New Ubin Finds A New Home in Tampines, and New Ways to Reinvent the Good Old Days

By Nookmag @nookmag · On October 13, 2019

With the closure of its flagship tze char eatery at Hillview Avenue in June this year leaving fans scrambling into the city for their New Ubin fix; an upscale restaurant in the city centre CHIJMES cluster and a hotel restaurant in Zhongshan Park didn’t feel quite the same. Plans were already set in motion by its proprietors, the Pang family, to find a new space that could house the brand’s signature tze char eatery concept. The components were unique to its plight – an amalgamation of years of moving around oft offbeat locations, most famous of which were its Sixth Avenue, Sin Ming Industrial Estate and its latest Hillview Avenue incarnations.

The formula is as bewildering as it is exact. An off-the-beaten-path location accessible at best by car, far flung from the city and tucked away into the forgotten crevices of Singapore. It’d count the likes of paint shops and auto-repair businesses as its neighbours, and its cuisine best enjoyed in a nondescript outdoor canteen setting that has no business serving choice rib-eye cuts, kaya toast on baguette with French butter, or premium Bordeaux in Riedel glasses – but do so anyway. Here, New Ubin’s brand of rustic roots and kampong essence, which it serves its ‘Truly Singaporean’ cuisine with, fares exceedingly.

Today, that recipe has been exacted to a tee, and with all previous moves, comes with its own set of upgrades. Located on the ground floor of Space@Tampines, a commercial property along Tampines Industrial Crescent flanked by furniture showrooms and inflatable air dancers, is the 5,700 square feet New Ubin Village. The proposition is a canteen cluster that houses seven stalls, three of which its own concepts—including its back-to-basics tze char eatery New Ubin Tampines and a brand new incubator stall programme, New Ubin Test Kitchen – all enabled with modern-day technologies that allow guests to order and make cashless payments directly from their table without having to call for a physical menu or bill. A third concept is currently underway and will be announced at a later date.

IN WITH THE OLD, OUT WITH THE NEW

While New Ubin Tampines continues to deliver on the brand’s trusty ‘Truly Singaporean’ repertoire of signature appetisers, finger-licking seafood, choice cuts of meat, and wok-kissed classics—all prepared with an inimitable New Ubin flair—it sees the return of Hillview specialties such as its Charcoal Fish Head Steamboat (SGD 28), a classic which can only be enjoyed in the non-airconditioned “comforts” that a canteen provides.

On the other hand, the New Ubin Test Kitchen is a brick-and-mortar pop-up stall that serves as an incubator for a line of ‘Truly Singaporean’ ready-to-eat meals within the group’s plans to expand into the virtual restaurant market through new offshoot concepts of the New Ubin brand. It launches with Ubin Nasi Lemak (SGD 15 nett), a recipe that the Pang family has been tirelessly perfecting as daily specials in existing New Ubin outlets.

A play on another popular rendition of the coconut rice dish which brands itself with the district where it originated from, Ubin Nasi Lemak prides itself in its Nyonya authenticity. Fragrant rice cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaves is served with Joo Hee Sambal (sambal cuttlefish), Ayam Bakar (charcoal grilled chicken), hard boiled eggs, anchovies and sliced cucumbers.

At the end of its three-month run, if deemed successful, Ubin Nasi Lemak will be rolled out into a virtual restaurant brand, working with a shared kitchen by one of the key food delivery services in Singapore. Another brand would take over the test kitchen space, with plans to keep a healthy rotation of three months for each brand. Authentic South Indian meals served on banana leaves and organic Western delights will be on the menu at some point.

THE TECH TWIST

New Ubin Village, on first look, has all the trappings of a New Ubin canteen-style archetype – right down to the offbeat location and analogue set-up. Upon closer look, technology-enabling systems such as table QR code ordering and cashless e-payments now offer a novel approach to the tze char experience.

With each table equipped with its own QR code, guests can simply access an online ordering platform by scanning the code with their smartphones, place their order, make payment via VISA or MasterCard, and have their dishes served to their table. Adequate service staff are allocated to ensure guests who prefer ordering the old-fashioned way are taken care of, with other forms of cashless epayments available to them including GrabPay, AliPay, WeChatPay and PayNow.

THE VILLAGE CHIEF

Using technology to increase efficiency, reduce reliance on low-skilled labour, give jobs back to Singaporeans and scale up a business in untapped markets may seem straight out of a young CEO’s playbook, yet leading the charge with the same gutsy ambition that forged the brand’s early success is the 64-year-old founder and chief operating officer Pang Seng Meng, affectionately known as SM to colleagues and regulars alike.

“It’s time we expanded our horizons to look beyond tze char, and into other areas that we can lay our ‘Truly Singaporean’ claim on. Moving from one end of Singapore to the other over the years—even from a kampong to a hotel—have shown us the potential our brand of ‘Truly Singaporean’ cuisine has, and I intend to make it my legacy to stretch it as far as possible, and make New Ubin a brand that champions everything that makes us proud to be Singaporean,” asserts SM.

His next big project? “Smoked Impossible™ meatballs,” he asserts, “now that’s a business with real scalability I can get behind – creating a bleeding piece of meat substitute from yeast. We’re experimenting with new desserts as well. Making our sauces shelf-stable and world-famous. There’s plenty to be done.”

For reservations, email or call +65 9740 6870. For more info, visit New Ubin Seafood.