REVIEW: Cantonese restaurant Yàn’s new selections make for a delectable dining affair
SINGAPORE — Walking to Yàn (“banquet” in Chinese) on a sunny, weekday afternoon can seem like a very bourgeois affair. En route, you walk through a very minimal, very modern space with wood panelling, concrete, and natural diffused sunlight that streams through a glass roof. I delight in making my way slowly from the heavy wooden doors by St Andrews Road that opens to Gallery & Co, right up to the short escalator ride that brings me to a spacious plot of greenery where Yàn sits. All this grandiosity is inevitable, seeing as I’m in Singapore’s shining beacon of South-East Asian Art, the National Gallery. The museum on a weekday is understandably quiet—a stillness I appreciate as I saunter unhurriedly along these long corridors.
At Yàn, there’s a palpable push and pull between the heritage elements of Cantonese cuisine and a certain contemporaneity. The interior walls are decked in slats of wood, juxtaposed with delicate strings in red ombre that act as a divider between booths. Behind each grey dining chair is a single red tassel—further exemplifying the chinoiserie treatment of the entire space. It’s fitting, all these artistic nods—almost like an extension of the restaurant’s mise en scène within an area dedicated to the fine arts.
I am here today to meet Head Chef Ng Sen Tio as well as savour his curation of new Cantonese selections. His philosophy is one of cooking from the heart. “Good food is born from more than just attentiveness to details in cooking,” he says. “It requires thoughtful consideration and the genuine wish for my guests to dine well.”
Much like the interior, Chef Ng’s new repertoire is one of precise balance. The food never veers far from the traditional Cantonese persuasion: a plate of caramelised barbeque pork (S$18) comes from the wu hua rou cut (belly) and is a thrilling blend of sweetness and char; marinated okra with spiced sauce (S$14) is a very simple but delicious dish of bite-sized okra. But the dish that I enjoyed most is the fried minced duck meat and cuttlefish paste in an egg pancake (S$14). The inside is a mixed paste of minced duck, cuttlefish, and diced water chestnut—a trio of flavours and textures that is sure to excite.
No Cantonese dining affair is complete without a bowl of hearty soup. Here, it comes in the form of a pumpkin broth with seafood and chicken paste beancurd (S$18). It is served in a bowl of bright yellow pumpkin broth and a mound of beancurd made by mixing fresh minced scallops, prawns, and chicken. It comes to you piping hot with all that intense umami—at first dancing on your tongue with a fervent fiery and then slowly engulfing your senses with a comforting and warm embrace.
From the comforting to the hearty—delight in a claypot of wok-fried prawns with fish maw, vermicelli, and homemade XO sauce (S$38-small). Succulent, fresh prawns are braised in housemade XO sauce and chicken stock until all those rich flavours are absorbed into the protein. Translucent vermicelli has taken on a deep shade of brown from the XO sauce and emits a complex aroma of wok hei, trapped within the claypot only to be released when it arrives at the table.
If you’re wont for an even heartier dish, look no further than the wok-fried Sri Lankan Crab with homemade pumpkin sauce (S$10/100g). It comes served in a sharing plate where the crustaceans take centre stage, coated liberally in a sheen of homemade pumpkin sauce that has been flavoured with aromatics such as pepper and curry leaf. The result is a vibrant and spiced sauce that pairs perfectly with the sweet crab meat.
Website | +65 6384 5585 | #05-02 National Gallery Singapore, 1 St Andrew's Road, S17895
Lunch: 11.30am - 2.30pm,
Dinner: 6.00pm - 10.30pm
