Amidst the current climate, a number of new concepts are still making their debut in Singapore. Avenue 87 is one of the new establishments to open in the Telok Ayer – Amoy Street stretch. The restaurant sits in a 2-storey shophouse, taking over the former space of Kimme. This is a part of the CBD that straddles the office crowd and the upscale foodies – with this stretch alone having at least 4 Michelin-starred restaurants.
avenue 87 at 47 amoy street
And so comes 2 friends who happen to be from Hougang in Singapore’s northeast. The two Singaporean chefs, Glen Tay and Alex Phan, were both born in 1987 and had lived in Hougang’s Avenue 8 and Avenue 7 respectively. These similarity in numbers as well as the nod to local cuisine brought about the name Avenue 87.
Both chefs have had extensive experience in the culinary scene. Chef Glen currently works in Ultraviolet, a 3-star Michelin restaurant in Shanghai. Chef Alex, on the other hand, is not new to me. I previously met him at Park Hotel Clark Quay, where he was the Executive Chef and calling the shots at the inhouse restaurant, Porta. When the offer to start the new restaurant was made, the duo spent the lockdowns formulating recipes through video calls, as Chef Glen is based in Shanghai and Chef Alex is in Singapore. Each of the two would buy the same ingredients and recreate their own versions of the recipes and discuss the outcome. Sometimes, certain ingredients would not be available in one of the locations, necessitating a replacement. Sometimes, this also led to unexpected results which ultimately made it to the final menu.
Prices at Avenue 87
The cuisine at Avenue 87 is best described as a nod to familiar tastes but with a contemporary twist. What often occurs when someone tries to bring a modern element to things is that the result becomes too haute and withdrawn from the original meaning. In Avenue 87, they try to preserve a sense of nostalgia to each dish, bringing about an element of comfort. The restaurant has a 4-course dinner menu (S$76++) and 6-course dinner menu (S$98++) that runs through most of the specialties of the house. For business lunches, Avenue 87 also offers set meals during mid-day from S$29++.
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