Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery - New Bistro featuring Bak Kwa

Popular home-grown bak kwa chain, Bee Cheng Hiang, has launched its brand new concept store – the Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery. Located at the Bee Cheng Hiang HQ in Serangoon Road, the flagship store stocks a wide range of Bee Cheng Hiang goodies and also houses a bistro and a wine bar.

The new Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery has bold contemporary interior design. The place is brightly lit and a wide range of products with colourful packagings line shelves of different shapes and sizes in the store. The retail section dominates the front and the restaurant and bar section is in the back.

Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery is intended to give customers a unique bak kwa experience and you can try your hands at bak kwa barbequing and pork floss making in the store. Sounds like a good idea – if an immersive bak kwa experience in a restaurant is what you really want – an idea which may have a lingering effect.

The dining space at Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery is actually quite limited. There is a circular bar and a few tables to the rear of the bar.

Next to the dining area is a walk-in wine cellar and patrons can choose to purchase the wines for takeaway or enjoy them in the bistro. The wines will come with a recommended bak kwa pairing suggestions.

Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery Menu

Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery currently only serves tapas, wine and beverages. A full menu of tapas, salad and mains will be launched later. Pictures of the current Tapas Menu, Beverage Menu and a random page of the Wine List are below.

Tapas at Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery

We visited Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery on a weekday evening and ordered a few tapas items to try.

The first item was the Pumpkin Tempura ($7). The deep-fried breaded Japanese Pumpkin coated with pork floss was a very good start. The outside was crisp and savoury and the inside was sweet and creamy. Every bite was packed with flavours. Very enjoyable.

Next we had the DIY Sliders with Chicken Coin (chicken bak kwa) ($14). The dish was obviously created for the Instagram generation. The presentation was attractive. Together with the toasted mini buns and gold coins, caramelized onions, fried quail eggs, sambal mayonnaise, lettuce and tomatoes were neatly laid out on a wooden board. The sambal was quite spicy; otherwise, the sliders were not particularly remarkable in terms of taste. Those who like bak kwa with bread should enjoy the dish.

The last tapas item we had was Steamed Egg Custard ($5). It was essentially chawanmushi with a layer of smoked tuna and topped with fish roe and bak kaw bits. Again, pretty and nice enough in terms of taste.

Coffee and Mooncakes

We ordered a latte ($5) and cappuccino ($5). The coffee was fairly ordinary. They kindly offered us tasting portions of Bee Cheng Hiang mooncakes. There were four different flavours, one of which had bak kwa included in the filling. We liked the gula Melaka-pandan mooncake best of all. The mao shan wang mooncake was delectable too.

On the whole, we thought the food at Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery was quite good. The staff were friendly, attentive and helpful. We could help ourselves to “Spa Water” and we thought the prices were reasonable (and GST is already included in the prices stated on the menu).

Bee Cheng Hiang Grillery seems like a good concept particularly for those who like bak kwa and pork floss. We are not so sure though about the immersive bak kwa experience which includes barbequing in the premises. The smoke from the barbecuing permeates the whole place. You will leave the bistro with not only bak kwa in your tummy but the scent of bak kwa on your hair and clothes. A lingering bak kwa experience indeed!