The Place Located at Amoy Street, the newly opened Lộ Quậy (pronounced “Lo Kway”) is an interesting concept I checked out recently. Lộ Quậy, which loosely means “discover” in Vietnamese, is a New Vietnamese Cuisine restaurant by Chef Quỳnh Brown in partnership with The Dandy Collection (also behind Firangi Superstar, Neon Pigeon, Fat Prince). Chef Quỳnh has nearly two decades of experience in contemporary Japanese and European cooking, including 14 years with Nobu and Zuma.

The space of the 54-seat Lộ Quậy is stylish with a theme of part mid-century contemporary dining room and part art gallery, where you can admire the human portraits photography works on the walls. The dining ambience is suitable for a cosy meal with friends, or a date night.  

The Food Expect a menu where traditional Vietnamese flavours are interwoven with innovative techniques into modern interpretations. It goes by an ala carte menu or there is the Discover Menu (S$138++,12 dishes) which is a curated exploration of Chef Quỳnh’s vision of New Vietnamese cuisine. A wine pairing (S$98++ supplement) is also available, featuring a regular rotation of vintages. 

I had the Discover Menu and here is what to expect: 

Amela Tomato | Soursop | Shiso 
The meal started with a series of snack and the Burnt Japanese sugar tomato goes with savoury soursop sorbet and microgreen shiso. 

Amberjack | Pomegranate | Umezuke (vinegar) 
A Japanese inspired sashimi style yellow amberjack with sorrel leaves, fresh pomegranate seeds and passionfruit. This snack is a refreshing mix of flavours. 

Wagyu Tartare | Onsen Egg | Shrimp Salt Puffs 
A delicate piece of hand-chopped Wagyu tenderloin topped with cured quail egg yolk, microgreens, mayonnaise, kizame wasabi (pickled wasabi stems) and fresh shallots. 

Pate Choux | Scallop| Ikura 
A mini sandwich looking snack made of Kaffir lime pate choux with Japanese U12 scallop mousseline, ikura pickled in shiso amazu and kimchi remoulade. 

Oyster | Bone Marrow I Caviar 
A baked starter featuring a large (50g) Murotsu Bay oyster from Japan with slow-cooked bone marrow. Overall, it is a creamy texture and flavour along with Hollandaise sauce before the oyster is aburi seared and topped with the indulgent Caviar Colony Kaluga Hybrid Caviar. 

Jackfruit | Tomato | Tamarind 
Minced young jackfruit here is mixed with rice paddy herb (Ngo Om in Vietnamese), sawtooth coriander (Ngo Gai in Vietnamese) and king trumpet mushroom. The texture is golden brown as it is breaded in panko and deep fried along with a sauce made of grilled cherry tomato, sweet yellow jackfruit and chilies. Overall, the flavours are quite well-balanced. 

Obsiblue Prawn | Sticky Rice | X.0. 
This is one of the most interesting snacks on the Discover Menu for me. The French blue shrimp here is coated in young sticky rice and fried, served with house X.O. and chimichurri sauce. A crunchy tempura prawn head is also served on the side. 

Pho – Beef Broth | Wagyu | Offal Bits 
This course is not quite what I expected of a Pho as there is no noodles at all. Instead, you get a rich broth prepared for 18 hours, along with wagyu brisket, bone marrow, deep-fried honeycomb and crispy omasum tripe, crispy fried beef tendon, along with quail egg, laksa leaves, pho herb oil, onion, ginger and bean sprout gelee. 

Banh Mi – Liver Pate | Maggi | Pickle 
Another mini version of one of the most classic Vietnamese dishes Banh Mi which has been reinvented. You get grilled Iberico pork jowl with pork crackling, house made pork liver pate and kombu butter, all wrapped in puff pastry and baked. The flavourful bite is then served with Maggi demi glaze and star anise pickled Japanese cucumber. 

This course paired especially well with the Suntory The Premium Malts Beer, as part of the alcohol pairing.

Cucumber Jelly| Apple Granite | Sorrel 
Next up is a palate cleanser before mains, where Japanese cucumber agar jelly is topped with refreshing Granny Smith apple prosecco granita, sour baby sorrel leaves and garlic pickled juice. 

Kohlrabi | Baby Gem | Endive 
A salad course is served before mains, a refreshing mix of pickled kohlrabi, endive, red chicory red, orange, baby gem lettuce, shallots tossed in calamansi juice and tamarind miso dressing. I like the peanut garnish which lends it that extra crunch. A delicious Lemongrass Bun is also served. 

Wagyu MB 7 | Kabocha | 333 Demi-Glace (Supplement S$18++ per pax) 
For the beef main course, I had 100g MB 7 Australian tenderloin wagyu. It goes with two interesting choice of puree – kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) puree and squid ink kabocha puree. Overall, a decent beef course though not much of a surprise factor in terms of flavours here for me. 

Café Phin Parfait | Espresso | Dulcey 
For dessert, it is inspired by Vietnamese coffee where I had espresso kahlua parfait and condensed milk gelato served with espresso sponge, coffee cream, caramelised kinako white chocolate, crème fraiche sauce, finished with vanilla tuile. This dessert might not be of interest for someone who does not like coffee or someone who avoids caffeine in the evening. 

Rants There are some courses which have a strong reference to Vietnamese cuisine, while some courses have a relatively subtle reference to Vietnamese cuisine. I do feel the theme of New Vietnamese Cuisine could come out stronger in some of the courses, such as in the Wagyu MB 7 main course I had. 

Will I Return Again? Lộ Quậy is an interesting concept in the sense that the New Vietnamese Cuisine it is positioned as is quite under-represented in Singapore’s dining vibrant scene. Some of the dishes turned out quite different from what I expected or imagined, which makes the dining experience an exciting one to look forward to. The wine pairing is quite good as it complements the dishes really well.  

This was an invited tasting, though all opinions expressed are our own.

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

Lộ Quậy  
88 Amoy Street 
Singapore 069907 
Tel: +65 3129 7556

Opening Hours
Monday to Friday: 12pm to 2:30pm; 6pm to 11pm
Saturday: 6pm to 11pm
Closed on Sunday

Ranted by The Ranter