Author: Alex Chua
Can someone say Crabilicious to the above?
The recently opened Chengdu Restaurant is known to be one of the most authentic Sichuan restaurants in town. Helmed by two native Chefs Qin Jun and Jing Xiao with decades of training in Sichuan cuisine, the restaurant serves both hot and cold favourites. For the first time ever, the restaurant launches Autumn-Winter themed dishes that would sure whet your appetite aplenty. No worries if you’re not really a spicy eater, there are a variety of food on its menu which includes non-spicy dishes.
Dinner started with off with Cold Sliced Pig Trotters with Noodles and Spicy Dip. The chef creatively uses pork elbow meat for its high gelatinous content. Steamed and thinly sliced and artfully presented with spirals of noodles and fanned-out cucumber. I love the pastel blue plating, giving the dish an added visual dimension. A light and refreshing appetiser to open up your palate.
Making a grand entrance is the Ice Ball with Whelk with its dramatic presentation. Served chilled in an ice sculpture, this refreshing dish features sliced sea snail fried with fresh green and red chilies. Fragrant with a light hint of spiciness, the whelk, with its texture similar to abalone or razor clams is slightly chewy yet succulent.
Perhaps the most unusual plating I have seen is the Spicy Pork Ribs. Placed on a sliced ‘Molotov’ bottle with its chain as the stand, the ribs are reeked full of umami from the traditional Lao Gan Ma sauce, which lends a spicy and savoury note. Love love love the irrelevance plating.
No visit to a Sichuan restaurant is complete without a mala dish, and Chengdu Restaurant’s Mala Pot pleased many mouths. Comes with fries, prawns, chicken wings, lotus roots and luncheon meat, the spiciness to me is cope-able and the fries just quite addictive.
Now for the grand finale is a big pot of savoury seafood delicious. Featuring an insane amount of red dried chillis, the broth is cooked with cauliflower, potato and cucumber. It is quite shiok especially when eaten with fried mantou buns or rice. The sweet flesh from the red fiery Spicy Crab is not overpowered by the spicy broth.
Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, the Beggar Potato is coated with a secret recipe mix of 20 spices before they are deep fried. Chili powder and cumin powder are sprinkled atop for a fiery and earthy punch. While it might be plain jane from the look and first bite, it will start to grow on you after you popped a few. Simply an addictive and sinful dish.
This is one of my few favourite restaurants I’ve visited thus far. The taste notes are on point and aesthetically plated. And I just cannot emphasis enough my adoration of how each dish is presented with a surprise.
Chengdu Restaurant
Address: 74 Amoy Street, Singapore 069893
Seating Capacity: 120 pax, 2 private rooms
Operating Hours: Mon – Sat: 11.00am-3.00pm, 5.00-10:30pm. Closed on Sunday
