British Hainan – Simple and Tender Oxtail Stew At A Traditional Bistro

British Hainan is a bistro focused on bringing to us the British Hainanese menu, specialising in oxtail stew, fish and chips, Hainanese pork chop and many other dishes. The inspiration behind British Hainan was based off the founder, having been raised eating this kind of cuisine for many years.

The interior was reminiscent of a historic past, with the bistro being decked out in vintage items, throwing us back to the days of old. With multiple vintage artifacts scattered throughout, the bistro felt like a mini museum allowing you to catch a glimpse of our colonial British period.

Oxtail Stew($32.90)

Being the main star of the whole bistro, we had to give the oxtail stew a try. The large pieces of oxtail were covered with a thick sauce. Being a traditional vegetable stew, you would not expect much of the flavour of the oxtail stew, and yet the stew blew us away with its incredible taste. 

The thick stew encompassed the different taste of the ingredients melding together to form a nice blend of the beefy oxtail, potato, tomato, carrot, celery and onions. With the sweet and savoury yet slightly tangy sauce, the stew went well with the oxtail. 

The oxtail was soft and tender, easily sliding off the bones and was nicely juicy when bitten into, giving a light gentle chewiness that went well with the stew. Dipping the bread in the stew also made it into a really satisfying meal. Though it looks huge, we were totally in love with it throughout the dish.

Hainanese Porkchop ($16.90)

The pork chop was breaded with lots of breadcrumbs, making the outer layer crisp. Even though it was crisp on the outside, the meat within was still tender and juicy. Going with the tomato gravy, it added a slightly tangy and yet savoury taste to it that seems to get better as you have more of it. 

Even though the tomato’s tangy and sour taste was present, the sauce somehow tasted sweet as well, seemingly like the sweet and sour sauce kind of vibe. While it wasn’t out of the world, it was a satisfying dish that gave us a throwback to our heritage.

Pasta Aglio Olio Mushroom

Having had multiple meat dishes before, we decided to get some carbs to share as Asians love carbs after all. The pasta was cooked al dente, with the mushroom blending in well with the pasta to form a basic aglio olio. You can probably find better pasta outside, but it did help to satisfy our carbs need here. 

We had 2 pieces of cake as a dessert to end the meal. They were rather standard but did help to curb some of our sweet tooth since we’ve had multiple savoury dishes here. 

British Hainan

British Hainan sends us back to the traditional British Hainanese style cuisine, allowing us to enjoy the different aspects of the time past. Having tried their dishes, we agreed that the oxtail stew was something really worth going for, and we would drop by again just for the oxtail stew. The Hainanese pork chop was decent, something we would consider ordering if we came by but the other dishes were lacklustre and did not catch our attention. Bring your family or friends over to give their oxtail beef stew and you’ll probably find both the young and the old agreeing with this dish.