Hainan Story Jewel (Chapter 2) - Hainanese Restaurant at Changi Airport

Hainan Story Jewel (Chapter 2) is a restaurant with a collection of different types of Hainanese food. This is their third Singapore outlet after Hainan Story in Hillion Mall and Chapter 1 in Hotel Boss. We stopped by at the new Changi Airport outlet to try some Hainanese classics.

Hainan Story Jewel (Chapter 2) @ Changi Airport Review

The new Hainan Story Jewel (Chapter 2) occupies a large bright space at level B2 of Jewel Changi. This colourful and kitschy (in a nice way) new restaurant is right across the A&W restaurant.

According to their website, Hainanese immigrants were among the last Chinese communities to arrive in Singapore. They took up jobs as chefs for the British colonial folks and mastered British cuisine and food prepared by other dialect groups. The Hainan Story is said to introduce uniquely Singapore Hainanese food with a modern twist.

Hainan Story Jewel (Chapter 2) @ Changi Airport

The food at Hainan Story Jewel is organised under brands such as The Bakery, Coffee & Toast, 218 Haines Lor Mee, Newspaper Curry Rice, Uncle Robert Western & BBQ and Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice.

The Hainan Story Jewel menu is creatively designed like a newspaper. But the paper quality and glossy photos are better than any newspaper we have seen. The food items are categorised according to their respective sub-brands. Here are some sample pictures of the menu. The choice of Hainanese cuisine at Jewel Changi is extremely wide. It was a case of so much choice but too little tummy space. We finally decided on Classic Hainanese Lamb Stew with Jasmine Rice ($16.80), 1980’s Hainanese Chicken Cutlet Coated With Potato Chips Crumbs ($18.80) and Pan-Fried Long Bean Omelette ($3).

What We Ate at Hainan Story Jewel

We decided to try the chicken cutlet for two reasons. First, Hainanese pork chop is legendary and this should be equally good. Secondly, Hainanese versions of western food (such as those served at British Hainan) can sometimes be a wonderful interpretation of the original dish and we were hoping this would be so. But we were somewhat disappointed with this dish. The chicken chop was hard and dry. The fries were also very ordinary. The most interesting part of the dish was the toast which seemed to have been infused with fruit (lychee?) flavours.

The long bean omelette was a side dish we decided to try for variety. It was very enjoyable and would be a great inclusion for a tze char style meal.

Our best dish of the day was the Hainanese lamb stew. It was quite a generous amount of stew for a single-person portion. The flavours of the many things that went into the making of the stew created a thick delicious gravy that goes perfectly with Jasmine rice.

We found slabs of meat in the dark gravy. They were probably from various parts of lamb and yielded different textures and flavours. The meat was cooked till very soft and was easy to eat. The slight gamey taste of lamb was well integrated with the other ingredients to make this a friendly dish. This is dish we would love to eat again on a future visit to Hainan Story Jewel.