REMBAR — Modern Southeast Asian Restaurant and Bar, Penang

The Chef

Bon

He never chose Southeast Asia. He grew up inside it.

Born in Hong Kong, raised in Singapore, Bon spent his childhood watching his father's hands work dough into dim sum and fold mooncakes for the autumn crowds. Malay and Indian flavours weren't a cuisine he studied later — they were simply what the neighbourhood smelled like.

When the pandemic slowed everything down, Bon went back to basics: hand-milling rice noodle rolls at his father's hawker stall, relearning a craft passed down rather than taught in a kitchen.

In 2025, he and his Malaysian wife moved to Penang and opened Rembar — thirty seats, modern Southeast Asian food and drink, and something closer to a tribute than a restaurant.

"No flame was meant for betrayal."

From "bowl," a hand-painted text piece by Neoh Shin Yen

The Team

One kitchen, one bar, one team

Bon leads the kitchen, Shewei leads the bar — but nothing here happens solo. Every dish and every drink passes through the same small crew, tasted and refined together before it reaches a table.

Thirty seats run on a handful of people who treat the room like their own dining table.

The Name

Why Rembar

Rempah is the spice paste underneath almost every dish in Southeast Asia — pounded lemongrass, galangal, chilli, shallot, turmeric, cooked down until it carries the whole plate. It rarely gets named on a menu, and it does most of the work anyway.

Rembar takes its name from it. Almost everything that leaves the kitchen — the rendang, the crab cakes, the otah — starts the same way: as a rempah, before it becomes anything else.

The kitchen isn't only Southeast Asian, either. Bon's Chinese heritage runs through it too, built the same way — as a rempah first, before it becomes anything else.

Rembar

Rempah

Everything starts the same way

The Bar

Cocktails that read the menu first

Guava

Sarawak Tuak · Guava · Eldoria Elderflower Liqueur · Saline · CO2 · Lime Leaf Oil

Bright and floral with a salty edge — built to disappear fast on a hot afternoon.

SignatureRM 40

Asam Boi

Glen Grant 10 Years · Oolong · Plum · Pimm's · Calamansi · Lemon · Apple Vinegar · Soda

Whisky steeped in oolong and sour plum — the tannin cuts right through the sweetness.

SignatureRM 48

Nightstall Sling

Fords Gin · Amaro · Tamarind · Pineapple · Lemon · Fish Sauce · Mint & Coriander Foam

Fish sauce and tamarind under a herb foam — built to taste like a night market, not a bar.

SignatureRM 50

Pepper Sour

Herradura Blanco Tequila · Sarawak Pepper · Lumina Triple-Sec · Nutmeg Mace · Lime

Sarawak pepper heat riding under bright citrus — sharp, not shy.

SignatureRM 50

Classics, Served Straight

No twists here — the standards, made properly.

French 75 Airmail Old Cuban Aperol Spritz Americano Aviation Hanky Panky Pegu Club

Homebrew / Temperance

A full non-alcoholic program built with the same intent as the cocktail list — tamarind, pandan, and a tableside colour-shifting butterfly pea lemonade.