Chinoiserie @ MBS

Another Justin Quek production, Chinoiserie goes back to his French culinary roots and his Chinese tzechar inspiration.

Justin Quek runs two restaurants in MBS. JustIN Flavours of Asia is on the ground level of MBS offering luxe versions of local food, with an al fresco dining area facing Marina Bay. The other is this French-Chinese fusion fine dining called Chinoiserie.

Chinoiserie goes back to the culinary roots of the original Sky on 57, Justin’s first restaurant right up on the iconic rooftop in Marina Bay Sands. At Sky on 57, he served Chinese for the lunch service and French haute cuisine for the dinner service. In Chinoiserie, he combined the best of both cuisine in a fusion presentation.

With 35 years of cooking experience under his belt, Quek considers these two concepts to represent that he has come full circle. “This is a representation of who I am: a true-blue Singaporean Teochew who loves Asian and Chinese food, yet with an embedded spirit of French haute cuisine. I am a different person now – older and wiser, more travelled, having seen and tasted so much more.”

Truffle Xiao Long Bao

Duck Foie Gras | Black Truffle Consommé | Jamon Iberico Ham 
主厨推荐 | 松露鸭肝小笼包 | 松露高汤 | 伊比利亚火腿 

We started our lunch with an ala carte order of Justin’s signature Truffle Xiaolongbao (soup dumpling). This time, it was given another upgrade from the first version where they added foie gras to the traditional Xiaolongbao. Besides the foie gras, each dumpling was topped by shredded Jamon Iberico ham, which was unnecessary but still worked with the dumpling. And then there’s the golden sauce that they have incorporated mashed pumpkin into black truffle infused consommé that overwhelmed the usual meat soup in the the dumpling, totally unnecessary.

Croque Madame

Slow Cooked Egg | Smoked Pork Foie Gras Paté | Truffle Hollandaise
法式火腿起司土司 | 有机鸡蛋 | 烟熏猪肉鸭肝慕斯 | 松露蛋黄酱

Chef Justin’s signature mushroom cappuccino was also available in the set lunch menu. Despite my liking to the creamy, luscious creamy mushroom soup, I decided to try the Croque Madame. Croque Madame is a Croque Monsieur with an egg. Usually served fried, they have used a sous vide egg and topped it with truffle infused hollandaise sauce. The ham and cheese toastie was upgraded with foie gras pate. To me, it was breakfast in a plate.

Truffle Pasta

Capellini | Wild Mushroom | Albufera Sauce
松露意大利面 | 野菌 | 松露奶油

Usually I would not go for the vegetarian choice, but since I have ordered another of their signature dish as an added side, I picked the truffle pasta using a thiner capellini pasta with a superrich Albufera sauce (a daughter sauce made from velouté sauce, thickened with cream), and a variety of mushrooms (trumpet, honshimeiji, white and brown). I can only blame myself for picking three rich courses in a straight row.

Local Delights

Wok Fried | King Prawn | Hokkien Mee
爆炒 | 鲜虾 | 福建面

This was what I was craving for when I came to Chinoiserie. I sang praises about the wokhei and the rich broth made from lobster. This was a slightly less luxurious version made from king prawn but Chef Justin’s Hokkien Mee is a must order. My guests agreed that it was a really good Hokkien Mee, but I think they did a better job at JUSTin upstairs.

Chicken Coquelet

Roasted Chicken | Cereal Crumbs | Pommes Purée | Seasonal Greens 
香烤鸡 | 麦片 | 土豆泥 | 时蔬

The main course I had was a fail. First of all, the chicken thigh still had bones and they should have warned the customer. I was surprised when I cut into the poultry and hit something hard. Then there’s th cereal crumb which tasted raw. You might as well leave out the mashed potato, there was not even enough for one forkful of that.

Norwegian Nordic Salmon

Roasted | Seasonal Greens | Hazelnut | Aged Balsamic
香煎挪威三文鱼 | 时蔬 | 榛果 | 意大利黑醋

My guests enjoyed the salmon, but they could be just polite.

Poached Pear

Citrus Compote | Oolong Ice Cream | Osmanthus Gelée
雪梨 | 柑橘蜜饯 | 乌龙冰淇淋 | 桂花糕果冻

Finally a quick recovery with the dessert. I always enjoyed jelly and the osmanthus gelée did not disappoint. So was the quenelle of oolong ice cream, a nice flavour that I mistaken for Earl Grey ice cream until I saw the menu. The main ingredients was supposed to be the poached pear, but the rest of the ingredients stole the show.

Service and ambience are excellent, well worthy of the price, which by the way was not exorbitant. The set lunch was $88 per person for 4 courses. The food was good, but it was not the A game. I have expected something better from Chef Justin.

Chinoiserie Modern Asian Restaurant 
2 Bayfront Avenue Galleria Level, B1-15,
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore 018972
Tel : +65 6688 7782

Visit in Jun 2022