Saturday, July 13, 2019

Yun Nans at Jewel Changi Airport


Yun Nans 云海肴 is a Chinese restaurant from China specialized in Yunnan cuisine.  This one at Jewel Changi Airport is their first foray into an overseas market.  Their dinner starts at 5pm, we arrived a bit earlier at about 4.50pm on a normal Sunday, there was already a small queue at the entrance.  At 5pm sharp we were ushered into the restaurant. 



The restaurant is not very big, the number of seats is quite limited, so if you want to secure a table, the only trick is to go there early.  The interior design is simple, bright and pleasant, nothing fancy, but comfortable. 

Yunnan Classic Steam Pot Chicken Soup, $23.90++

Their signature dish is the Yunnan steam port chicken soup.  What it is different from other chicken soup is the way it is cooked, and the pot used.  Do you notice there is a 'chimney' in the middle of the pot?  Yes, that's the key.  The chicken is placed in the pot, without adding any water.  Then the entire pot is placed on top of boiling water, and the water steam will come in from the 'chimney' and becomes your soup.  This is also an ingenious way of doing water desalination! 

I like the chicken soup very much.  It is clear, and sweet!  The essence of chicken all goes into the soup.  However, the chicken itself, is quite dry and a bit tasteless.  Overall, I will give a score of 9/10 for this dish, and it is a must try here. 

Truffle Rice Noodles, $13.90++

We also ordered their truffle rice noodles (黑松露虾汤米线).  The soup was excellent.  Very thick in the flavor of prawns, great.  The noodle itself was a bit over-cooked though.  Overall, I will give it a score of 7/10.

Grilled Seabass, $22.90++

My friend recommended the grilled seabass, it is his most favourite.  The seabass was perfectly grilled, a flower pepper was generously spread on top.  At this point, I must be a bit critical about their service, or the service of one waitress.  She took our order, knowing we already ordered a chicken soup and a rice noodle with plenty of soup, she still pushed us to order drinks.  And she didn't tell us for the grilled fish, we had the choice of how spice it should be.  It is a waitress with Malaysian Chinese accent. 

Ok, back to the fish.  The flower pepper makes the whole fish only have one and only one taste - spicy.  It is perfect for people who like spicy food, but unfortunately not for me. 

All in all, we spent $100 for two persons.  It is not too expensive, the food is decent.  I will definitely go back for that pot of chicken soup, it is just too good to forget.