Justin: The Best Fine Dining CBD Restaurant You've Never Heard Of
You’ve likely never heard of it, but once you try you’ll be raving about it for days. Justin is an upscale Singaporean fusion restaurant located in a nondescript office building between the CBD and the Silk Market, and yet you may have never even heard of it. That's likely because, in its year-and-a-half of operation, the eatery has done next to none of the marketing and promotion that has helped hype up its better-known competitors around town. And yet its pedigree is apparent from the moment you arrive.
Your first glimpse of owner and chef Justin Quek – a veteran Singaporean restaurateur with 21 years of experience, a mile-wide smile, and a razor-sharp glint in his eyes that defies his 57 years of age – comes from the prominently placed photos of himself with some of his esteemed guests near the entryway of his Beijing restaurant. The most famous people he has served over the years include heavyweights such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, and former Chinese president Jiang Zemin.
At his Beijing restaurant, Quek splits the space between a casual Singaporean-style canteen out front, and a white linen fine dining restaurant behind a few elegant glass-encased wine racks. That yin and yang approach encompasses both Quek's Singaporean heritage and his French culinary training. The same can be said for some of the best dishes on the fine dining menu. Case in point: the East-meets-West foie gras xiaolongbao. These delectable soup dumplings, a humble street food that most Chinese diners will recognize, also boasts an innovative and upscale mix of fillings like foie gras, pork mince, and, if that wasn't fancy enough, a luxurious French truffle broth.
While those dumplings are absolute showstoppers, they are placed as mere appetizers on a robust upscale dinner set menu now available at the fine dining section of the restaurant. Priced at RMB 800, the high-caliber meal also boasts a wagyu beef cheek main, tender enough to melt in your mouth, and accented with black truffle shavings. Other highlights include the Singaporean-style lobster hokkien mee dish (a fetchingly fresh and fluffy textured combination of Boston lobster, squid, and pork belly), salty pan-roasted wild halibut (with Argentinian red prawns on the side), and a chrysanthemum sorbet that brings a flowery Asian twist to that classic European dessert.
It's a pricey night out to be sure, but the creative and refined combinations make Justin's fine dining restaurant a fine choice for a special occasion. One drawback: Quek is based in Singapore and only visits this restaurant seasonally to make menu changes. However, his apprentice Dan Chen is more than talented enough to pull these delicacies off no matter when you stop by. Though our pay grade will keep us from trying the posher portion of the restaurant as much as we'd like, we're keen to return and try the canteen space out front, to see what this celebrity chef has in store for casual customers.
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Justin
Daily 11.30am-2.30pm, 5.30pm-10.30pm. 2/F, 205, Block B, SK Building, 6 Jianguomenwai Street, Chaoyang District
朝阳区建国门外大街甲6号SK大厦B座2层205室
Photos courtesy of Justin restaurant
