Lokkee in Plaza Singapura : A Modern Take on Chinese Cuisine

Last week was pretty much a fun and memorable one. Thanks to our first-ever house guests A, D and little K. While we were busy making sure that they were comfortable around the house, we also rounded up the gang for a couple of meals over the weekend with our special guests.

Since our group get-togethers now include 5 little ones in tow, the challenge is to look for a restaurant that's:
a. spacious enough to accommodate all 15 of us and
b. it's kid-friendly with menu items that's suitable for our little guests

I spent a couple of hours doing my research and finally I zeroed in on Lokkee at Plaza Singapura since it's the most accessible for all of us and it pretty much fits all our criteria above. Reading up about the restaurant, Lokkee is one of Tung Lok's newest concept that focuses on modern Chinese cuisine. From the food to its interior design, it exudes a classy yet modern feel such as the Star Wars brush arts which I wish I was able to point out to Paul and C who are HUGE Star Wars fans. What I failed to take note of though were these complimentary wet towels packaged like ... uuhhhmm.. an adult protection. Thankfully, our kids were too young to even question what those were and why we adults were laughing and joking around about an innocent piece of wet towel.



We started our meal with two types of soup: Lokkee Egg Drop Soup (S$16) for the kids and the kids-at-heart and the Hot and Sour Soup (S$16) for the real adults. Each serving is good for about 4-5 pax so we had to get more since one order is obviously not enough. The Egg Drop Soup was very fragrant but since it had a lot of corn kernels in it, I skipped this and went for the Hot and Sour Soup. I thought it was good but I felt the tofu was a bit too much that it just made each spoonful too custardy . The soup wasn't bad but I got to admit that I've surely had better versions elsewhere.

Following our soup, we also had two orders of Golden Crispy Fish Skin (S$10). This is one thing that all of us loved! Salted egg + fish skin. The fish skin flavor was very strong though that unlike most salted egg fish skins in the market, the egg yolk part was a bit weak. Nonetheless, it was very yummy and we all enjoyed munching on this even in between our main dishes. I recommend for you to try this especially if you're a big fan of fish skin.

The fun thing about dining at Lokkee is being able to enjoy a "show" while eating. Each dish was beautifully plated, presented and some, like the Awesome Flaming Pineapple Beef (S$30) comes with a little show on its own. This is one thing that you shouldn't miss and I'll tell you why.

First, how often do you get to see an entire pineapple in flames? Even the kids had their eyes affixed on the pineapple as we watch it go up in flames and until the flames died down and the pineapple is miraculously still alive. How's that for some magic food show? :) Secondly, the beef was amazing! I'm not sure what burning can do but it has perhaps contributed to the beef cubes becoming so tender and delicious inside. We all loved this and I'll surely order this every time I'm at Lokkee. Take my advice and order a bowl of rice...do.not.share. You'll thank me later!

Next we had the Irish Fat Duck (S$32) which was a surprising discovery. I thought the beef would be the star of the night but it was this classic roasted duck platter that stole the limelight. Each slice had a good ratio of crispy skin with a really thin layer of fat plus tender meat. It comes with some Plum Ginger Sauce which was a good accompaniment but seriously, this was just the bomb that you can enjoy it with or without the dipping sauce.

We also tried the Firecracker Chicken Nest (S$26) which will make you ask that age-old question "which comes first.. the chicken or the egg?" In Lokkee, you get "both" in one big platter. Fiery hot chicken popcorn mixed with dried chili which gives a strong Szechuan feel. If the heat is just too much for you, pick up a piece of "egg" and try the "yolk" inside. Surprise surprise! It's not real yolk but rather sweet mango puree which reminds us of this mango juice drink that we used to have as kids. Quite interesting! Again, this dish is totally instagram-worthy.

For the little ones, we had the Orange Chicken (S$18) which was just a-okay. Deep-fried chicken balls tossed in sticky sweet orange sauce and topped with sesame seeds.

Guess we're really getting older now as not only are we dining lauriat style, we also unanimously agreed to order a vegetable dish to balance everyone out. Who does that?! No regrets though as the Kai Lan with Garlic Sauce (S$16) was really good. The serving was very big too and even the kai lan itself was humongous!

We surely had a great meal at Lokkee and we all agreed that it's the perfect place to take visiting friends and family to. As for me, I will probably make my way back to Lokkee should the craving for the Flaming Beef or the amazing Irish Fat Duck comes about.

Check out Lokkee at Plaza Singapura, 03-01, 68 Orchard Road, Singapore 238839. Make a reservation via Chope.