Fans of The Meatmen Channel can now taste their creations in real life at their new eatery Rice., which officially opened at Republic Plaza on Thursday (March 26).
Despite serving up dishes to the public, the folks at The Meatmen Channel and The Wolfpack told AsiaOne that they don’t consider Rice. as a F&B establishment.
“We’re trying to disrupt the F&B space,” said Stanley Phua, CEO of The Meatmen Group. “What we are trying to do is to build a community space where everyone can come and try our food.”
Toh Jin Wei, group CEO of The Wolfpack, chimed in to say that Rice. is not a pop-up either, describing it as more of a concept.
“We believe that this is the future of F&B. Collectively, we’re trying to deliver this… to let people come to a place they can keep coming back to,” he explained.
“The food is just a topic, something that drives people with common interests to come together. But ultimately, it’s what they recognise The Meatmen for — the content.”
The team also intends to switch up the menu every three months, and incorporate elements from what’s seen on the YouTube channel into Rice.’s menu, as well as tweak their offerings based on diners’ feedback.
“The idea is to hear from the community — what they enjoy, what they like, and which recipes pique their interest,” Jin Wei explained.
While the menu items will vary, rice will remain a constant feature. All the dishes served will have some form of connection to the staple.
“It doesn’t have to be rice grains, it can be rice flour,” project manager Grace Lee told us.
Apart from enjoying the food and the vibes, diners will also get the opportunity to interact with familiar faces from The Meatmen Channel, who will occasionally appear at Rice. during community events.
Rice, rice, baby
During Rice.’s opening, AsiaOne got to sample some of the food.
The menu’s research and development (R&D) was intense as the team spent months perfecting the dishes.
“It’s easy to create dishes that have rice in them, but to give these dishes that element of ‘home’… that was the hard part,” said Jin Wei.
“It has to be a dish that you can serve in a restaurant, but when you eat it, you feel like you’re coming home.”
One dish that embodies this is Signature Smokey Fish Soup ($24), featuring seared red snapper, fish maw, and mee sua noodles doused in a milky dashi fish broth.
According to Grace, the team was nervous about including fish soup on the menu because many established F&B spots in the vicinity are selling the same dish.
After checking out the competition and tweaking their recipe, they came up with Signature Smokey Fish Soup after six weeks.
Their effort paid off as the dish has been well-received by diners.
We found the broth rich and creamy, and it had a wok hei-like element that elevated the dish. The red snapper was also fork-tender and melted in our mouths.
Another dish the team highlighted was Dashi Laksa Seafood Pao Fan ($22), featuring laksa-infused dashi broth with prawns, squid, and mussels served over steamed and crispy rice.
This was inspired by another laksa dish they had created for GastroBeats 2025, Grace said.
“We realised there was a lot of potential for this flavour, so we decided to reformat pao fan, which is traditionally a very light soup dish. We took the laksa element, put it in there with our own rice crispies and fresh seafood.”
This was a popular dish at our table — we loved the layers of textures and flavours, from crunchiness of the rice crispies to the tanginess of the laksa.
Other dishes that left an impression on us were the Beef Rendang Crunch ($9 for three pieces), which features Thai crispy rice cakes topped with slow-cooked beef rendang.
The crispy rice cakes paired with the rich rendang is a combination that left us hankering for more. Also, if you enjoy alcohol, we recommend that you pair this with some sake.
We also enjoyed Ducking Good Lontong Fries ($10), featuring “fries” topped with lemak chilli duck ragu, similar to poutine.
Here’s the twist — the “fries” are actually deep-fried rice cakes. It took us some time to register that we were not munching on fries.
Our favourite dessert was the Roasted Rice Mousse with Pandan ($13), made with roasted rice tea, pandan-infused mascarpone, and savoiardi biscuits.
Creamy, fragrant, and decadent, the dessert was rich in flavour but not too heavy on the palate, making it the perfect way to end the meal.
Meanwhile, the team behind Rice. highlighted Seared White Sugar Cake ($9), which features pan-seared fermented sponge cake with sea salt gula melaka and calamansi.
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This dessert embodies the message Rice. is trying to bring across, Jin Wei told us.
“When I eat it, it reminds me of a snack I had when I was young,” he said, adding that his parents felt the same when they tried the dessert.
“Everybody who eats it has a different recollection.”
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Address: Rasa Space, 9 Raffles Place #02-01, Tower 1, Republic Plaza, Singapore 048619
Opening hours: Mondays to Fridays, 11.30am to 2.30pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays, 5pm to 11pm
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melissateo@asiaone.com
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