Food Review: Tambi At Amoy Street | Casual Indian-Korean Fusion Restaurant By Michelin Starred Chef Sun Kim & Chef Mano Thevar

Posted on July 23, 2023 by theRantingPanda in Food

The Place One of the most exciting new openings in the past few weeks is Tambi, a casual Southern Indian-Korean restaurant along Amoy Street. One reason why Tambi is one restaurant on my radar amongst the many new restaurants is that it is by two different Michelin-starred chefs, Chef Sun Kim from Meta and Chef Mano Thevar from Thevar.

The space of Tambi (which means little brother in Tamil) is contemporary and elegant and I love the green dining tiles on the 12-seater counter tabletop on ground level with an open view of the open kitchen. There is also another dining space on level two which accommodates 18 diners.

The Food The menu is a concise selection of starters, mains and one dessert option. For two pax, the staff recommended three starters and two mains which I think is a reasonable estimate. Of course, you could always add on if you still have space, and it was challenging for me deciding what to order since almost every item sounds too good to pass.

Another point to highlight is that there is a compulsory order of at least one drink (water excluded) per person.

From the starters, I started with the Oxtail Bone Marrow Murtabak (S$18) with Pickled Onion, a delicious fried roti with flavorful oxtail meat. Love the pickled onion which helps to balance the richness of the fried murtabak.

Next up I had Tambi’s Bibimmyeon (S$18), a fusion take on Korean Cold Spicy Noodles. It looks all red and hot, but the buckwheat noodles is not at all spicy for me. I could imagine this as a nice supper meal at home after some drinks.

The last starter I had was the Beef Tartare Appalam (S$28). You get a very well-marinated beef tartare seasoned in delicious gochujang sauce, topped with a crispy appalam (a slightly larger and thinner Papadam) seasoned with gunpowder.

Crack the appalam and mix it all up with the beef tartare and egg yolk, and the resulting flavour is one I really enjoyed. This is easily one of my favourite dishes.

For mains, I knew I had to order the Kagoshima A4 Wagyu Bulgogi Roti (S$58) with Leek and Scallion Salad when I spotted it on the menu (I do have a soft spot for Japanese wagyu beef but that is a story for another day).

You get a nice and tender wagyu beef here served with crispy roti, a combination of ingredients which is a first for me.

I also had Tambi’s Maggie Goreng (S$18), a namesake dish where the noodles is in fact Korean potato noodles. The portion is huge and good to share for even 3 pax, where the maggie goreng is seasoned with chef’s madras spice.

Another post drink supper type of dish in my opinion where the noodles are very flavorful and perhaps a tad over-seasoned with salt for me. The Rantee and myself did not manage to finish it.

There are a couple more dishes I was keen to try, such as the Squid Tempura (S$28) with Kimchi aioli and the Pork Rib Biryani (S$28). I gladly saved them for another day, in exchange for the only dessert on the menu since I was already quite full at this point.

The Banana & Coconut Pie (S$16) is a simple banana tart topped with banana chantilly cream. Nothing too complex, but the simple flavours is a nice end to the heavy meal.

Rants It got a little smoky from the grilling and frying as I sat at the counter seat. Otherwise, there is the more formal level two dining space which is not smoky, but you do miss out on the kitchen action as part of the dining experience.

Will I Return Again? I love the idea of a breakthrough concept in our dining scene in Singapore and Tambi’s Indian-Korean concept is a very refreshing one, and an exciting addition to the dining landscape in Singapore. Both Meta and Thevar are considered fine-dining restaurants, so it is also nice that both Chef Kin and Chef Mano have come up with a slightly more casual and accessible concept for the community. While I enjoyed some dishes more than the others at Tambi, I am still keen to head back again to try the dishes which I did not manage to have this time.

Make your reservation instantly at Tambi here.

TheRantingPanda says:
Taste bud: 3.5/5
Hole in the pocket: 4/5
Ambience: 4/5
Overall Experience: 3.5/5