Watch our first look video of Auntie Āyi:
Created by the same team behind last year’s pop-up restaurant 888 Fatfatfat, Auntie Āyi is a new Chinese restaurant that has opened in Pacific Place mall. It’s part of a multi-dining concept called Wellwellwell, yes that’s three wells to represent three different brands under the brand, and Auntie Āyi is the first to launch. The restaurant offers regional Chinese food in a retro-futuristic dining room that has been designed to resemble a time-travelling spaceship. Yes, we realise there are a number of things to wrap your head around here, so let’s start with the restaurant’s name.
If you’re wondering why it’s called Auntie Āyi, well, it’s all about the humble home kitchen where life-long traditions and crafts are passed down generations. It’s also a homage to ‘Ma Jeh’ or 馬姐 in reference to female domestic helpers in the 1930s that had long plaited hair, never married and took the vow of celibacy – you’ll spot her in the restaurant’s logo. While this history and nostalgia are beautifully memorialised, Auntie Āyi also aims to look to the future, blending old and new in both the restaurant’s interior and menu.
The restaurant is decked out in plush mulberry and pine green furnishings with contemporary curved edges while mandarin chairs, tasselled lamps, and so-called artefacts in capsules on the wall (supposedly Ma Jeh’s belongings including a wooden comb or cooking utensil) that add interesting marks across the dining room.
As for the food, the menu is a celebration of Chinese cuisine and filled with dishes that sound familiar. There’s cheong fun, claypot rice, and mapo tofu, but they all have a unique twist added to them. Take the cheong fun (rice rolls), for example, which is created in the most traditional way with a steam cloth but contain more contemporary combinations such as char siu, silky scrambled eggs and coriander.
Then there’s two-way stuffed crab claws which include one modern-style deep-fried breaded crab claw and another that is wrapped in pork caul fat, a traditional Cantonese cooking technique that adds crispy texture, rich fragrance and flavour, as well as Auntie Āyi’s sesame candy chicken which has been inspired by the classic childhood snack of sticky and chewy sesame candy (芝麻牛皮糖) and is arranged in an old-school banquet-style phoenix. Other highlights include the 8 Immortals drunken platter with cold appetisers marinated in Chinese Baijiu and Huangjiu wines, an Angus beef claypot rice with runny egg yolk, and more.
The restaurant is currently in its soft opening phase but is accepting pre-launch reservations now. Meanwhile, the other two concepts, seasonal salad bar Remedy Me and cha chaan teng inspired Teahouse, which will also turn into Barhouse for cocktails and drinks in the evening, is set to open in the coming weeks. So watch this space for more updates and news.
Auntie Āyi is located at Shop 002, LG1, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty.
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