Revamp Kitchen and Bar gave Chinese food a good revamp with their mouth-watering hot plate options and oriental rice bowls. One of the more modern places to enjoy Chinese-style Zi Char (or Tze Char 煮炒, cooked and fried food) with a glass of spirits or cocktail is at this new restaurant along Tanjong Pagar Road. It just opened this year in July.
Enjoying Chinese cuisine in style
Interestingly, its avant-garde interior spells similar vibe and atmosphere to most of the restaurants and bars here at this hot dining spot. And its interior is designed by their owner, Daniel Wong, who is a highly acclaimed interior designer in the interior designing scene. He blends high-style furnishings with modern-day comforts to create a classic yet futuristic look. Who says you can’t enjoy Chinese hotplate dishes with rice in a refined air-conditioned setting?
Rice bowls, Hot Plates and Spirits
The lunch crowd will come here for their rice bowls while the dinner crowd will come for their hot plates and drinks. They have recently launched a new selection of Oriental Rice bowls for lunch and we were there to try out their new dishes as well as their signature sizzling Chinese hotplate dishes.
The dishes were curated by Revamp Kitchen and Bar’s executive chef, Clement Chow. Traditionally, Chinese hotplates are usually cooked with a huge black wok. But over here at Revamp, chef Chow utilises western cooking methods like poaching and broiling to retain and build up the oriental flavours, layer by layer. Thus, the charred wok aroma may not be present but at the very least, the food still tasted good and very palatable; similar to home-cooked or hawker-style kind of Chinese food. But certainly more refined in taste, if you ask me.
Mapo Tofu with Minced Pork Hotplate
This dish features Mapo glaze, egg tofu, minced pork and greens.
Kung Pao Chicken Hotplate
This classic Si Chuan hotplate dish is my favourite of all the hotplates I’ve tried that evening. It comprises of Kung Pao glaze, chicken thigh, crushed peanuts, dried chilli, onsen egg and greens.
Red Cow Hotplate
For beef lovers, you will enjoy this dish of Australian beef cubes fried with spicy sauce and served with onsen egg, enoki mushrooms and greens.
Dong Po Pork Belly Hotplate
This is probably one of Revamp’s signature dishes as we saw a few other customers ordering this dish as well. They also have a rice bowl version of this.
The large chunks of pork belly slices are glazed with savoury Dong Po sauce. You will definitely need a bowl of rice to go with this dish.
Sambal Squid Hotplate
When it comes to Chinese hotplates, how can we miss out on sambal Sotong (or squid)? I’m glad they include this sambal squid hotplate that has a spicy sambal kick to it. The chef fried the squid with homemade Sambal Belachan and deep-fried anchovies.
Revamped Fish (Whole seabass)
You may find that the fish looks rather flat on the plate. It is not because the fish is skinny or it has been halved. The chef has carefully deboned the fish and remove the fish skeleton and bones so that you can enjoy this dish without having to worry too much about where the bones are hidden. How thoughtful!
Side dishes
If you are here just for some drinks, you order their side dishes or light bites like curly fries, calamari or Soupy clams. The broth served with the clams is rather appetizing.
Calamari
Curly Fries
Soupy Clams
Chinese Olive Egg Fried Rice
Value-for-money Asian Rice bowls
I can see why their rice bowls are popular among the CBD lunch crowd. The prices are not only affordable but it is also very satisfying and scrumptious.
If you had a hard time deciding which rice bowl to pick, you can opt for their Daily Rice Bowl that costs only $6.50++. What goes into that rice bowl will depend on the Chef’s inspiration for that day and based on what’s fresh in the kitchen.
Dong Po Pork Belly Rice Bowl
Chong Qing Rice Bowl
Fiesty Salmon Rice Bowl
Our recommendations
We enjoyed all of their rice bowls which may look small on first sight but each bowl is stuffed with the right amount of rice and ingredients that would leave you filling full and satisfied. If I had to choose one, it will have to be their Dong Po Pork Belly Rice bowl.
As for the hotplates, we recommend their Dong Po Pork Belly, Revamped Fish, Soupy Clams, Kung Pao Chicken and Red cow. Their hotplate dishes are generally very flavourful and they will go well with a bowl of Revamped Japanese rice or Chinese Olive egg fried rice.
Sweeten your meal with some cocktails
There might be no dessert offering on their menu but at least, there are drinks to sweeten or spice things up. They also served a range of premium spirits like Hendrick’s Gin, Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Macallan and Remy Martin Club.
The 100% Sure Win ‘Kiap Kiap Machine’
Many customers might not know about this unless their staff mentioned it to them. There is a claw machine (a.k.a Kiap Kiap machine) near the kitchen that allows customers to win some free drinks or food.
Are you game for this?
Revamp Kitchen and Bar
61 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore 088482
Tel: +65 9050 5303
