If Jay Chou likes Ju Xing’s zi char, you might too

NEW RESTAURANT Ju Xing Home B2-36A Takashimaya Shopping Centre Singapore 238872 Tel: 9666 1357 Open daily: 11 am to 10 pm.

IF RESTAURANTS had personalities, they would range from loud to genteel, snobby or endearingly humble. Ju Xing Home, on the other hand, would be a show-off, amplifying every minor achievement like a major milestone, any vague praise like a powerful career endorsement – kind of like what you see in a narcissist’s LinkedIn profile.

“Jay Chou ta-paued food from us, wow!”

“Alan Tam digs our stir-fried beef, how about that!”

“Chefs from Chinese Michelin-starred restaurants come for supper after service! Let’s put up a sign about that on our wall!” 

Oh, they actually did. On the frontage of Ju Xing Home in Takashimaya’s basement, are the words “Michelin chefs (sic) favourite Hong Kong restaurant”, right below a plaque that says “Michelin Bib Gourmand”. A Hong Kong accolade that doesn’t transfer to its just-opened Singapore outlet, but who you gonna call, the Bib-busters?

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Friday, 2 pm

Lifestyle

Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself.

Sign Up

So Ju Xing is said to be a big deal in its native Hong Kong. It started out in 2011 as a humble cook shop on Portland Street by chef Ng Kong Kiu, and became famous more for the clientele that patronised it than the casual zi-char dishes he actually cooked. Needless to say, it’s more Jay Chou than the chef’s sweet-sour pork that draws us to the restaurant’s first Singapore outlet, with more in the works.

It was brought in by Singapore’s Hong Kong franchise king Robert Chua, the former TV producer-turned-restaurant talent scout who has populated both city centre and suburbs with the likes of Tim Ho Wan, Kam’s Roast and Joy Luck Teahouse. Not all outlets have survived, and the novelty of the others wore off a long time ago; it’s now Ju Xing Home’s turn to pick up the slack.

Enjoy it now, while this new broom is still sweeping clean, and before offspring start popping up. Ju Xing has zi-char roots, but this one is a mid-high Chinese restaurant, with fish tanks holding pricey specimens to prove it. Conveniently across the atrium from Takashimaya’s food hall, the decor is functional and there’s a noisy Hong Kong vibe, but sans rude serving staff.

How the restaurant gets manpower we don’t know. We’re convinced they have a factory assembling these cheerful, efficient staff who man the decks seven days a week like they enjoy it.

We have a server who’s friendly and fast, reeling off the signature dishes faster than we can say “yes” to each. Sweet-sour pork. Tiger prawns with crispy vermicelli (because it’s cheaper than lobster). Poached fish in chilli oil. Kai lan in clay pot. Soy sauce fried bee hoon. When all else fails, pick whatever has a “thumbs up” on the menu.

Whatever unnatural things they do to their pork to keep them juicy, we’re not complaining. Sweet and sour pork (S$16.80) is an all-time favourite that lives up to the comforting artificiality of sweet-tangy and super sticky sauce, coating cubes of deep-fried, crunchy-juicy meat.

The fresh, if tasteless, tiger shrimp are not the stars of the crispy vermicelli (S$35.80), but the latter is an ugly nest of noodles fried so shatteringly crisp and sharp they double as crunchy crackers and stabbing instruments. There’s also some gravy ladled over that can soften everything, but we like it without.

The cooking style veers from Cantonese to Sichuan, though the latter is more infant-level spicy than hardcore. Poached fish in Sichuan chilli oil (S$45.80) tries to scare you with its blanket of dried chillies, but it just tickles your palate with a warm robust fish broth balanced out with the saltiness of preserved vegetables and a hint of numbing Szechuan peppers. Dig around for slippery slices of milky fish, lots of soybean sprouts. It could use more punch, or you could chomp on the chillies if you like some punishment.

We didn’t think to try the stir-fried beef, but there’s always a next time. Instead, simplicity rules as stir-fried kai lan in a claypot (S$16.80) stays crisp and tender, slicked with a bit of oil and wok hei, scattered with bits of salted fish as the X-factor. And while we’d much rather have the quintessential Hong Kong fried beef kway teow, it only offers soy sauce fried noodles (S$18.80), which is an elevated version of the local economy fried bee hoon.

If you want dessert, there’s only a thin but pleasant almond milk (S$6.80), to which you can add black sesame dumplings at S$1.80 a pop (minimum 2). That brings it up to S$10.40 a head, which substantially adds to your bill if everyone at your table has a portion each. The dumplings lack chewiness, but are likeable enough.

No-name zi-char at your regular neighbourhood haunt or homestyle cooking with a celebrity spin? Ju Xing Home is great for unfussy, unrefined cooking where homey comfort overrides high expectations. The real test is whether we’ll say the same thing six months later. But for now, let Jay Chou be your guide and dig in.

Rating: 6