IF you're the sort who flips through a menu to look at the dessert section first, you're in for the ultimate sugar high - not only are you getting desserts prepared by Singapore's hottest pastry chef, your entire meal is designed around it.

Les Amis group's Pang Kok Keong has finally delivered on his long-time dream with Macaron - a dessert restaurant devoted to all things chic and sweet, but with enough savoury dishes on the menu for more traditionally minded gourmets who still expect starters and a main course before dessert.

Opened yesterday, Macaron is, in a way, fashioned after the hip dessert restaurants Espai Sucre in Barcelona and Room 4 Dessert in New York, but the idea had been with chef Pang long before that. 'I had thought of a restaurant where the focus is on dessert, but when I came to know about these two restaurants, it further strengthened (my resolve),' says the spiky haired dessert whiz.

He reckons that he has refined the concept a bit further with Macaron. 'Only the one in Barcelona has food, but I think we've brought it a notch higher. Also, in those two restaurants you don't have a choice. Everything comes in a set. Here, it's also a set but you can choose which appetiser to have, or which sweet amuse bouche.' The menu also has a la carte pricing, so if you just want to drop by and enjoy one of his creations instead of committing to an entire spread, the choice is yours.

The concept is definitely one of a kind. The restaurant itself - next to the original Canele at Robertson Walk - looks more like a disco, with its stark black walls, bright spotlights and a funky show kitchen that looks more like a fancy DJ console. If you didn't know any better, you might almost expect chef Pang and his assistants to be mixing hits rather than souffles.

Designed by architect Tan Kay Ngee - who also did Canele Paragon - the 40-seater restaurant provides a stark, surreal (sliding 'screens' appear like silhouettes of bare trees) stage for the chef's eye-catching creations.

You can choose a four to nine course set dinner priced from $38 $80, or go the whole hog with the $125 degustation menu. For starters you can try the Spanish tapas-style 'pulpo' - tasty sliced octopus marinated in garlic and olive oil or the bruschetta like pan con tarta, which is a tart tomato spread served with a slice of crispy bread.

The food is contemporary with classical roots, says chef Pang. He may specialise in dessert but he's also a trained chef and his savoury cooking may prove to be as funky as his sweets. Take, for example, his pan-fried magret duck breast which is served with chocolate orange jam and sauteed pear slices. At first glance you might think he's trying to fuse dessert elements into his savoury dishes, but no. 'This is quite classical in approach,' he says. 'Duck is very strong so chocolate and orange go very well with it. Like duck l'orange, just that at the time we were making our chocolate and orange jam so we thought we would try it and it worked.'

The menu at Macaron is 70 per cent sweet and 30 per cent savoury, says chef Pang. 'There is the sweet amuse (like amuse bouche) which is very light and the flavours are usually more complex.'

Of this category, make sure you order the Sunny Side Up - it looks exactly like that, except that the 'egg white' is made of coconut cream and the 'yolk' is a spherification of passion fruit, and the egg is dusted with 'pepper' or rather pistachio bits.

Chef Pang continues, 'Then there is the dessert glass - these are frozen, e.g. granite, sorbet and ice cream. Then comes the grande dessert - there's a theme to these desserts. For example the Violette - we serve violet ice cream with strawberry marmalade, strawberry paper and violet meringue, so it's more complete.'

One grande dessert that's a stand out is the quirkily named One-Two-Tea - a spherical chocolate crust holding a bottom layer of milk chocolate tea parfait, while the top layer is a dark chocolate tea cream, followed by raspberry foam.

Tea, chocolate and raspberry is one of his favourite combinations, something he discovered during a workshop in Singapore several years ago by Spanish chocolatier Oriol Balaguer - 'I tried one of his compositions and it just stayed with me all this while.' Balaguer and Pierre Herme of Paris are the top names in desserts today, and if you ask chef Pang to compare his style with them, he will say, 'For Canele it is more Pierre Herme, but for Macaron it's Oriol Balaguer.'

He adds, 'If you read his book, Dessert Cuisine, a lot of cuisine elements have been incorporated into dessert. But my influence is not just from him, but the whole Spanish influence on the pastry scene. There's also my mentor Paco Torreblanca - these are the people who are really cutting edge and the desserts they are doing now are making a statement of their own. They are moving away from the French way of plating, serving and so on.'

But will Singaporeans buy the concept? 'Canele is a very good gauge,' says chef Pang. 'We have been operating for three years and a lot of our customers recognise what we are about and I think they are ready for something else.

'It's something on another level - serving sweets in a fine dining setting. If I had my way I would only do dessert but I don't think Singaporeans are used to coming to a proper restaurant just to eat dessert.' Who knows, he might just start a trend.

Macaron
11 Unity Street, #01-08, Robertson Walk. Tel:6235-7277
Opening hours: Closed on Mondays.
Tuesdays to Thursdays: 6 pm to 12 am.
Fridays to Saturdays: 3 pm to 1 am.
Sundays: 3 pm to 10 pm