| Good Peranakan food, Good value
I have tried other peranakan food in Singapore, such as Ivin's in Thomson, and Nonya & Baba in Vivo. Personally, i would think Kim Choo's Kitchen provides a higher level of authenticity of peranakan taste with a lower amount of damage to your pocket.
There are 9 of us this time, and we tried the following:
Hee Peow Soup (L): Very normal to me. Nothing unique. Just soup to lubricate our oesophagus from mouth to stomach.
Sambal Kang Kong (M): Many of us agree that its unique. Not flooded with chilli oil and dried shrimps like most hawkers do it.
Seafood Toufu (M): Very normal mixed seafood in a claypot. Mushrooms were done nicely though.
Ngoh Hiang (M): This is good. But many places have this standard as well. Crispy on the outside, good mix on the inside, supplemented with fragrant sweet sauce.
Babi Pongteh (M): This dish is excellent, agreed by all of us at the table. The pork is very tender, and the gravy is delicious. Not your usual braised pork in Singapore.
Ikan Pedas (M): This fish dish is also very good. Not very spicy, with a tinge of sour, sweet and saltiness. Very appetizing. Basically nothing much was left on the plate, even the condiments were gone.
Ayam Goreng (M): This is akin to the fried shrimp paste chicken we usually see in other restaurants and hawker stalls. But better! This chicken is fried nicely and not overly done on the crispy-ness. Yet its juicy and tender on the inside. Its unique taste combined with its accompanying sauce makes it stand out from the rest that i have eaten so far. Main mistake many places make is that they overdo on the crispiness, making the chicken very hard. Kim Choo makes it just right.
Nonya Chendol (M): I don't find this fascinating after having the authentic ones in Malacca. But i would think this is better than most other places in Singapore. Call me spoilt.
Now for service: Be warned that this place charges $0.30 for ice water. Im not trying to be a scrooge here. But these complements the food and it should be free. What is so difficult about getting water from the tap?
But overall, service is acceptable. Fast and polite. But i expect the standards to deteoriate when the place gets full. |