Ex-radio DJ Daniel Ong opening oyster bar & restaurant at Palais Renaissance as 6th F&B project

Opening end-May.

Mandy How | May 04, 2022, 04:51 PM

[Update on May 5, 11:40pm: Estuary has updated its website to state that chef Polo Seah is the "ex"-Group Executive Chef of Jigger and Pony Group. This article has been updated accordingly.]

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Daniel Ong, 47, is on his sixth F&B venture.

The former radio DJ is starting Estuary, an oyster bar and "pescatarian haven" located at Palais Renaissance in Orchard.

Photo via Estuary's Instagram page

Besides seafood, the restaurant is also placing an emphasis on vegetables with their "Garden" dishes. Wines and cocktails are on the menu as well.

You can take a peek at the offerings here, but prices are not listed on the site.

The kitchen will be helmed by Polo Seah, who is listed as the ex-Group Executive Chef of Jigger and Pony Group by Estuary.

Seah, who has 15 years of experience, specialises in seafood and grilled greens.

While no exact date has been announced for the restaurant's opening, its hoarding states that the premises will be ready by end-May.

Prior to this, Ong founded Twelve Cupcakes with ex-wife Jamie Teo in 2011 and sold it to an Indian tea company for S$2.5 million in end-2016.

In 2021, however, the entrepreneur was fined S$65,000 for underpaying or failing to pay the salaries of seven employees when he was still a director at the company.

Both Teo and Ong said that a third-party employment agency hired by their HR director had carried out the scheme without their knowing.

Ong went on to start restaurants Rookery, Mischief, Dan’s Steaks, and craft beer brand Brewlander with several business partners.

Rookery did not survive the pandemic, and Ong had publicly pleaded with landlords to waive two to three months' rent for tenants like him.

Top photo via Estuary's Instagram page