Confusing…

My girl wanted to drop by here…

…once to give the place a try but everytime we drove past, there were no parking spaces around there and it did seem kind of crowded. No, it is not in any way connected to this very nice place at Mid Valley in KL – they just used that same name, that’s all.

Well, that day, there were a lot of vacant parking spaces along the main road so we parked there and walked over. I have this feeling that everybody, people working or have businesses in the vicinity, wants to park in front of the café/restaurant as that part is shaded so their cars will not be cooking under the hot sun all day long. I was taking snapshots of the shop signs while the ladies went and sat at one of the tables laid out all along the pavement and started browsing through the menu.

Wait a minute! That was the menu from next door…

…and we did not intend to go and eat there! I’ve a feeling they’re inter-related, the same owner(s), including the seafood restaurant right beside this one that we went to once but it was so disappointing we never went back again. For one thing, I’ve always wondered why they call themselves Singapore Town when Singapore is a city and it looked like they had their tables all laid out in front of both cafés/restaurants and left copies of their menus on them so unsuspecting customers, like us, would order from them instead. That was so confusing, really!

My girl wanted the Singapore laksa (RM7.50)…

…and that was served soon enough with its special dip…

…but unfortunately, it did not help save the day. The laksa was nothing like the celebrated Katong laksa, nor was it anything like the curry laksa (aka curry mee) in the peninsula. My missus said that it had the taste of hay bee (dried prawns) which was rather odd and even if it had tasted all right, it was EXTREMELY salty! The ladies just ate the ingredients and a bit of the noodles; I just had a sip of the gravy and that was it!!!

We also ordered the Hainanese chicken rice set but after waiting for sometime, the waitress came to inform us that the poached chicken (pek chang kay) was not ready and asked if we would want the fried curry-flavoured version instead. The chef came right up behind her to apologise – he was dark-skinned but he spoke Mandarin so I guess he was Chinese. All the other employees were ethnic youths, mostly girls, who seemed badly in need of some kind of training. They spoke so loudly among themselves and laughed in that kind of not very respectable manner. Usually, in the no-class-at-all coffee shops, the customers are the noisy ones but not here!

Well, I told the chef in no uncertain terms that it was already past 12 noon and there was no excuse not to have everything cooked and ready. However, I did not want to make a scene (my girl does not like me doing that in public) so we agreed to go for the alternative instead and this was served…

…eventually.

It was all right, fried chicken – no more, no less. I could hardly taste the curry and I must say I had had much tastier fried chicken at the Malay stalls, those complimentary ones they give with their nasi lemak or mee goreng.

The rice, a bowl each for 3 persons…

…was flavourful but it had its own taste, nothing like chicken rice as we know it. Ah well! At least, that is more than what I can say about the chicken rice at most, if not all, of the places here – they might as well give plain rice instead! Tsk! Tsk!!!

This plate of fried ladies fingers fried with ikan bilis (dried anchovies)…

…was part of the set as well. That was as plain as it looked, a dime a dozen – you can get it at any chap fan (mixed rice) stall all over town except that I have never seen any that is SO oily…

They certainly must learn to cut down on the oil and the salt here!!!

The chicken rice set was RM39.90 for 3 and my missus had iced coffee, black (RM2.00) while my girl had iced honey lemon (RM5.00) and I just stuck to the plain drinking water that I had brought along. The total came up to RM54.40 that day but no, I don’t think we had anything that we would be in a hurry to come back for again. I very much prefer the chicken rice (and everything else) here which, I believe, is yet another sister restaurant of theirs, the same owners!

I did stroll over to look at what the customers were having next door but I did not see anything enticing. No, I don’t think they will see me around those parts of the woods again anytime soon.

SINGAPORE TOWN (2.290613, 111.821013) is located at No. 57, Lorong Lau King Howe 1.