SINGAPORE: It has been a while since I last went out for a drink when food is secondary. We landed at Jekyll and Hyde after seeing many Instagram posts on their "Atas" Char Kway Teow. With a motto of "Good Health, Good Wealth and Great Sex", what is there not to like!
Jekyll and Hyde have been around for years, and they have been known to serve local food with a premium twist. It is exactly what the name of the bar is implying! You get hawker food with a 5-stars treatment. It is exactly what I am looking for! I want to have a drink, maybe a cocktail and a beer, but I don't want the usual bar food like pizza or buffalo wings. Instead, I want my satays and my favourite Fried Carrot Cake.
We started with My Hyde's Satay (S$18). Each stick has big chunks of Iberico Pork, heavily seasoned with turmeric. You can bite into a nice ratio of meat and fat. It is nicely charred and crispy on the outside. It's perfect with pineapple and peanut sauce. The roughly chopped peanut added a different texture to the dish. Love it.
Every bar will have nachos in its menu, but I bet this is the only one with Chilli Crab Nachos. Since I am a huge fan of chilli crab, I have to order this. I was expecting the dip to be crab meat in the classic sauce. However, when the dish was served, it was the tobiko that caught my attention. To eat the Chilli Crab Nachos (S$18), first, you have to mix the crab and tobiko well. Then, find a piece of nacho that you can use to spoon the dip. When you bite into it, you can taste the real crab meat and get the pop from the tobiko. Yummy! By the time we finish the last nachos, not a single drop of the sauce is left.
Curry Fried Chicken (2 pcs for S$10) is a cloud kitchen concept by Jekyll and Hyde. Mainly available for delivery. For dine-in, you have to go to Jekyll and Hyde itself. So this means that if you want to try this fried chicken for lunch on weekdays, your only option is to get it delivered to you. If you love curry spices and fried chicken, this is worth a try! However, you will get a better deal if you order online or take away as you can avoid paying the extra charges that usually come with dining in.
The best drinking foods here are Sakura Beef Char Kway Teow (S$27) and Kurobuta Fried Carrot Cake (S$20)!
Sakura Beef Char Kway Teow is a wok hei filled fried kway teow (flat rice noodles) with salty dried radish. This dish is elevated with a piece of medium-rare beef and the crispy pork lard is the icing on the cake! Ideal for someone who can't decide whether you want a steak or a plate of noodles. Let's have both.
Kurobuta Fried Carrot Cake is taking my all-time favourite hawker food, the fried carrot cake, and pan-fried with salted kurobuta pork. This classic dish now has an added dimension, getting the saltiness and the umami from the animal known for its intensely flavorful meat and fat.
Happiness beings with some cocktails, Mojito, Old Fashioned and Poolside Sipper (S$12 each during happy hours), followed by some bottled Asahi dry and Asahi Black.
We had Jekyll's Hua Tiao Bee Hoon (S$25). Crispy vermicelli with fresh seafood, such as fish, squid and prawns and thick pork gravy. We can smell the fragrance of the Hua Tiao even before they served the dish. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good photo because of the low light. This is not my first choice as I don't like my noodles clump up. However, the others do like it a lot.
It's a beautiful evening.
Address: 74 Neil Rd, Singapore 088839