Avenue 87 @ Amoy Street - Two Gifted Young Singapore Chefs, Retold Their Friendship On A Plate of Flavours

The ever-changing dining scene at Amoy Street sees another new kid on the block. Avenue 87 is a new modern Asian restaurant opened by 2 Singaporean chefs, Glen Tay and Alex Phan. Both of them are childhood friends born in 1987 and grown up in Hougang Avenue 8 and 7, respectively. Hence it is not hard to guess why the restaurant is named as Avenue 87.

Chicken Chips 4/5

I have the 6-course menu that is priced at $98++. Diner can also opt for wine pairing at $50++ for 3 glasses or $80++ for 5 glasses.

Kueh Pie Tee 4/5

We started with two Snack items before moving to our first course. First up is the crispy Chicken Chips that is deep-fried and topped with sour cream and mizuna cress. The other is Kueh Pie Tee which is a meatless take on assam pedas. In the crispy kueh pie tee cup, one can find aerated assam pedas, eggplant, lady's fingers, cherry tomato, and curry leaves. It is inspired by their favourite curry fish head dish.

Salmon 4/5

The first course is a Salmon dish. There are many components on the plate such as diced crystal pear, sour cream, ponzu-pickled wakame, soy wasabi granita and Vietnamese rice paper crackers beside the fresh Norwegian salmon sashimi. They are many flavours and textures at play which works harmoniously together.

AHK Seabass 4.8/5

Next is the fish soup, AHK Seabass using locally sourced seabass from Ah Hua Kelong. In the delicious bowl of fish soup, there are compressed bitter gourd, semi-dried cherry tomato, deep-fried egg floss, and anchovy buttermilk sauce. This is very close to my heart as I love our hawker's fish soup. To elevate the whole profile, the chefs innovate using dried anchovies in place of dried sole fish.

Octopus 4.5/5

Love the Asian take to the classic Spanish grilled Octopus. Inspired by the hawker sambal stingray and squid, the octopus leg is grilled, and served with housemade sambal, stir-fried market greens and crowned with a confit egg yolk. I was initial concern that foreigners may not be receptive to the spiciness, but I noticed the customers a table away were enjoying the sambal octopus.

Baby Lamb Rack 4/5

Moving to the 4th course, we have the Baby Lamb Rack marinated Vietnamese-style, served with grilled Thai eggplant and locally sourced stingless bee honey sauce. The chef draws inspiration from his Vietnam holidays, particular the skewered meats marinated in local aromatics and sauces. The lamb was cooked to an enjoyable fork tender. My friend, who usually doesn't eat lamb, didn't find it gamy at all. 

Diner will have a choice of side dish to go along with their main. During my visit, I have the choice of either Egg Fried Rice or Garlic Potato Mash.

For pre-dessert, we have Greek Yoghurt Mousse with house-made granola, cubed red dragon fruit, 8-spice honey.

Coconut 4.2/5

For dessert, we have Coconut and Pisang No Goreng. The Coconut is a light and refreshing dessert in which the coconut ice cream is served with pound cake crumble, papaya and caramelised pineapple. For the Pisang No Goreng, it is actually fried coconut custard with salted gula melaka and banana ice cream.

Pisang No Goreng 4/5

I think Avenue 87 has a lot of potential with their Modern Asian cuisine. Both the Alex and Glen have bags of experience working for different established restaurants, especially Glen, who last worked at 3-Michelin-starred Ultraviolet in Shanghai. The last they worked together was at Tipping Club. They are back together once again to bring us more exciting gastronomic experience from the individual journeys after Tipping Club.

Avenue 87
47 Amoy Street
Singapore 069873
Tel: +65 98388401/ 69705491
Facebook
Website
Nearest MRT: Telok Ayer (DT Line), Tanjong Pagar (EW Line)

Opening Hours:
Mon, Wed-Sat 1130am - 230pm, 530pm - 10pm
(Closed on Tue, Sun and PH)

Direction:
1) Alight at Telok Ayer MRT station. Take Exit A. Walk to Amoy Street. Turn left onto Amoy Street. Walk to destination. Journey time about 5 minutes. [Map]

2) Alight at Tanjong Pagar MRT station. Take Exit G. Walk down Telok Ayer Street. Turn left onto Amoy Street. Walk to destination. Journey time about 8 minutes. [Map]

Lao Jiang Superior Soup (老江一品汤) @ Jcube - Known For their Superior Soup And Dry Mee Sua, Opens 5th Outlet

Founded in 2011, Lao Jiang Superior Soup (老江一品汤) has recently opened its 5th Outlet at JCube. Their traditional soup broth is boiled for more than 4 hours using locally sourced ingredients.

Doubled Boiled Chicken Essence Soup 4.2/5

One of the must-have here is the Doubled Boiled Chicken Essence Soup ($14). I was surprised to be given an additional sachet of essence to be poured into my soup upon served. The soup was flavourful with a slightly gelatinous texture, and the chicken thigh was pleasingly tender.

Superior Soup Noodle 3.8/5

Their regulars over the years head down for their Superior Soup Noodle ($9.50). Akin to a seafood soup, it comes with sliced fish, prawns, fish maw, fish ball and more. There's a variety of noodles to choose from, or you can also choose to simply have it with rice. With all other flavours imparted from the various ingredients, the soup was savoury sweet. And not known to many, you can actually request for a refill of the soup broth for your noodles! However, for the ingredients per se, I feel the quality of them can be improved.

Homemade Vinegar Pork 3.8/5

The same goes for Homemade Vinegar Pork with Rice ($9.50). Served with both trotter and slices of pork belly, the gravy itself hit the right spot- sweet and piquant. But for the meat portion, there were some really tender parts and some really tough parts, which to me is a real pity.

Dry Mee Sua 3.5/5

Another of their signature noodle dish is the Dry Mee Sua ($12). Red yeast noodle is used in place of the regular mee sua. The toppings for the mee sua include minced meat with black fungus and thin slices of crispy pork belly. The latter was quite moreish, and it didn't leave a greasy feel even though it was deep-fried. As for the minced meat topping, I can imagine it flavouring more hardy noodles like a typical Bak Chor Mee, but the delicate mee sua fell flat under it.

In conjunction with their opening, some promotions are going on, including between 1st – 31st Oct, purchase 1 Fried Spice Pork Belly or 1 Prawn Paste Chicken Wing at $5 with every order of soup. $5 local delights are limited to the first 20 orders of soup per day for Oct 2020. Other terms and conditions apply, please check with the restaurant.

Words by Si An. A girl who is allured by travelling, loves the feel of freedom, smell of the rain and the aroma of fine coffee and food. Note: This is an invited tasting.


Lao Jiang Superior Soup
Jcube
2 Jurong East Central 1
#01-19
Singapore 609731
Tel: +65 69706977
Facebook
Nearest MRT: Jurong East (EW Line, NS Line)

Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri: 10am - 10pm
Sat-Sun & PH: 930am - 10pm

Directions: 
1) Alight at Jurong East MRT station. Take Exit A. Turn left and walk towards Jurong Gateway Road. Cross the road. Walk to destination. Journey time about 5 minutes. [Map]