[News] - Blue Lotus Chinese Grill House opens at Tanjong Pagar Centre

Inside Blue Lotus Chinese Grill House

Fans of Blue Lotus' chilli crab pomelo rejoice. Since the Sentosa Quayside isle-based Chinese eatery opened an offshoot in Tanjong Pagar Centre, the eatery has successfully transplanted its chilli pomelo sauce onto brand new dishes.

Named Blue Lotus Chinese Grill House ("Grill House"), the vibrantly coloured eatery by Ricky Ng serves new age Chinese cuisine in a day-lit space that sits 60 indoors, 36 at the alfresco and 14 in a private room.

To cater to its grill house cuisine, the kitchen incorporates western culinary techniques and equipments, including sous vide bath and a Josper grill, and is partially helmed by former Boca Portugeese chef, Helio Gonçalves, who works alongside Chinese chef, Pang Weng Chien.

At Grill House, you will not find any replica of Blue Lotus' dishes -like the now-iconic chilli pomelo crab - but semblances of it, which is still good for a fix if you are too lazy to make the schlep to Sentosa.

Chilli pomelo mussels

Chilli pomelo crab fans will want to order the chilli pomelo sauce doused Australian blue mussels served alongside deep-fried mantou (S$22). The tomato ketchup-free chilli pomelo sauce is redolent of sauce in the chilli pomelo crab dish that Blue Lotus is known for but instead of chunky crab claws, you get plump and succulent mussels.

Char siew lovers may also adore the Josper grill-cooked hickory smoked honey glazed Kurobuta pork belly with white radish pickle (S$16). 

Pig's trotters

If you want your pork with more vibrant flavours, try the fried pork trotters with a piquant, almost heady, ginger vinegar dip (S$12). First slow-cooked then dipped in potato starch and deep-fried, the little chunks of trotter are to be dunked in the dip before eating. It's like eating your mum's braised pig's trotters but these ones come deep-fried.

Fermented tofu barley "risotto"

For something a little off-beat, order the fermented tofu barley "risotto" with pan-seared barramundi (S$28) - pearls of plump and succulent barley tossed in preserved tofu served alongside a hunk of Josper oven barramundi seared in a pan.

And for desserts, don't leave without trying the durian creme brulee (S$14). It is, apparently, to-die-for.

Unlike the dinner a la carte, lunch is a decidedly affordable and snappy affair - three courses for S$18++. One of the lunch options available is the hot stone pork lard flavoured fried rice, a cacophony of typical claypot rice ingredients like waxed meats against truffle oil, pork lard butter and pork lard. Yes, one may question the presence of truffle oil, but with the pork lard and pork lard butter in the mix, you may not even taste the truffle oil,,