Recently, my friend and I were on a lookout for unique experiences for our birthday celebration. We chanced upon Absurdities, a multi-room dinner experience, with every room representing a different world, each with its own story.
What Is Absurdities About?

Absurdities is a 2-hour long, 6-course omakase that comes with 2 alcoholic drinks. This means you won’t know what you’ll be having until each course is served. Each course will take place in a different “world” and in every room, we were given a collectible card that lists the names and ingredients of the dishes of that world.
You can top up for cocktail pairings if you wish. The 2 alcoholic drinks that are included are for courses 1 and 6, while the cocktail pairings will accompany courses 2 to 5. When booking, you can specify dietary restrictions and the restaurant will try their best to accommodate.
Each time slot accommodates a maximum of eight people.
Dress Code
There is no dress code, but do dress in comfortable clothing, as you will be required to climb and crawl between worlds, literally. I’d recommend pants and sneakers; and ladies, please avoid skirts and heels.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
There will be some spoilers beyond this section. I’ll avoid posting images of the rooms as I think it would be more fun if you see the rooms for the first time when you’re at the location. If you just want to read the overall review, skip to the conclusion.
First Course

Although the dinner location is a “secret” and will be emailed to you a day before, a quick Google search will reveal that the dinner experience is hosted in Asylum Coffeehouse, a cafe in Jalan Besar. The supposed email with the information deck could not be opened and had to send an email with the team to check if the location on Google was right.
The first course starts in the cafe area, and looked something like bubble tea pearl in a bowl, served with a dark broth. This soup is called Garden in a Bowl.
This course is accompanied by the first alcoholic drink — Garden Sun Wine, and it was a rum-based cocktail, with figs and orange peels. I personally didn’t like it as it taste too herby.

Every course also comes with an activity, like riddle games, and a meal card that lists the ingredients of the dish.
Once we were done with our soup and drink, we had to guess where was the door to the next room. I won’t spoil it, you’ll just have to experience it yourself. The walk to the next room was through a very trippy, narrow corridor, which we didn’t have any time or space to take pictures in, because the entire group was led in at the same time.
Second Course

The second course, Burger and Ash, takes place in a cozy room with a giant tree as the centrepiece. For this course, we had to guess what the food was made of.
The main ingredient of the burger patty was Jackfruit and the fries were tapioca. I wasn’t really a fan of the burger as it tasted like a mush of random vegetables, but the fries were good, nicely coated with spices.
Third Course

A Moroccan tent is the setting for the third course. The dish, Smoke Cod Tajine, as its name suggests, is a cod fish dish. There will be a candle on your fish if you had indicated that you’re celebrating a birthday, or a special occasion.
The activity for this room is trading something, anything, for a jackpot card. Luckily my friend had some trash in her bag and could do the trade for both of us, as I had nothing I was willing to give up. The card wasn’t really anything special, but the image on the card will complete a bigger picture when pieced together with the other meal cards.
Then we went off to the next room and this one required us to climb a ladder and crawl on all fours into the next room.
Fourth Course

One of the hot favourites of the experience, the fourth course takes place in a retro-looking kitchen, reminiscence of the 1950s. The storyline of this room also reflected that time period well, when most women were homemakers.
The dish, Mama’s Famous Cereal Chicken Pot Pie, resembled a bowl of cereal and milk but was a take on chicken pot pie. The dish came with ceral bits, chicken, frozen peas, and “milk” that was similar to mushroom soup.
Here was where it got really obvious that Absurdities were cheapening out on the ingredients. Though frozen vegetables was a thing in the 50s, the frozen peas were actually really bad in the dish and the chicken also tasted frozen. In my opinion, though this was one of the prettiest room, this was the worst dish and I only had 2 bites of it.
Fifth Course

My personal favourite, the fifth room, was a wizard-inspired room, but when I first entered the room, I was I was in a TCM shop because the drawers looked like chinese medicine drawers.
The dish, Mortar Purple Squid Risotto, did not actually contain any rice, but is made of squid and topped with Uni. We were also tasked to find some bottled seaweed crumble and were given isomalt lime glass and were instructed to mix them into the dish.
I thought this was the most acceptable dish, but my friend commented that the squid was overcooked and she didn’t enjoy it.
Sixth Course

Finally, we boarded an Austin Power-esque private jet and were served our final course, a telephone-shaped jelly and a glass of prosecco.
Realistically, the elderflower-flavoured jelly was way too large to finish and the chocolate was also way too tough to bite. The prosecco was, cheap-tasting; not much to comment on.

We were probably running slightly behind time and the host just kept hurrying for us to leave. We were shown out of the door, and found ourselves by the side of the road on Jalan Besar, the moment we stepped out of the door.
My Thoughts On Absurdities And Ratings

The stories and setting were really the selling point of the dinner, everything else left much more to be desired.
Time management could have been better — for example, we were rushed to leave the last room quickly, while we had extra time in some other rooms. We were also the first group of the night. It would have made sense if there was a group in before us so we had to wait till they left the room, but there weren’t any other groups before us. They were also very explicit in telling us that they wanted us to leave, for example, the host mentioned they were playing a horrible tune on the speakers so that the guests would leave quicker.
The Food: 2/5
I know myself that I’m part of the tough crowd and being a very picky eater, I am seldom really impressed by food. Coming into this experience, I also had no expectations for the food as I know that we are paying for the experience. However, I was still somehow disappointed that there wasn’t a single dish I fully enjoyed and I feel that if they had used better ingredients, the food might have been better.
The Ambience: 4/5
The rooms were all beautifully decorated but I think would have been nice if there was some continuity in the stories. Although they do emphasise that each room is its own “world”, I feel it would have been more immersive if the stories were somehow connected.
The Absurdities hosts were also pretty enthusiastic in telling their stories and getting everyone to participate, but as I mentioned earlier, being told we have to quickly leave just didn’t sit right with me, although I know that they have to serve the next group.
Value: 2/5
For a price tag of S$214.73 per pax after tax, this dinner really just paying to have a meal with a beautiful backdrop while being told stories. The price was probably meant to squeeze your wallet as much as possible, as it is unlikely anyone would return to this restaurant.
I also found it truly absurd that such an expensive meal did not come with a free cake or dessert for birthday celebrations, but only had a candle on a slice of fish.
Overall: 2.5/5
Before I get to the final rating, I also wanted to mention that I was not a fan of the location. It was a 10 minute walk from the nearest MRT station and there weren’t many buses serving the bus stops nearby. No parking too. It was hard to get to on a rainy evening.
Also mentioned earlier, the info deck that was sent in the location confirmation email did not work, and we had to go through the trouble of dropping an email to confirm the location. This is something that shouldn’t be happening for a dinner with a premium price tag.
Would I recommend this experience to others? Maybe; if they like whimsical experiences and are not too picky about food.
Was it really absurd, as the name suggests? Not really. Except for the fact they didn’t provide a birthday cake. I think most of the stories were really predictable, nothing really out of this world.
This dinner experience is also an introvert’s nightmare, as the host will get everyone participate. You’ll likely have some interactions with strangers, unless the entire seating of 8 are from your own circle.
In short, did I enjoy myself? Kinda.
Oh and the food was so unsatisfying that we went to Hai Di Lao right after.