Birds of a Feather, Amoy St: Modern Sichuan Food in Paradise

By Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow on April 16, 2017 • ( 7 Comments )

You cannot see it from the photo, but when you walk into the inner sanctum of Birds of a Feather at Amoy St, there are floating clouds and trees accented by skylight, decorated after Chengdu where their owners are from. The gay boy at the table beside ours screeched, “I love this place. This is my f*cking favorite place. Can we come here for lunch everyday?” Ok, calm your titties, sister. Apparently, it’s many people’s favorite restaurant since it was full house when we were there for weekday lunch.

There is no weekday lunch set and the lunch a la carte is pretty much the same as dinner’s except that for some dishes, dinner is more expensive than lunch. (Why do they charge different prices for the same dish?)

The menu consists of sharing plates and mains of modern Sichuan cuisine. We started with crispy pork trotters in a bag (5 pcs, $12). It comes in a brown paper bag, and you pour chilli flakes into the bag to your liking, and you shake it like McD’s shaker fries.

There is so much fat in the pork, but it is not at all greasy; it’s crispy and tender. At first I was afraid that the chilli flakes might be too spicy, but it was nothing. Despite that it is not spicy enough, it is very shiok.

The fried calamari with yuzu tartar sauce ($19) is pretty costly for a few pieces, and it looks too thick with batter, but when you bite into it, it has a nice mouthfeel.

The signature burger ($30) has grilled beef patty, foie gras, cheddar, caramelized onion. It comes with fried potato, which is addictive af. Although I don’t understand why this is their signature, it is ok. Nothing to complain about.

I’ve heard many good things about the tofu burger with mapo meat sauce ($22). It’s a deep-fried tofu patty that is topped with mapo meat sauce. It’s nice but the flavor is a bit thin. I couldn’t really taste the mapo sauce until I carefully, slowly took notice. It would be better if there are bolder flavors in the bun.

Lacking in Sichuan flavors is what is missing in the food. My friends and I enjoyed the food, but at the end of the meal, when I told them Birds is a Sichuan-inspired restaurant, they said, “Huh? If you don’t say, we wouldn’t know.” We all agree that the Sichuan mala spiceiness could have come on stronger. More spiciness in the pork trotter; maybe sprinkle some Sichuan pepper on the calamari; and make the mapo sauce more obvious in the tofu burger.

We paid $97 for three persons. Ms Atas sums up our experience succinctly: “This is a good restaurant.”

MENU