Easties may know Pasir Ris Central Hawker Centre for its mix of traditional and modern food stalls, and one of the latest to join the line-up is Briyani Grill, a hip fusion joint selling tasty biryani alongside Chinese-style zi char dishes like grilled stingray, cockles and lala.

Opened on Mar 1 this year, the stall is run by 37-year-old Malaysian chef Wong Chee Hao. He tells 8days.sg that he was eating biryani when he got a lightbulb moment and thought, “Hey, if I take the biryani and pair it with barbecued fish, it would probably make for a nice dish”. His food menu is pretty extensive, serving up seven biryani sets to go with seafood and veggie side dishes.

Chinese chef selling Indian biryani

As for why an ethnic Chinese chef is specialising in Indian biryani, Hao attributes his decision to his love for Indian food, saying he “was always at mama shops eating biryani and roti prata” when he was young.

At a previous catering job, he got the chance to learn how to prepare Indian dishes like biryani. Prior to hawking, Hao worked as a chef at Stamford Catering and chef de partie at Shangri-La Singapore hotel.

He also enlisted the help of his longtime pal, chef Arifin, who owns an Indian restaurant. Hao says his friend “gave [him] advice and taught [him] how to cook better” so he could hone his biryani-making skills before setting up shop.

He set up his own business as a hawker stall instead of a restaurant for the time being “in order to accumulate some learning experience first”, and will see how his business progresses from here.

Hao’s biryani is not cooked the traditional dum-style in a sealed pot with meat. The basmati rice is steamed in a regular rice cooker, with the addition of some mod fusion ingredients like belacan, dried shrimps, chillies and lemongrass to ramp up the flavour. The meat and seafood are cooked separately and plated with rice upon order.

His father owned a BBQ fish stall

While he acquired his biryani cooking chops in recent years, Hao’s knowledge of barbecuing meat and seafood came from years of helping out at his now-retired father’s defunct BBQ fish stall in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

He says he had been helping out at the stall since he was eight years old, so “all the iron plates and barbecue [recipes] were passed down from my father”.

Dum Briyani Chicken Set, $7 (8 DAYS Pick!)

Succulent chicken drenched in a rich Indian-style vindaloo curry that Chee Hao tweaked to be less spicy. Pretty good. The basmati rice, cooked in a rice cooker, is slightly less aromatic than the traditional version in a metal pot. But the chef’s own spice mix makes the al-dente grains fragrant enough. Each plate comes with a hardboiled egg and crispy papadum.

Dum Briyani Stingray Set, $7.50

The same fragrant biryani rice is served with a meaty portion of curried stingray here. Unlike regular biryani that’s typically paired with chicken, mutton or beef, the tender stingray offers an unusually delicate texture to the classic dish.

BBQ Stingray & Lala Rice, $7 (8 DAYS Pick!)

Sambal Crayfish, $18 for 3 pieces

The medium-sized grilled crayfish was fairly fleshy, slathered with a generous amount of feisty sambal. 

Sotong, $10 (8 DAYS Pick!)

Steamed Gong Gong, $9

Bottom line

Interesting new stall by a young chef who offers a unique version of biryani by pairing it with barbecued seafood. Don’t expect traditional biryani cooked dum-style; this is a mod Chinese riff on the classic delight. But the dishes here are generally well-executed, and worth a try.

Briyani Grill is located at #02-20 Pasir Ris Central Hawker Centre, 110 Pasir Ris Central, S519641. Open Tue-Sun 11.30am-3pm, 5pm-9pm.

Photos: Kelvin Chia

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