Wine-loving fans of seafood have more reason to celebrate at Yang Ming Seafood’s VivoCity outlet with its in-house wine programme and friendly BYOB policy.
If you’re the type to BYOB to restaurants, you’ll be glad that the third and latest outlet by popular homegrown live seafood restaurant Yang Ming Seafood at VivoCity allows you to bring your own bottles at no charge.
Now to be fair, such friendly BYOB policies aren’t new. A number of Chinese restaurants and other live seafood venues in Singapore also waive corkage fees so you can enjoy the wines or spirits from your own personal collection while dining.
Where Yang Ming Seafood at VivoCity wins out? VivoCity is the largest mall in Singapore, and among its many tenants are specialist wine and spirits retailers Wine Connection, The Whisky Distillery, and Bottles & Bottles where you can conveniently pick up your preferred tipple to pair at Yang Ming Seafood. Or from convenience stores like 7-Eleven, Cheers, or Fairprice Xtra, if one is desperate enough.
But even if you turn up empty handed, the restaurant boasts its own cellar with some 100 labels to choose from, with prices beginning as low as S$29 to suit the budget of most customers.
Back to Yang Ming Seafood.
Yang Ming Seafood’s VivoCity outlet is its third and largest, coming after the original in Bishan and another within the Ubi industrial estate. It is also the homegrown seafood restaurant chain’s flashiest. Inspired by traditional fishing kelongs that once dotted the seas around Singapore, you’ll find a space that’s lined with wooden floorboards, walls, and beams, with fishnets, live seafood tanks and barrels adding to that old-school 70’s seafood restaurant feel.
Its cuisine, though, is more progressive and playful than the usual.
While you can always find its signatures on the menu such as the Pig’s Stomach Chicken Soup, Salt Baked Crab, and Andrew Lobster (named after a regular patron who inspired this dish) among others – some of which requires preorder – you’ll find a jaw-dropping selection of dishes cooked many different ways to suit any kind of occasion or gastronomical desire.
Among the more interesting takes include the Fragrant Crispy Rice Crab, which sees pan fried crab tossed in aromatics and crispy rice for a different take on cereal crab, or Braised Whole Tripe & Brisket, a moreish porcine dish that demands some white rice as accompaniment.
Then there’s the bizarre-sounding Milky Sea Prawns, which turned out to be succulent, deep-fried prawns smothered in a delicious savoury, milky sauce.
Another favourite among the dishes I tried was the Minced Garlic Steamed Clams, while my dining companions utterly destroyed the Dry Braised Pork Cubes that I wasn’t too much of a fan of.
One must-order? Chicken Broth with Baby Cabbage may sound pedestrian, but it is a wholesome, comforting dish that will be a hit with the family.
So what bottle of wine will you bring on a visit there?
[Photo credits: Joel Lim Photography]
Yang Ming Seafood (VivoCity)
Address 1 HarbourFront Walk, #02-158/159 VivoCity, Singapore 098585 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 511am to 3pm and 5pm to 10pm daily
Tel (65) 8028 9907
Facebook yangmingseafood.sg
Instagram @yangmingseafood
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