New Ubin Seafood - Zi Char So Good It'll Give You A "Heart Attack"

It started as a humble seafood kelong on the shores of Pulau Ubin — rustic, unhurried, and entirely unpretentious. Today, New Ubin Seafood has grown into one of Singapore’s most fascinatingly unconventional zi char restaurants, the kind of place where USDA Black Angus ribeye shares a table with foie gras eggs and a bowl of preserved radish noodles that will absolutely ruin all other Chye Poh Kway Teow for you. This is not your typical seafood restaurant — it is something far more interesting.

Chye Poh Kway Teow

Most zi char places reach for a packet of store-bought preserved radish. New Ubin Seafood pickles theirs in-house for a minimum of two weeks. The result is a Chye Poh Kway Teow unlike anything else on the island: flat rice noodles tossed over ferocious flame with preserved radish that carries a deeper, more complex tang — salty, slightly funky, and rich with the kind of flavour that only patience produces. The wok hei here is so aggressive it brushes up against smoky bitterness, which is exactly the point. This is the dish that earns the place its reputation among those who know.

Crispy Chicken Wings

The chicken wings at New Ubin Seafood are the product of a deceptively meticulous technique. Each wing goes through two separate rounds of frying: first at a lower temperature to cook the meat through gently, then a rapid blast at high heat that shatters the skin into a crackling shell. The inside stays juicy while the outside delivers a crunch that holds up even as the plate cools. It is the kind of chicken wing that makes you stop mid-bite to wonder what just happened — and then immediately reach for another.

USDA Black Angus ‘Choice’ Ribeye

This is the dish that put New Ubin Seafood firmly on the Singapore dining map. A premium cut of USDA ‘Choice’ Black Angus ribeye is charcoal-grilled, rested, then carved into thick, generous cubes — medium-rare as default, with a beautifully charred crust. It arrives with caramelised onions, Idaho potato wedges, and house-smoked sea salt flakes. But the centrepiece of the entire plate is the Heart Attack Fried Rice: rice wok-fried in beef fat drippings and dark soy sauce until it is smoky, savoury, and almost obscenely good. Sharing set priced at $127, and worth every dollar.

Hokkien Mee Special

New Ubin’s Hokkien Mee is a different beast from the hawker-stall version you grew up with. Thick yellow noodles and round bee hoon are tossed together with pork belly, tiger prawns, white clams, and egg in a rich, meaty pork-and-prawn broth that saturates every strand. The wok hei is assertive, the gravy clings, and the overall effect is deeply satisfying. At $15 for a small portion, it is one of the best value dishes on a menu that skews generous throughout.

Boss Bee Hoon

Three ingredients: bee hoon, egg, chye sim. One ferociously hot wok. The Boss Bee Hoon ($12, small) is the Pang family’s personal recipe — a dish cooked exactly the way the founders like to eat it, with no embellishment and absolutely nothing to hide behind. The wok hei is the whole point, and it delivers with a fragrant smokiness that keeps drawing you back even when the table is already full of more elaborate dishes.

Foie Gras Egg Special

If there is a single dish that captures New Ubin Seafood’s willingness to go somewhere unexpected, it is this one. A classic Singapore soft-boiled egg — wobbly, silky, barely set — paired with char-grilled foie gras and finished with truffle salt. The richness of the liver against the gentle egg is a combination that should feel out of place in a zi char setting and somehow feels completely at home here. Priced at $10.50 per serving, it makes for an ideal opener.

Chilli Crab with Deep-Fried Mantou

The Chilli Crab ($48 onwards for 500g) leans sweet and tomato-forward rather than fiercely spicy, which makes it an almost universal crowd-pleaser — and dangerously effective with the deep-fried mantou ($4 for 3 pieces) on the side. The sauce has enough body and depth to warrant mopping the plate clean, and the crab is consistently fresh and meaty.

New Ubin Seafood has never been content to be just one thing, and that ambition is the reason people keep coming back. From in-house pickled radish noodles and technically obsessive fried chicken wings to a charcoal-grilled ribeye with its legendary fried rice, every dish on this menu exists because someone cared enough to do it properly. It is a former Michelin Bib Gourmand recipient operating at the same high standard it always has — just with a better address now.

Address: 30 Victoria Street, #02-01B/C, CHIJMES, Singapore 187996
Contact: +65 9740 6870 | [email protected]
Operating Hours: Mon–Sun, 11:00am – 1:00am (Last order: 11:30pm)
Reservations: newubinseafood.com
Instagram: @newubinseafood