Kamcheng House: Peranakan restaurant on Joo Chiat Road, Katong

Squares of green kueh with toasted, sesame-flecked tops on banana leaf in a rattan basket, lit low against a dark room.

Nyonya family cooking in a 1920s shophouse on Joo Chiat Road.

Book a table See the menu

Lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Sunday

Named for the jar on the shelf

Every Nyonya kitchen kept a kamcheng: a lidded porcelain jar, usually pink or green, painted with peonies and phoenixes. It held whatever mattered that week. Soup for a wedding, achar for the new year, kueh for visiting aunties.

Ours sits by the till. The cooking comes from the same place: recipes written down in three different hands over sixty years, made the slow way, with every rempah pounded here in the morning.

kamcheng: Hokkien for a lidded jar. Said “kum-chng”.

A marble table set with plates of colourful kueh, stacked enamel tingkat carriers in pink, blue and green, and a turquoise porcelain teapot painted with a phoenix. — Tingkat carriers, a porcelain teapot and the morning’s kueh. The good china is for using.

From the kitchen

Four dishes we’d cook for you first. Everything is made in-house, most of it the day before.

Two days from soaking to serving

Ayam buah keluak

The dish the house is known for

Chicken braised in tamarind and rempah with the black keluak nut. Each nut is soaked for days, cracked, its flesh dug out, pounded with spice and packed back into the shell. Use the little spoon to get it out.

S$32

A white bowl of laksa: noodles in orange coconut gravy with prawns, half an egg, shredded chicken and fresh herbs.

Nyonya laksa

Lunch only, while the gravy lasts

Thick rice noodles in a coconut and dried-shrimp gravy with prawns, fishcake, tau pok and a spoon of sambal. Laksa leaf on top, not optional.

S$22

Looking down on a bowl of deep red chicken curry with a spoon resting in it, on a black background.

Kari kapitan

From the Penang side of the family

A thick chicken curry cooked down with candlenut, lime leaf and coconut until the oil splits. Order rice. You’ll want the gravy.

S$28

A rattan tray of golden baked kueh squares on banana leaves, set on a batik cloth.

A glass of chendol with green pandan jelly in coconut milk.

Kueh and chendol

Made every morning, usually gone by nine

Kueh salat, ondeh-ondeh and kueh lapis on a platter, whatever came out best that day. Chendol with gula melaka syrup poured at the table.

S$14 kueh platter

S$8.50 chendol

Red chillies and halved tomatoes beside a stone mortar of freshly pounded red sambal.

The sambal belachan is pounded by hand, every morning, before anyone else is in.

Mains

Ayam buah keluakChicken and keluak nuts braised in tamarind and rempah32
Babi pongtehPork belly and shiitake braised with taucheo and gula melaka26
Itek tim for 2–3Duck soup with salted mustard greens, tamarind and sour plum34
Udang masak nanasTiger prawns in a pineapple and tamarind curry38
Kari kapitanChicken curry with candlenut, lime leaf and coconut28
Nyonya laksa lunchCoconut and dried-shrimp gravy, prawns, fishcake, laksa leaf22
Sambal sotongSquid fried hard in our sambal with onion and lime26
Chap chyeCabbage, glass noodles, lily buds and black fungus in prawn stock18
Kueh pie tee sixCrisp top hats filled with braised turnip, prawn and chilli16
Steamed riceJasmine, per bowl2

Kueh & dessert

Kueh platter six piecesThe best of the morning’s batch, our choice14
Kueh salat twoBlue pea glutinous rice under a pandan kaya custard7
Ondeh-ondeh fourPandan rice balls that burst with gula melaka, rolled in coconut6
Kueh lapis two slicesNine steamed layers, peeled one at a time7
ChendolPandan jelly, red bean, coconut milk, gula melaka, shaved ice8.50
Pulut hitamWarm black glutinous rice with salted coconut cream7.50
Bubur cha chaSweet potato, yam and sago in coconut milk, warm or cold7.50

Drinks

Kopi or tehHot, with condensed milk unless you say otherwise3.50
Kopi peng or teh pengIced4
BandungRose syrup and milk, over ice5
Lime juice with sour plumFresh calamansi and lime5.50
Barley with winter melonBrewed daily, lightly sweet4.50
Chrysanthemum teaHot or iced4.50
Pot of oolong for twoTieguanyin, refilled once12
Tiger, bottleCold11

Two floors on Joo Chiat Road

A 1920s shophouse with its pintu pagar, floor tiles and five-foot way still in place. Downstairs is the dining room. Upstairs is a private room for birthdays, family dinners and the occasional wedding lunch.

A covered five-foot way lined with hand-painted floral tiles in pink and green, with a chequered floor running into the distance.

A Joo Chiat shophouse front with turquoise shutters, carved plaster and an ornate iron gate.

A row of shophouses at night, warm light spilling from the arches onto an empty street.

34 seatsDownstairs, at marble-top tables. Step-free from the street.
Up to 14In the private room upstairs, with its own set menu.
Walk-ins welcomeFor lunch. At dinner, booking is the safer bet on weekends.

Book a table

For seven or more, or the private room upstairs, call us on +65 6XXX XXXX or message us on WhatsApp. We hold tables for 15 minutes.

Lunch: 11.30am–1.30pm
Dinner: 6pm–9pm

Seatings Tuesday to Sunday. Closed Mondays.

Table requested

Demo only: on a live site this goes straight to the owner’s WhatsApp, and the guest gets a text when the table is confirmed.

Sketch map, not to scale

Come by

Joo Chiat Road, #01-XX
Singapore 4275XX

Tuesday to Sunday: Lunch 11.30am–2.30pm
Dinner 6pm–10pm
Monday: Closed
Last orders: 2pm and 9.15pm

About 15 minutes on foot from Marine Parade MRT (Thomson–East Coast line) or Eunos MRT (East–West line). Buses along East Coast Road stop a short walk away.

Paid street parking on Joo Chiat Road and the side lanes. Weekends get busy after 7pm.

Call +65 6XXX XXXX WhatsApp us