Herit8ge at Jewel Changi Airport is opened by the folks behind Fresh Fruit Labs cafe, and Platform 1094 cafe (the Harry Potter themed cafe). Like former child actresses who strip to get rid of their “child” image, Herit8ge tries to get serious here and shakes off their origin of being a cafe; this is a proper and serious restaurant as shown by their careful decor of gold, copper, and blue.

One of the more interesting restaurants at Jewel, Herit8ge pays homage to 70s old school Singaporean flavours with a contemporary twist.

Truffle Carrot Cake ($11)

As an appetiser, our breakfast food, fried carrot cake, gets a facelift. It’s deep-fried and infused with truffle. The truffle game is so strong that they give truffle mayo. It’s quite good: the truffle is strong; the food comes steaming hot; and you can taste the radish in the carrot.

Peranakan Lamb Burger ($25)

The lamb burger comes with fries and achar, which is crunchy and sourish to undercut the lamb. The grilled lamb is coated in nyonya rendang–and it tastes amazing. The lamb is super tender without any tinge of gaminess. The rendang sauce is just right, not too spicy, but possesses a depth of spices.

However delicious the lamb is, I don’t really think the concept of a burger works. To eat a burger, you hold it with your hands to take a bite of all the ingredients within, but the lamb cubes fall apart and cannot be held with ease. Furthermore, the lamb doesn’t really go well with raw veg, tomato, and the bun.

Maybe they can reconceptualise the lamb rendang into something else. But if they insist on keeping this a burger, I suggest using rice patties (like MOS burger) because the lamb will go better with rice.

The Empress Pasta ($22)

The Empress Pasta has an option of “chilli or no chilli.” When I asked the waitress if chilli is very spicy (I can’t take spicy), she whispered conspiratorially, “It’s not spicy at all.” HAHAHA, she’s so cute. So we took the chilli version, and true to her words, it is not spicy at all.

This Empress Pasta is a take on our cze char dish, cereal prawns. It is just so-so. The cream sauce is much too sweet almost as if they add condensed milk. The mantou is meant to soak up the sauce but spaghetti is a carb, and mantou is a carb; there is a clash there. They should get rid of the mantou, and give 3 instead of 2 prawns.

As for the sauce, they should either change it to a chilli crab sauce or add more chilli to lighten up on the jerlat-ness of it.

Overall, the food is decent and different and affordable. There are definitely worse restaurants you can end up with. We paid $63 for two persons.

Food: 6.5/10
Price / value: 6.5/10
Service: 7/10
Decor: 5.5/10 (the blue tables are really ugly. Marble will be better.)

You may be interested in…
–Enjoy Eating House & Bar, Kam Leng Hotel, Jalan Besar: A Tze Char and Thai Food Combination
–No Milk Bistro, Kampong Glam: Don’t Cry Over No Milk in Your Fish Soup
–Restaurant Ibid, Boat Quay: Asia’s MasterChef Winner Woo Wai Leong Magics Singaporean Ingredients in Unexpected Ways
–HE Bistro & Bar, Duxton: Playful Singaporean Fusion Cuisine with Fun Cocktails

Written by Dr. A. Nathanael Ho.