Tiger Street Lab Jewel - Beer + Tze Char by Keng Eng Kee (KEK) in Changi Airport

Tiger Street Lab Jewel is located at the top level of the new Jewel shopping mall at the Singapore Changi Airport. Tiger Beer has teamed up with famous tze char restaurant Keng Eng Kee (KEK) Seafood at this Jewel restaurant. A smart move, as beer always goes well with tze char food. Whether you call it “zi char” or tze char (煮炒), this potent combination could potentially yield the best restaurant in Jewel Changi.

Tiger Street Lab Jewel Keng Eng Kee (KEK) Seafood Changi Airport — Tiger Street Lab Jewel

Tiger Street Lab Jewel occupies a nice central position on level 5 of the Jewel. In keeping with the “lab” and tze char restaurant concepts, they have kept the decor modest and low key. The tables and chairs resemble those at public food courts and coffee shops. They even have large umbrellas which are quite unnecessary, given that this entire space is air-conditioned and ample shades are provided in the dome structure. But they all add up to create an East Coast hawker centre look but with the benefit of a nice air-conditioned “outdoor” environment. The best of both worlds!

Tiger Street Lab Jewel Menu

At Tiger Street Lab Changi, Tiger supplies the beer. The food is served by Keng Eng Kee Seafood (KEK) 瓊榮記海鲜 – a famous tze char restaurant based in Alexandra Village. You can read about our lunch at KEK Alexandra here. We were somewhat disappointed to see that the food menu was very limited. There were only about 15 food items on the menu. It is enough variety for one visit but it will get boring soon after. Perhaps the Jewel is aimed at transit international visitors that are unlikely to make repeat visits.

It probably makes sense to have a limited menu. But we were hoping to see a showcase of Singapore zhi char cuisine at Tiger Street Lab Jewel since Singapore cuisine seems to be under represented among the various food options at the Jewel Changi.

Tiger Street Lab Jewel menu — Tiger Street Lab Keng Eng Kee Food Menu

Tiger Beer and Food by Keng Eng Kee

We opted for the regular Tiger beer ($10 for a pint) at Tiger Street Lab Jewel. The seasonal brew costs a bit more ($14).

The Chinese sausage fried rice ($10) was the first item to be served. A simple and common dish but very well executed. There were quite a bit of Chinese sausages (lup cheong) inside the pile of rice.

Chinese sausage fried rice at Tiger Street Lab Jewel

The boneless coffee pork ribs ($15) is one of the signature items at Keng Eng Kee (KEK) Seafood and it did not disappoint. It is best eaten with plain steamed rice as the seasoning is quite strongly flavoured.

Boneless coffee pork ribs ($15) at Tiger Street Lab Jewel

Our final two dishes were the black pepper soft shell crab ($15, above pictures) and the Moonlight Horfun ($10, pictures below). They were both superb. The horfun is also a signature dish at KEK and elevated the humble fried horfun to a gastronomic experience.

Although the menu at Tiger Street Lab Jewel was very limited, we were glad that two of their signature items of Keng Eng Kee (KEK) Seafood – the coffee pork ribs and the moonlight horfun, were present. These were wonderful items to eat with beer, reasonably priced at $10 a pint. Which made us wonder why the restaurant was relatively empty while a snaking queue for burgers and hotdogs were forming in the lower levels of Jewel Changi.