Middle Eastern icon ditches hummus for pizzas, but has the gamble paid off? Here’s the tantalising inside scoop on Artichoke’s bold new culinary chapter. I’ll admit, when I first heard that ‘Artichoke’, Singapore’s much-loved Middle Eastern dining hotspot, was rebranding as a pizza parlour, my jaw dropped, not in excitement, but in confusion. After 15 years of cultishly followed mezze platters and tahini drenched dreams, Bjorn Shen, Chef-Owner did the gastronomic equivalent of swapping an oud for an electric guitar. The change was risky. Naturally, I had to see for myself whether the gamble had paid off.
Old Flavours, New Fire
Let’s start with the vibe. Tucked away in the bustling enclave of New Bahru, Artichoke hasn’t lost its signature whimsy, no sterile, minimalist décor here. Instead, the space bursts with Bjorn Shen’s irreverent charm: loud colours, cheeky graffiti, and a playful retail section peddling everything from patterned mugs to merch that cheekily proclaims, ‘I make vibe-driven dining choices.’ But let’s address the elephant, or perhaps the pizza, in the room. Why the pivot? ‘It’s like wearing the same T-shirt for 15 years,’ Bjorn told me when he came over to my table. Pizza, he explained, is his first food love. This isn’t a departure; it’s a homecoming, a lifelong infatuation that began at Milano’s Pizza Restaurant during his childhood and continued in dusty Australian kitchens where he learned to bake the perfect dough. The sudden glow-up feels both rebellious and oddly sentimental, a Bjorn hall pass, if you will.
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Pizzas That Pack a Punch
The revamped menu reads as though Artichoke’s DNA was spliced with a fever dream of a New York pizzeria. Slabs (crunchy rectangles), Stacks (double-decked stuffed slabs), and Rounds (fried and baked puffy pies) are the star triad. I began with a ‘Slab’, specifically the pepperoni with chilli honey and pickled long peppers. One bite in, and I knew, this isn’t just pizza; it’s pizza with a PhD in boldness. Smoky, charred crusts whisper of slow fermentation, while the chilli honey sings of contradictions, sweet, spicy, and utterly addictive. Next came the ‘Fried Garlic Techno Butter’ pie, a puffed up Round showcasing the restaurant’s unapologetic creativity.
Garlic butter oozed from the crust like liquid gold, while tangy preserved lemon added a Middle Eastern whisper in honour of Artichoke’s roots. It felt like popping into a punk rock concert after a classical recital brash, unexpected, but thrillingly alive. There’s a certain giddy thrill that comes with diving fork first into a menu that knows how to keep you on your toes. That was precisely the vibe at Artichoke, a spot that’s equal parts laid-back café and culinary playground. The latest offerings? A series of clever pies and plates that swing between comfort and curiosity, making you question everything you thought you knew about pizza, or should I say Slabs, Stacks, and Rounds. Take the ‘Dirty Margherita’, for instance, mozzarella, pecorino, spicy garlic oil.
Sure, it’s familiar territory, but here’s the kicker, the crust. Not just a vessel, but a Tchaikovsky-level blend of cheese soaked indulgence that makes you rethink every dry cornicione you’ve ever suffered through. Then came the ‘Stacks’. Imagine a bready lasagne, layered with ‘Bali spiced duck’ and ‘sambal matah’, an ode to the soulful street food of Indonesia. One bite, and suddenly I was dodging scooters and inhaling satay fumes in a Jakarta market, without having to elbow anyone for space on the pavement. The sides turned the tide, though. A ‘kiwi plate’ (yes, kiwi), with bursts of tang, pecorino, and mint, was unexpectedly brilliant, sweet, sharp, and refreshing, almost like a palate cleanser before the indulgence really kicked in. The ‘lasagna nuggets’? A literal throwback snack served with a red sauce that could have been more buoyant.
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And don’t sleep on the ‘fried chicken’. Pro tip; attack it fast; this crunch doesn’t wait around. With za’atar honey and garlic sauce, it is dangerously close to addictive. The dessert was the perfect ending to the meal. The ‘cinnamon cherry pie’ was incredible, warm, tangy, nutty, with a hint of citrus. It was absolutely perfect. Make sure to save room for it, or you’ll regret it. Trust me, Artichoke keeps things exciting until the very end!
A Risk Worth Taking?
Admittedly, this reinvention hasn’t pleased everyone. An Instagram commenter declared the change ‘heartbreaking’, but Shen seemed unfazed. ‘Artichoke has always been about chaos and crafts. The medium is secondary,’ he shrugged, casually slinging another pizza onto a plate. Change is messy, like the first pancake that never quite turns out right. But at ‘Artichoke’, Bjorn Shen’s 15 year old culinary playground, that’s always been the point. He’s never played it safe, and now, with the debut of Artichoke 2.0, he’s trading comfort for chaos in the best possible way.
As diners around me tucked into their pizzas with audible delight, it was clear the critics stand out mainly because they’re few. Is Artichoke’s new identity daring? Yes. Necessary? Quite possibly. Worth your dollars? I’ll let my empty plate answer that. But truth be told, Bjorn’s pasta dreams couldn’t care less about convention, which, ironically, may be why Artichoke has always been so magnetic. Change might be scary, but it can also taste pretty damn good. So, are you ready to trade your mezze for mozzarella? Trust me, it’s a gamble you just might win.
Fact-Box
WHERE? 01-02, New Bahru, 46 Kim Yam Road, Singapore- 239351
