Janice Wong - National Museum Restaurant (Outlet Closed)

Janice Wong has a new look – not Janice Wong the chef but Janice Wong the restaurant. Singapore’s “dessert queen”, Janice Wong, still looked her youthful charming self. Janice Wong Singapore Restaurant at the National Museum has been given a make-over. The menu has also been refreshed. The new look and the updated menu have made Janice Wong Singapore Restaurant more attractive.

We visited Janice Wong Singapore Restaurant at the National Museum not long after it opened in 2016 (see our post Janice Wong National Museum Restaurant – where food meets art). We had guests from overseas recently and brought them to Janice Wong Restaurant. Entering the restaurant, we noticed that it looked different. The small premises now looks more spacious. The ice cream display counters and retail shelves are gone. There are more seats and the chairs are more comfortable. The nip and tuck job has certainly made the restaurant, which was stylish and arty to start with, more plush and attractive.

The New Menu

We also noticed that the menu was different from our last visit. The savoury section of the menu is now more extensive. Chef Janice explained that the menu would be refreshed from time to time and that she would take inspiration from the theme of the exhibits in the adjacent Gallery 10.

Here are some pictures of the current menu and degustation menus.

Lunch @ Janice Wong

We ordered several items from the savoury section. Some of the fillings of the dim sum items were in fact sweet – like chocolate for example. All the items were like works of art. We show you photos of what we ordered.

The Signature 5 Dumplings ($15) is a must-try. They looked beautiful and were delicious.

The xiao long baos in the “XLB Tasting Platter” ($20) were very good. We ordered a second basket.

The Mini Pot of Siew Mais ($15) were also excellent. The only complaint was there were only 3 pieces when there were 4 of us.

The Whimsical Buns ($8) came in three flavours – “liquid egg”, “minced vegetables” and “braised veal”. The vegetables bun was surprisingly good.

We could not agree on whether the Truffle Pork Gyoza Dumplings ($15) were supposed to look like sailing boats or Christmas tress; but we all agreed that they were delicious.

The 50 Layered Crispy Puffs ($12) came in three flavours – Radish Turnip, Liquid Egg & Dark Chocolate. We liked the more traditional savoury Radish Turnip Puff the best.

The Prawn Spinach Noodles ($24) was very good and reminiscent of the popular hawker prawn noodles. We would have ordered another helping if it was a little less expensive.

Desserts & Coffee

To impress our foreign guests, we had to order the Signature Cassis Plum ($24). The tangy dessert was a hit.

The Warm Tiramisu ($21) we also ordered was a miss. It looked good but there was no kick to it and we did not think that it was better than the traditional tiramisu we could get in good Italian restaurants.

At the end of our lunch we were served a complimentary tray of moochi of different flavours, including Strawberry, Mango & Matcha. They were very good and those who like snow skin mooncakes would like Janice Wong’s moochi.

We had long black and latte with our meal. The coffee was very good – rich and robust without bitter aftertaste. Overall it was a good meal and certainly quite an interesting and memorable one for our foreign guests.

The new look of Janice Wong Singapore Restaurant is certainly an improvement. It is more spacious and comfortable. The refreshing of the Mod-Chinese savoury menu and desserts menu helps to keep things interesting – keeping the core popular items and rotating others as well as introducing new creations. Our overseas guests were thrilled by the experience of having lunch at Janice Wong Restaurant in Singapore National Museum. Janice Wong, both the Chef and the Restaurant, is certainly a good advertisement for Singapore visual arts and culinary arts.