korean alcohol as well as some interesting ciders on offer. The menu is compact but definitely curated.

Dessert, a shaved ice hwachae that reads like a Korean cousin of Ice Kachang, is fun and refreshing built with strawberry and yuzu sauced and grape, apple, jelly and watermelong bits.

By the end of the menu, we were extremely full. Walking out, it was hard not to think the menu might simply be too large for the kitchen to keep every element singing. With fewer banchans, one less fish course or no lunch box and just good rice, and the same attention lavished on each plate that the team clearly gave to the abalone liver and the tuna, this experience could have felt far sharper. As it stands, we would have happily taken 30 % less food in exchange of 50 % more flavour and focus.

Hwachae

The Trade Offs

At Small's today, diners gain scarcity, intimacy and a sense of access. You are at a 7 seater bar, tucked behind Artichoke, a restaurant known to many Singaporeans, eating a limited run omakase that books our quickly. What you give up is exactly what once made Small's special: discomfort, surprise and the feeling that the chef might be using tonight's service to work out tomorrow's ideas. In the current all fish K-BBQ, the creative risk feels contained. The theme is definitely clever on paper, but seems to not have that same character of the Small's we remember.

Would We Recommend and Who is This For?

We would not return for this specific Fish K-BBQ menu. 138++ for the economy course and 162 ++ for the business course, Small's sits squarely in the treat yourself band. Small's as it currently operates, is for diners who collect experiences. For people who like the idea of a tiny, hidden, 2 seating a night omakase and are willing to fight the booking system for that format as much as for the food itself. If your priority is pure Korean flavours or if you loved early era Small's for its boundary pushing weirdness and tight idea driven menus, this iteration may feel like a letdown. If you are chasing the old test kitchen magic that was Small's you may want to wait for its next reinvention.