Bright spots

On the upside, though, March has been a fairly decent month for fine dining restaurants. 'Forlino has been full for lunch for the past two weeks and dinner is slightly more steady although it's still light years from what we used to do,' says Mr De Vito. 'We've seen a pick up in March compared to January although of course the mood isn't as positive as it used to be,' says Les Amis' Mr Goh.

In addition, the sombre economy isn't enough to put the Les Amis group off its expansion plans. It's going ahead to take over two boutique spaces in Shaw Centre to literally create a Les Amis food street on that stretch. Apart from Les Amis, La Strada and Aoki, the group expects to open a high-end Japanese yakiniku concept and a mid-range, semi-private kitchen style Asian-Western eatery helmed by a former Les Amis chef. The plan is to open in the middle of the year, says spokesman Raymond Lim, at a cost of not more than $750,000 for both outlets.

Even as the two new outlets - and a new mid-range concept to be introduced in the last quarter of the year by Mr De Vito - add to the already high competition levels, there is no doubt that the consumer is the one laughing all the way to the carpark.

'This is not Hong Kong, where people like to be seen in expensive places,' says Mr De Vito. 'In Singapore, everybody wants a good deal, and it would be stupid not to give it to them.'

Additional reporting by Amanda de Guzman

This article was first published in The Business Times.