PYXIEMOSS: Progressive European Cuisine With An Asian Slant

PUBLISHED October 19th, 2016 06:00 am | UPDATED May 18th, 2020 04:26 pm

It’s an exciting time for North Canal Road. Once a rather quiet stretch in the shadows of Hong Kong Street and Telok Ayer, we were excited to see the Spanish nose-to-tail diner Dehesa launch there late last year. More recently, the lively Punch cafe opened in January.

If you remember the old Garden of Eden at Neil Road, you might be interested to hear that its badass Brit chef, Tim Ross-Watson, is the same man behind PYXIEMOSS – the new kid on the North Canal block. What’s with the name, you might wonder? It turns out that pixie moss – the only flowering moss in over 12,000 species – is a favourite of the chef, and alludes to the restaurant’s potential to blossom and flourish in the harshest of conditions. You’ll find a whole tuft on a panel at the entrance, but no, you can’t actually eat them.

In the 49-seater space, Chef Tim serves up his own brand of innovative modern European cuisine with a British, and occasionally, Asian slant – having spent a great deal of time living in Asia. We might have expected more meaty, fatty, and grilled dishes thanks to the whole grungy rock and roll vibe of the place (there’s a Harley Davidson parked right out front), but simple produce and delicate flavours seem to be the focus at PYXIEMOSS.

An intriguing combination of traditional and cutting edge cooking techniques and tools are used, as Chef Tim artfully transforms everyday ingredients into novel dishes. We’re particularly fascinated by his ‘MacGyver’ approach (it’s not about the resources, but resourcefulness), which when combined with his unbridled creativity brings us incredibly interesting dishes – think upcycling usually-discarded parts of select produce. 

Take Not Just The Tip ($14). A riff on the classic Waldorf Salad, this dish uses not just the tip of the celery, but incorporates its entirety. Pretty much the most complex dish on the menu, the root is slow-cooked over six weeks to give it an intense flavour (much like black garlic); the leaves are deep fried; the skin dehydrated and turned into charcoal; and the raw stem chopped up. Toss with barley risotto, stilton cheese, candied walnuts, green apple, and you get a spectrum of textures and flavours in each bite.

An excellent starter to stimulate your palate is the Seaviche ($8), a vegetarian dish (you’d hardly notice) that uses fresh sea coconut instead of raw fish. The translucent strips are tossed with chilli, coriander, and a generous squeeze of lime, and it comes with hickory-smoked corn chips that provide a perfect crunchy foil. The Rad-ish ($8) works pretty well too – a comforting onion consomme with yuzu miso and red radish poured over a large chunk of triple-braised radish. The flavours soak in by the second, making for a different experience on each bite.

Meat lovers don’t have to fret though. A (quite literally) hearty option is Mother’s Lamb ($18), a dish that includes lamb heart and neck cooked in a traditional tandoor oven. Not for the faint-hearted, but rewarding in texture if you favour lean and chewy ‘meat’. We thought the heart might be gamey, but it surprisingly isn’t.

The Tongue in Cheek ($14) is a relatively safer option, akin to a terrine of soft and tender meat scooped from a pressure-cooked whole pig’s head. Don’t worry, there’s no eyeballs or brains. Simply lather the terrine on the coffee-flour rye bread with a dollop of the quintessential British condiment, piccalilli – homemade pickled cauliflower and onions with turmeric and mascarpone.

End the meal off with desserts like the Pina Colada ($10), which we love despite the absence of rum. Rather, the dish is a deconstructed rendition of the cocktail it’s named after: a five-day fermented young coconut with coconut granola, salted coconut cream, compressed pineapples soaked in extra virgin olive oil, and our favourite component, the caramelised pineapple ice cream (a tad saccharine, but you can’t go wrong with sweet).

It’s a good thing that PYXIEMOSS is currently open only for dinner, which means that you can head to the bar right after. Aside from the usual food menu, bar grub is available from 10pm onwards, with substantial treats such as the Carrot Dog ($5 per piece), Chef’s take on a vegetarian hot dog that’s laden with homemade curry ketchup, carrots glazed with gula melaka and acar. Also try the Primal Bun ($6 per piece), where meat is taken off the rib and reformed with the same milk bun around the bone with jus, and Ross-Watson’s T.F.C ($6 per piece), a yogurt brined fried chicken slider that gets a lift from century egg mayo.

If you just want something to pick at with drinks, have the savoury explosion that’s the Pigaroon ($3) – think beetroot meringue served with pork belly, smoked ham, beets, cream cheese, and pickled pig skin. Alternatively, you’ll never fail with the Bag ‘O’ Skin ($5); pork scratchings seasoned with paprika and served with L&P mousse.

Drinks-wise, our favourites include the SRWMC ($22, it stands for Surrey Road Working Men’s Club), a twist on the white negroni which sees Four Pillars rare dry gin with suze, Cocchi Americano Binaco, and La Quintinye extra dry vermouth. It’s chilled with liquid nitrogen so there’s no dilution. Another spirit-forward cocktail is the Poto ($16). The folks at PYXIEMOSS make their own port in-house using Japanese wine, fortifying it with vodka; the slight bitterness comes from herbal liqeuers Cynar and Amaro.

For something more refreshing, go for In The Mead Thyme ($16), which curiously, doesn’t contain a single drop of mead though it does taste like one. With Bulleit Bourbon base and enhanced with Lillet Blanc and Tio Pepe sherry, it features a crystal malt (used in beer brewing) and koji barley (also used in brewing sake foam.

What we experienced at PYXIEMOSS was very much different from expectations, but we are very, very satisfied with Chef Tim and team’s creativity, presentation, execution, and service. Also, which other restaurants on the same tier can boast such wallet-friendly prices?

PYXIEMOSS is located at 43 North Canal Road, Singapore 059299, p. 6532 2171. Open Tue-Sat 5pm-12am.

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