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Lokkee, the TungLok Group’s new baby, updates the culinary style of Westernised Chinese restaurants with its own flavours of wit and surprise
In the West, you’d get Chinese takeout from Chinatown in iconic white boxes with a couple of fortune cookies thrown in for tradition and, perhaps, wisdom as well. Locally, Lokkee (pronounced “lucky”), the latest endeavour of the TungLok Group, plays on this culinary concept in its own tongue-in-cheek way.
If you miss the Chinese brush paintings hanging on the walls that feature not majestic galloping horses but Star Wars AT-AT Walkers, the wet tissues that resemble condom packaging will have you do a double take. If not, cheeky figurines (several taken from general manager Norman Hartono’s personal collection) dot the 100-seat restaurant. Also, a cartoon theme runs in each of the three private dining rooms, which can accommodate up to 12 diners individually. All these add to a dramatic decor, where modern lantern ceiling lamps are paired with velvet and leather rouge furnishing.
Chinatown staples such as chow mein, chop suey and orange chicken are part of the menu, but so are modern Asian dishes influenced by the food of Japan, Korea and China—each infused with an unexpected element. For instance, the Firecracker Chicken Nest takes after Sichuan wok-fried chicken, where savoury diced chicken delivers a tingling ma la sensation after being deep-fried in dried chilli and five-spice. Sitting at four corners of the dish are innocuous egg yolk-like spheres in halved eggshells—they are actually orbs of luscious mango puree to revive your numb taste buds.
The mapo tofu is another piquant Sichuan dish. Layered over a melt-in-your-mouth homemade silken tofu is a rich brown sauce, which is accented by peppercorns and decadent minced Wagyu beef.
Then, there is a dish that is on fire, literally. A pineapple carrying the Awesome Flaming Pineapple Beef is set alit when served, further opening up the fruit to release its sweet juices into the braised beef.
The 3 Egg Pyramid Broccoli also catches the eye, as florets of a lime green Romanesco broccoli peek out from a tasty sauce made from and freckled with chicken, duck and century egg.
Quick bites also well equip Lokkee for the corporate and shopping crowd streaming into Plaza Singapura. Bite into the golden-brown crust of the chilli crab cakes, and savour how the ambrosial chilli crab sauce with shredded crabmeat oozes into your mouth. Poke salad is a signature healthy choice for weight-watchers, who will take pleasure in a crisp tortilla bowl heaped with diced pieces of raw salmon, tuna and avocado, all marinated in a homemade spicy sauce.
Cocktails here are also flavoured with an Asian spin. Think milky green tea with a splash of rum and a Tom Collins reinterpreted with oolong tea, pomegranate and gin.
