Fab French-Japanese Rice Bowls By Ex-Restaurant Chef In Lavender Kopitiam From $5.80

Mandel got his culinary diploma at the Singapore Hotel and Tourism Education Centre (SHATEC) after completing his N-levels.

He spent three years at The Kitchen at Bacchanalia rising from an entry-level role as commis chef to chef de partie (line chef) – the restaurant was later rebranded to Vianney Massot when French chef Vianney Massot took over as executive chef. It closed in 2020, despite winning a Michelin star.

Mandel moved on to other concepts owned by the restaurant’s parent company Ebb & Flow Group. These include Wrap Bstrd, a fusion wrap concept, and 8ASH, a multi-concept casual diner. The latter is where he also learned “the basics of Japanese cuisine” in preparation for a role at a “Japanese fine-dining concept that didn’t pan out”, says Mandel.

Mandel then struck out on his own, synthesising the concept for Nice Rice from his experience in French and Japanese cooking. “It was between going overseas to find work, or opening my own place. I decided that I wanted to have my own place more,” he says.

He tested the concept out in October with a pop-up at Almost Famous Craft Beer Bar to “get into the flow and adjust recipes based on customers’ feedback” before sinking $15K into the kopitiam stall on French Road, reasoning that a hawker stall would be the best place to start due to a lower start-up cost and manpower needs compared to a cafe. “Working as a chef, you don’t get paid much, and you can’t really pile up a big sum unless you strike 4D,” he jokes.

Despite the stall’s quiet location and generally older crowd, Mandel is convinced it’s the right place. “I couldn’t resist the [street’s] name. It’s like in cooking, you have to trust your gut feel,” the chef-turned-hawker tells us. “And I had a good feeling about [being on] French Road.”

Mandel describes the time since the stall’s opening as a “daily battle”, now that he has to manage daily operations and staff besides cooking. His experience in fine-dining shows – everything in the stall is immaculate and neatly labelled. Sauces and garnishes were his specialty back at Vianney Massot Restaurant, which is why all of his rice bowls incorporate the two – along with oodles of French butter and garlic. “You can’t go wrong with butter and garlic. Life without butter and garlic is nothing,” he quips dramatically.

Naturally, he’s had to make some concessions given the hawker setting, like using cheaper ingredients and simpler cooking methods. This is demonstrated with the pilaf – a rice dish often simmered with aromatics like onion, stock, spices and other ingredients found throughout Europe, including Lyon, France, where it’s especially popular (the Asian version, pilau rice, has a different recipe) – that forms the base of every bowl. Instead of using ingredients like “high-grade Japanese short-grain rice, creme fraiche and a housemade chicken stock” like he was taught, Mandel uses Taiwanese pearl rice and veggie stock instead. He also cooks the dish in a rice cooker rather than an oven like at his former workplace which, according to the hawker, “does the job way better” as it “keeps [the grains] moist.”

Mandel, who runs the stall with a couple of staff, tells us that business is slowly picking up – despite prices that are on the steep side for a kopitiam. Bowls range from $5.80 to $10.80 here for pilaf, a choice of protein and some additional toppings. Simple sides like salad, fries, and onion rings are also on offer.

Rice pilaf is traditionally cooked with long-grain rice, but we like the chewy Taiwanese grains that Mandel’s opted for. They’re fluffy and slightly oily – well-infused with aromatics like bay leaf, onions and garlic – and very moreish. Although the hawker declares that he “wants everyone who eats at [his] stall to get a food coma”, every bowl comes with a modest 200g portion of rice. The decadent carb, which comes dusted with togarashi (a Japanese chilli blend) and kombu for an extra jolt of heat and umami, doesn’t overwhelm. Yummy.

The entry-level option here features seared skin-on chicken thigh and a splash of ‘spicy sauce’ (soy sauce, chilli padi and togarashi). The skin isn’t particularly crisp, nor is the sauce especially memorable. Shell out for the far yummier fish options below.

The bowls also come with a heap of julienned spring onions, housemade garlic confit and a chunk of soy-glazed eggplant. Even though you only get a morsel or two of the latter two toppings, Mandel’s attention to detail shines through; the garlic confit, slow-cooked in a blend of oil, butter and thyme until fragrant and mellow, adds some lovely pungency (pro tip: crush the tender cloves into the rice) while the eggplant is deep-fried, glazed in sweet-sticky soy and finished in the oven till meltingly soft.

We much prefer the grilled sea bass belly option. The skin, deliciously crisp from searing on the grill with extra char thanks to a blowtorch finish, gives way to flaky, unctuous, perfectly cooked fish. We dig the thyme and parsley herb butter on top, which livens up the dish with a hit of herbaceous aroma without distracting from the seafood. There’s also a wedge of lemon if you need to freshen things up with some acid, but we didn’t – it’s already excellent stuff.

Mandel slathers thin slices of raw salmon with garlic-infused Japanese mayo, before torching it to cook the seafood and lend it a veneer of smoky char. Other nice touches include slivers of deep-fried salmon skin for crunch and ebiko (shrimp roe) for little bursts of umami. It’s a classic combo that can hardly go wrong, and Nice Rice’s version is pitch perfect. The salty-savoury fish skin chips do a great job cutting through the richness of the mayo hugging the delicate salmon.

Rump cap, an inexpensive cut of relatively lean meat characterised by a thick fat cap, takes centre stage for Nice Rice’s priciest bowl. Mandel trims off the fat cap and renders it down, using the tallow to baste the beef as it’s grilled.

The steak – cooked to a nice medium and generously sliced – receives a further brush of beef fat once it hits the bowl, followed by housemade truffle sauce and sous vide egg. The meat is reasonably tender, while the truffle oil gives the bowl an intoxicating earthy aroma – though not much flavour, as the sake, soy and shio kombu do the heavy lifting here.

Our main grouse – the multiple spoonfuls of beef fat on the protein overwhelm the taste buds, preventing us from savouring the care and attention he’s put into everything else in the bowl.

We find the onion rings pretty top-notch. The batter (Mandel refuses to divulge what goes into it, saying there are “a few types of flour and seasonings”) forms a craggy, airy shell that clings to the rings. They also maintain their crunch even after our photo shoot. Yummy, especially with more of that garlic aioli.

The food at Nice Rice is definitely more refined than your average mod rice bowl joint, kopitiam setting notwithstanding. It is Mandel’s attention to the finer details – like the delicious soy-glazed eggplant that accompanies each bowl – that makes his bowls sing. So it’s worth the steep-for-a-hawker stall prices. Go for his superior seafood options – we’ll be back for that sea bass belly soon.

Nice Rice is at #01-69, 802 French Rd, Blk 802, S200802. Open daily except Sun, 11am – 3pm; 5pm – 8pm. More info via Facebook or Instagram.

Photos: Kelvin Chia

All photos cannot be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg