North Miznon - Amoy Street — Nomadic Foodie on the Go

North Miznon doesn’t try to be the next one or two Michelin star restaurant (it probably should have three). Instead, it makes sure that it uses the freshest seasonal ingredients from both Singapore and Israel, and it has the best chefs who know exactly what to do with those outstanding products to create some of the most simple, yet flavourful dishes I have ever encountered.

We have been twice, we have ordered different dishes on both occasions, and I honestly cannot tell you which out of all of them would be my favourite.

The only one that we had again for the second time was the free foccacia. Foccacia is nice. When it is given to you for free and topped with tomatoes, sage, onions and spices, and then served with crème fraiche and olive oil, it is even nicer. I’m still going to find something that makes it even better – being served a second portion on our second visit to perfectly mop up the amazingly wonderful butter sauce that the prawns sat in. There were prawns in that dish?! I’m pretty sure I only just noticed the bread and butter.

FRESH FOCCACIA wrapped with tomatoes, sage, spicy and creme fraiche

Cross that. I definitely noticed the prawns. I have always been very fussy when it comes to prawns. Who on earth would like biting into those slimy little rubbery fuckers that just make you wish no one had taken them out of the ocean in the first place? Thankfully, this was not the case here, and there definitely wasn’t any poo vein in sight. I was able to easily pull the prawns out of their shell, and the glorious meatiness of these prime creatures just melted in my mouth, especially with the help of the butter sauce.

HALF GIANT Tiger Prawns wrapped with tomato seeds butter

I am definitely not writing in any sort of order, considering I just wrote about the prawns that came on our second visit.

The leeks. Melting baby leeks, parmesan. It sounds alright, but does it taste alright? In one word, no. You could never attach the word ‘alright’ to these little stalks of unmitigated joy. Melting baby leeks and parmesan didn’t just make me wish that I could eat this dish for the rest of my life, it made me realise that I would die happy if this was the last plate of food that I was ever allowed to consume. The leeks were fall apart tender and the melting parmesan snow would do absolutely any plate of food justice.

I think I might talk about the lamb shawarma next. Lamb can be hard to get right, and this dish was definitely right. Think of a lovely pink encased by a gorgeous char. That is what we got with the lamb shawarma. I could have cried with delight as I bit into the juicy, melt in your mouth meat that just sung, “Eat me!”, like when Alice in Wonderland couldn’t fight the temptation to take that pill.

It’s definitely now time to move onto the burning yellow potato filled with sour cream and topped with a sharp cut salad. Being Irish, I do like my potatoes, and this was not a let down. If, unlike me, potatoes are not the centre of your earth, then picture exactly what that is for you. Have you got it? Yep, then that is exactly what you are getting with this wonder of a creation. The potato itself literally just melted in my mouth and the sour cream and salad additions created a beautiful contrast and freshness.

I had noticed on Instagram that there is sometimes a free round of shots that goes around the entire restaurant. On our first visit, I enquired about this North Miznon tradition, and it was very quickly met with a round of shots. Considering the fact that we’d had a couple of beers before arriving and we were in the process of drinking an absolutely beautiful bottle of rosé, it’s not surprising that this got me slightly tipsy.

That free round of shots I was telling you about

Our world famous TOMATO PASTA – I think that you could never imagine it. That is quite a description to live up to. Was it good? Most definitely. Was it as good as the tomato pasta that my husband and I make? I would say it’s close. I get that their tomatoes are fantastic quality, which is what makes this pasta dish so fresh and flavourful, but I can get pretty decent tomatoes too.

One of the highlights of our first night there? The candle that sits in a brown paper bag on each table. At the table next to us, said candle decided to set the bag on fire. Did the people sitting at that table do anything other than pathetically wave their arms while shouting that their table was on fire? No. What did I do? Well, I didn’t want my evening to be ruined by the entire restaurant catching on fire, so I grabbed hold of my little glass of tap water and poured it over the rapidly burning bag, much to the surprise of the people sitting there who had clearly thought that the entirety of the restaurant staff needed to come help them from potential near death by small candle burning a bag.

It’s probably time to talk about some more of the food. The HRAIME: Burning Grouper in a stormy desert of tomato sauce was an absolute hit. The fish was flaky, tender and packed a huge flavour punch along with that tomato sauce that it was swimming and chilling in. I do agree – the tomatoes they use here are outrageously good.

The fresh fig’s carpaccio married to a cheese from Bourgogne and olive oil was another stand out hit. The fig was sliced so thinly that it was actually hard to get it off the plate – I recommend using your hands rather than the cutlery for this one. Figs are not a usual staple that I would have, but when I saw the chefs slicing it in the kitchen, I knew I had to give it a go. The Bourgogne cheese that came with it was probably one of the creamiest cheeses I have ever had in my life and the added rock salt really stopped the fig from being overly sweet or reminiscent of a dessert. I would choose this again in a heartbeat.

We didn’t originally order the fennel bulb roasted into perfection. However, when I saw it come out of the oven, I knew it had to be eaten, no matter how full I already was. In the past, I’ve had shavings of fennel on salad, but never have I attempted to eat an entire bulb. This bulb was incredibly soft on the inside from having been cooked in a glorious butter sauce, and it was also wondrously charred on the outside, making for the ultimate marriage of textures. I have never before been to a restaurant that can make one simple vegetable to absolute star of a dish.

SABICH: slow roasted heart of eggplant over tomato foam and tahini. This was the only dish that I didn’t overly enjoy, and I would say that this is more due to my idiotic tendencies with textures rather than any fault of the dish. I generally find eggplant to be too soft, and this is what messes with my head. I really don’t want to feel like I’m eating baby food. It also reminds me of the texture of banana, and I literally start gagging just thinking of bananas. However, my slightly less fussy husband loved the eggplant, and I did agree that the tomato foam and tahini base could have been licked off the plate.

Last, but certainly not least, was the skewer from a fat RIBEYE and herb dressing that swirls your soul. Ribeye is one of my favourite cuts of steak because that fat marbling all through it makes it one of most juicy and tender cuts you can get when cooked right. This one was slightly overcooked in my opinion as it was more of a medium to well done rather than the medium rare that I love, but I guess this is probably understandable considering it was cooked in smaller chunks on a skewer. It was still tender and the accompanying herb dressing really cut through the meatiness and made it an overall very balanced dish.

On our second visit, I requested seats at the bar which surround the kitchen. This was a definite plus for our second time going as it was a pure delight just being able to watch the chefs produce such exquisite dishes, and it was very clear that they take a lot of care and have love for everything that they serve. When we return, and I am 100% positive that we will, I will be requesting the bar seats again, and I recommend that anyone visiting North Miznon should do the same.

North Miznon - Amoy Street

Thevar - Keong Saik Road