Yue Bai features a menu that’s both refined and hearty, innovative and classic, led by principles of traditional Chinese dietary therapy

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The food scene in Tanjong Pagar may feel saturated, but not too saturated for Yue Bai. The restaurant, headed by Singaporean co-owner and chef Lee Hongwei, is the essence of everything that Lee loves: Chinese literature, calligraphy and serenity. It’s an intimate space of oak and cream, with a menu that’s both refined and hearty, innovative and classic, led by principles of traditional Chinese dietary therapy—something that will get you excited if you’ve got a thing for Traditional Chinese Medicine.

In short, he makes healthy taste delicious, making sure every recipe and ingredient serves the body best. It’s all very yin and yang, but health nut or not, Yue Bai can be a place to lose several hours inside, before emerging into the world feeling satisfied. And there’s plenty of food to go around. Start with a selection of small plates like the refreshing Roselle-Infused Winter Melon (read: roselle reduces cholesterol and blood pressure levels) and Deep-Fried Purple Rice Cake, which comes with rice puffs and homemade XO sauce. The Double-Boiled Silkie Chicken Soup is delicious, too, and the Jasmine flowers in the soup should calm one’s mood, or so we are told.

Proceed with the Braised Duck, served with sea cucumber, hawthorn and Korean snow pear. It’s a tedious recipe based on a dish Lee grew up eating, which involves a whole duck marinated in soy sauce, flash-fried, braised, deboned and steamed, before it looks like Hokkien braised pork belly. Just healthier, and just as comforting. And though not everything on the menu is a hit (the Deep-Fried Prawn with Granola borders on strange), there are the classics to fall back on, and why shouldn’t you? We hear the Peking Duck is pretty amazing and what could go wrong with Drunken Chilled Prawn?

Yue Bai
33 Duxton Road,
Singapore 089497
Tel: +65 9721 8055