ENJOY Eating House & Bar @ Mercure Hotel on Stevens. Familiar Local Delights with New Twists

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ENJOY Eating House & Bar is a quaint little Singaporean eatery at the spanking new Mercure Hotel on Stevens Road. It's very Singaporean in that ENJOY's eclectic cuisine charms with colours and flavours from Singaporean owner chef Joel's experience of his grandma's kitchen and in Thailand.

Restaurant name: ENJOY Eating House & Bar @ Stevens

Address: Mercure on Stevens 30 Stevens Road #01-07 Singapore 257840

Tel: 8511 1478

Hours: 11:00am - 11:00pm

ENJOY Eating House is inside one of the shiny satellite buildings of newly opened Mercure Hotel on Stevens Road. We can access the building directly without needing to go through the hotel lobby.

Inside, the decor and colours are cheerful with a romanticised nostalgic feel of old Singapore "eating houses" i.e. casual diners serving coffee and everything Singapore's mishmash food culture has to offer. I felt very comfortable with my kind of music (1990s / 2000s Canto / Mando hits) playing in the background.

Born and raised in Singapore, co-owner chef Joel worked in Bangkok and had his own Thai restaurant in Singapore before opening ENJOY's first outlet at Kam Leng Hotel on Jalan Besar in 2018. Joel's interpretation of his beloved grandma's home cooking with a Thai overlay from his Bangkok experience was very well received.

Following the success of ENJOY's Kam Leng Hotel outlet, Joel and partners just launched their flagship at Mercure Hotel on Stevens Road. ENJOY's Mercure Hotel serve the same down-to-earth homely Singapore cuisine which their fans from Kam Leng Hotel love, but with premium and upmarket twists to cater to a wider discerning audience around Stevens Road.

We started lunch with Chef Joel's interpretation of the Yu Sheng (or Yee Sang) Cantonese raw fish salad. It's hamachi fish sashimi with salmon roe and house made sauce of plum, oyster, sesame oil etc.

Hainanese Chicken Satay. Tender chicken marinated in a sweet savoury sauce grilled to seal in the sweet juices and flavours, and add a toasty layer on the outside.

Hainanese style satay sports a sauce of crushed peanut, coconut milk and mild spices with a dollop of sweet zesty pineapple puree.

I enjoyed the Minced Pawn Patty as the light crisp golden brown case encloses a flavourful mash of fresh prawn and subtle aromatic spices.

Grandma's Te Kar Bee Hoon is stewed pork trotter served with stir fried rice vermicelli (bee hoon) infused with rich savoury flavours from the stewing stock. This is the top seller ported over from ENJOY's Kam Leng Hotel outlet.

Te Kar Bee Hoon is a traditional comfort dish often cooked at home in Singapore. It has a blend of savoury and sweet flavours held together by the richness of juices from the jiggly tender stewed pork trotter. A bit overindulgent, but yeah.... the taste makes it worth the calories and cholesterol.

(Te Kar Bee Hoon is typically made with canned stewed pork. ENJOY stew their own trotter with fresh pork and braising stock.)

Chef Joel's BBQ Pork Cheek. Premium Canadian pork seasoned with a Thai (specifically Isaan province) inspired savoury sauce and grilled to a slight char outside.

Joel specially selected Canadian air flown pork because it has the best balance of tender juicy crunchy texture and flavour. The juice from the visceral fat in the cheek is sweet without the usual porcine taste.

Joel's grilled pork cheek reminded me of my mind blown experience of Canadian pork jowl.

Black Angus Beef Tenderloin with Foie Gras. Chunks of beef stir fried with onion, garlic and bell pepper in a house made black pepper sauce. Served with pan seared foie gras (duck liver) slices.

Juicy chunks of tender chewy beefiness with overlay of mild peppery heat. The soft foie gras add their rich savoury flavours to the beefy dish.

Salt Baked Whole Barramundi. This is, of course, Thai inspired and reminded me instantly of Pla Chon Pao in Bangkok. The Sea Bass fish was encased in salt and oven baked.

The daily fresh sea bass meat was tender and moist. It was sweet with a subtle underlying earthiness. The salt infused the white meat with a little brininess resulting in a very tasty, mainly sweet-subtly salty taste profile. Nice.

XO White Fish Soup. The yellowish milk soup is made by boiling fish bones for 8 to 10 hours till the collagen and soft tissues dissolve - no milk is added. Served with meaty slices of fresh sea bass fish.

Ugly Cabbage in Fish Sauce. That's overstating it. The dish isn't ugly but instead exudes a certain familiar warmth and comfort. Simple yet flavourful cabbage dishes are often cooked in Singapore homes. This one by ENJOY is well infused with fish sauce savouriness, garlic umami and a bit of wok hei toastiness. The sweet savoury toasty flavours make this humble dish so delicious.

Popiah Garden. Blue pea flower + pandan leaf + lemongrass gelato, sea salt Horlick gelato, soursop gelato, all three on a sheet of handcrafted popiah skin sprinkled with peanut candy shavings and dress with aromatic cilantro.

Oh.. this works so well. The popiah skin was relatively thick, so it is tenderly chewy to the bite. The stretchy chewy skin wrapped melty gelato with different flavours - all of which I enjoyed.