New Peranakan-Style Nasi Lemak Joint By Les Amis Serves Excellent Sets From $12.50

“We toyed with the idea of opening a nasi lemak concept earlier this year and during the Circuit Breaker, we took the opportunity to sell nasi lemak on the Indigo Blue Kitchen delivery platform,” said Jun Xiang (centre in pic, flanked by Daniel, left, and Martin, right). Response was positive and Lemak Boys (the name refers to the three chefs, even the logo illustration is based on them) was born.

With an almost 700-square-foot kitchen, there's plenty of space for the team to dish out food for both Lemak Boys and Indigo Blue Kitchen. Renovations to the dining area have created a L-shaped counter upon which Lemak Boys dishes are displayed and where customers order, pay for and collect their food. Printed tile motifs create a seamless theme throughout both restaurants. Diners at Lemak Boys eat at simple wooden tables and stools designed to seat 38, though they will lose 25 percent of seats after distancing regulations. In the next room, guests at the posher Indigo Blue Kitchen dine at more expansive tables framed by stylishly upholstered chairs.

Like at Indigo Blue Kitchen, Lemak Boys’ menu is built around Les Amis Group’s Peranakan founder Desmond Lim’s taste memories and his family recipes which the "boys" try to replicate. The menu is compact, comprising nasi lemak, laksa, and three other rice sets. You can also order dishes like Chicken Rendang, Sambal Prawns and Sayur Lodeh a la carte. Essentially, "nasi lemak with a Peranakan twist" is no different from any other nasi lemak in the sense that the rice is cooked with coconut milk and pandan leaves. It is the dishes served alongside the rice that define its Peranakan label and which differ from household to household. These include Peranakan-style otah otah, here bought from a vendor that supplies both Lemak Boys and Indigo Blue Kitchen, and sotong tauyu lemak (squid cooked in soy sauce and coconut milk).

Possibly the most refined nasi lemak we've had recently, the jasmine rice here is cooked in just the right amount of water and coconut milk so that it is fragrant and richly flavoured, yet fluffy and light. The set meal comes with a fried chicken drumstick or thigh (chicken berempah, $4.50, a la carte), a wedge of vegetable omelette ($2.50 a la carte), a square of otah ($2.50, a la carte), sambal, and fried ikan bilis and peanuts. Happily, the fried chicken is deftly cooked so that it retains a crisp surface and is succulent and saturated with the flavour of spices like lemongrass, cumin and shallots. The otah otah is also lovely — creamy, with just the right amount of spice. The vegetable omelette — well-seasoned and studded with sliced long beans — has a lovely home-style quality to it.

The Premium Nasi Lemak Set comes with sambal prawns ($8, a la carte). The crustaceans are fried in a light batter then topped with a sharp sambal made with lots of chillies and shallots. Because the prawns are halved, they lose their sweet, meaty quality as they shrink in their shells during cooking. The sambal, though tasty, feels like a separate component to the prawns, rather than both forming a single harmonious dish. We’re quite happy to skip this Premium Set for the Regular one, which in our humble opinion is the new nasi lemak to beat in town.

All sets comes with a bowl of sayur lodeh, which could be more lemak and less oily.

If you prefer to mix and match your nasi lemak dishes, you can order a la carte. A standard portion of nasi lemak rice costs $2, while dishes like the vegetable omelette, sunny side-up eggs, chicken berempah and sotong tauyu lemak range from $2 to $8 per portion.

Peranakan-style laksa is typically cleaner in flavour yet more complex than laksa found at hawker stalls. This rendition is excellent, with clear, pronounced flavours and just enough coconut milk so that it is mildly rich and not cloying. There is an impressive balance of flavours and oomph that you’d be hard-pressed to find outside of Peranakan homes. The regular set comes with prawns, fish cakes, a halved boiled egg and tau pok. The premium set is amped up with a couple of clams and larger prawns. Just go with the latter for maximum shiokness.

There’s no faulting the chicken rendang ($4.50 a la carte) here. The chicken pieces are cooked to melting tenderness in a rich, coconutty stew perfumed with the likes of blue ginger, turmeric and ground coriander. The egg sambal ($3, a la carte) that comes with this set is also lovely, with a full-flavoured sambal that’s cooked till thick and jammy. There are also simply-fried long beans given a quick toss in minced chillies and shallots, as well as a Yam And Chicken Patty ($3) that was tasty but dense. Our host tells us that they are still tweaking the recipe for the patties, which are supposed to be lighter and crisper. These sets are available in a choice of white rice or nasi lemak. Though we can’t imagine why you would go to a restaurant called Lemak Boys and ask for white rice.

Not our favourite combination platter because of the prawn sambal (see Nasi Lemak Set above) and the yam and chicken patty (see Chicken Rendang Set above). But both dishes have good bones and we’re sure they’ll be great once the kitchen has found the right balance for them.

Peranakans love a good slab of fried fish smothered in rempah (spice blend), and the Turmeric Fish Curry ($8) in this set is a great example of why. The fillet — typically Spanish mackerel or snapper — is doused in a citrusy, lemak rempah that’s more sambal than curry. This platter comes with that yummy egg sambal, a chicken and yam patty, and a vegetable of the day, which when we visited, was fried long beans. Super satisfying.

Served in a little jar, this chendol pudding, topped with a dollop of slow-cooked adzuki beans, has the light, wobbly texture of tau huay and is drizzled with a lovely gula Melaka syrup made from a blend of two types of gula Melaka. Its light creaminess is a nice foil to the spicy rich dishes that you’ll eat here. The restaurant will also offer a rotation of more traditional hot desserts such as pulut hitam and bubur cha cha.

Sedap, refined nasi lemak and dishes that are robustly flavoured yet light and balanced. There is real finesse in the food, which makes it good value for money despite the non-hawker prices. The seating isn’t exactly comfortable; you’ll essentially be dining hawker-style, on stools and small tables but in an air-conditioned setting, so don’t expect to linger over your meal. The restaurant does takeaways as well — but there is a $1 surcharge when you order any rice set for takeaway as it comes in specially-made bento boxes.

Lemak Boys opens 12 Sept (Sat) at #03-10 Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Rd. S228208. Open daily 11.30am-2.30pm; 5.30pm-9pm. Last orders 2.30pm & 8.30pm.

Photos: Aik Chen