[Review] The Hainan Story (海南寶) 24-Hour Coffee house @ Hotel Boss

Following the success of its first outlet at Hillion Mall, Hainanese cuisine specialty restaurant, The Hainan Story has now launched a second outlet at Hotel Boss. The 24-hour outpost offers an extensive variety of coffee shop fares, including kaya toast, kway chap, satay, curry rice, waffles, ice cream and more to cater to hungry patrons all time of the day.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, you will be immediately wowed by the spunky decor, featuring traditional coffee shop design elements with a modern touch. For the Instagram generation, this new outlet offers many spaces for photo opportunities, including the food and drink presentation as well.

The concept behind The Hainan Story is the curation of various popular Hainanese cuisine, presenting them in one venue. Starting off as a 5-in-1 multi-brand Hainanese restaurant in Hillion Mall, this new outlet at Hotel Boss brings together more concepts, featuring the works of Hainanese chefs as well as from the in-house culinary team.

A new addition to the Hotel Boss outlet is a Hainanese bakery serving up traditional cookies and Swiss rolls, made from the recipes of Chef Pang Kok Keong, previously of famed patisserie Antoinette.

Other Hainanese offerings housed in the restaurant includes Whole Street White Kway Chap, Uncle Robert Western & BBQ, Jin Jin Golden Porridge, Newspaper Curry Rice and Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice.

These were the items we sampled during a dinner tasting:

You will be spoilt for choice at The Hainan Story, with their extensive selection of popular Hainanese dishes. We particularly enjoyed the curry rice, white kway chap and sambal stingray. The Yuan Yang satay features both Peanut and Pineapple sauces and hence the name. the latter sauce is less commonly found and is sweeter than the usual peanut sauce.

For those wondering who “Uncle Robert” is, the man behind the grill for Uncle Robert Western & BBQ is Chef Austen Ong, who started his cooking career as a 13-year-old apprentice to the legendary Chef Tham Mui Kai, one of the “Four Heavenly Kings” of Chinese cooking in Singapore. Chef Austen went on to spent 16 years with the Grand Hyatt group as chef de cuisine and also earned himself the title of “God of the Kitchen” by leading a Singapore team to victory in the world culinary contest in 2004 and 2007 in Taipei. Uncle Robert is named after Chef Austen’s father-in-law, a proud Hainanese who taught Chef Austen his unique Hainanese barbecue style. The stingray dish is a must-try, featuring a spicy homemade sambal and herb paste, grilled to perfection and presented on a banana leaf.

To round up the meal, Chef Pang’s dessert selection are a delightful addition, ending off with an elevated sweet note. If you would like bring some flavours home, you can consider getting one of their tinned cookies:

The Hainan Story also features a wide selection of drinks, including traditional Hainanese coffee of course, tea as well as alcoholic beverages like craft beers.

Next time you have a hunger pang in the middle of the night, you know where to head to for some Hainanese comfort food!

The Hainan Story (Hotel Boss)

Address: 500 Jalan Sultan, Hotel Boss, #01-09, Singapore 199020

Operating Hours: Open 24 Hours Daily except for Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice (7am to 10pm daily)

Seating: 70 pax

Email: [email protected]