Grandma's Restaurant (Paragon)

(Note: Pictures of the restaurant, food, and full menu can be found at http://wildchildurbancity.blogspot.com/2012/02/grandmas-restaurant.html)

The decor and furniture at Grandma's, Paragon, are pleasing to the eye and comfortable. Even though the furniture has a more modern design, its earthy tones makes the restaurant feel warm and cosy. When we arrived at about 6pm, only three other tables were occupied. More people came in as time passed, but service was good throughout. Additionally, as the servers leave a big bottle of drinking water on each table, we could pour water for ourselves and did not have to wait for them to refill our glasses.

My cousin ordered the Char Kway Teow, the description of which is: "Flat rice noodles stir fried with chicken, prawns, clams, squid, egg, chives and beansprouts". She said that it was good.

My mother ordered the Cantonese noodles. Its description reads: "Fresh seafood, chicken, vegetables and egg, stir-fried Cantonese style with your choice of Kway Teow, Sang Mee or Bee Hoon". She chose bee hoon. Compared to the char kway teow, this dish looked a little small.

The previous time I ate at Grandma's I had their curry chicken (thick, delicious coconutty curry blanketing four chicken drumsticks). So this time, I decided to try the beef rendang.

Grandma's chef had thoroughly caramelised the coconut milk and slowly cooked the beef so that the beef had absorbed all the spices and coconut milk. It was sufficient to use only a fork to pull apart the beef, and each strand of meat had huge flavour.

We like Grandma's sambal kangkong because their kangkong comes with more leaves than stalks, and does not arrive swimming in oil or grease. Further, Grandma's fries its kangkong with a generous amount of sambal so that every bite packs a spicy sambal punch. Even my cousin, who rarely eats spicy food, tried the kangkong and said that it was delicious.

We chose to come here for dinner on a weekday, instead of our usual Tambuah Mas at Tanglin Shopping Centre, as the standards at the latter had dropped a lot.

There was no queue and we were promptly led to a table by the window. The seats were comfortable and the ambience was pleasant.

We ordered nasi bukhari, curry chicken, assam fish, sambal kangkong, and sambal sweet potato leaves.

My sister enjoyed her nasi bukhari. She said that the rice reminded her of nasi biryani rice, and was fragrant. We shared the fried chicken it came with, which was tender, moist and delicious. The beef rendang tasted a bit average to me, and I think I prefer Tambuah Mas' beef rendang. The prawns tasted average to me as well.

The curry chicken consisted four chicken drumsticks with just enough curry to spread on rice. The curry from the curry chicken was not watery and diluted, but thick and rich... just the way I like it. My sister enjoyed the curry and kept spreading it on her rice.

The assam fish tasted average to me, and I would have liked it to be more sour, but at least it wasn't the ridiculous battered dory fish that we received at Tambuah Mas. My mother had no complaints about the assam fish.

The portions of vegetables were fine, and more than what was served to us at Tambuah Mas. There was a good amount of sambal and the three of us enjoyed the vegetables.

On the whole, we thought that the food was a good replacement for Tambuah Mas, and we can get Tambuah Mas' tauhu telor, gado gado, etc. elsewhere.

Service was good through our dinner. It was easy to catch the attention of the servers, they attended to us promptly, we did not have to wait long for the food, and even though the server taking our order did not understand English too well, it worked out in the end.

We'll probably be back... I want more of that fried chicken!

Was going for doctor's appointment and could still grab some lunch, so decided to head to one of the restaurants. All were fully booked and Grandma's Kitchen looked like a foodcourt so we figured we would get our food fast.

It is actually a casual restaurant! Hahahah :)

Ordered the chicken noodles and  OH MAN! IT WAS GOOD! hahahahahah! Maybe because I was really hungry I thought it was really good! Had chin chow drink.

The fried chicken was so-so.

One month later, I went back for the same thing and I still enjoyed it. Maybe I will try something else next time.

Forgot what my husband had because I was so engrossed in devouring mine.

We have been to Grandma's Restaurant at Paragon several times before, since they took over from My Mum's Cuisine (which we also used to dine at regularly).

This time we ordered the honey chicken, sambal petai and claypot tofu together with several plates of steaming white rice.  The honey chicken was lovely - even my normally fussy 2-year old loved it!  It's sticky yet crispy on the outside, and still succulent when you bite through.

The sambal petai was a hit-and-miss.  Too many petai and onions but not enough prawns. 

As always, we liked the claypot tofu and they gladly omitted the chicken from this dish when we asked them to.

Grandma's Restaurant is one of those places you tend to go to, over and over again, because it's familiar and comfortable.

Looking for wholesome local food, I decided to drop by one of Grandma's latest outlets in Paragon.

A simple slightly dark cafe like setting, the place can get pretty bustling during lunch time, although the bulk of the patrons are tourists.

Down to the food, I had a hearty serving of Nasi lemak ($8.90). The lemak level of the rice has decreased slightly since the last time I tried the dish, but this is no joy for the heart as the thick flavourful chicken curry, the sambal ikan bilis and the sambal egg  more than makes up for it in terms of heaviness.

To compliment the nasi lemak, I also tried the Tofu ($5.90) with chicken floss and it certainly did not look like the picture in the menu. A little on the dry side.

The Beef Rendang ($9.90) however was really good. The beef was really tender and the sauce really rich.

Finally, tried a little of the Ipoh Kway Teow ($8.90), which was a slightly spicy (due to chilli oil) option but was unfortunately too msg laden for my liking.

All in all though, I must say that I really like the richness of the food served here, although one with heart problems might want to limit their visits.

My wife raved about Madam Kwan's nasi lemak and beef rendang eversince she got home from a business trip in Kuala Lumpur and I happened to read about Grandma's chain of restaurants where the chef came from Madam Kwan's to set up shop in Singapore. I read alot about Madam Kwan's and was impressed with their 5-star restaurants for simple malaysian food fare.

A few weeks ago, my family and I were at Paragon for a weekend dinner and it was out of sheer curiosity to try out Grandma's and compare against Madam Kwan's. The restaurant was spacious, nicely renovated and very well patronised. My family members and domestic helper ordered the popular nasi lemak set [white coconut rice with anchovies fried with chilies and onion strips, curry chicken, cucumber, tomato and hard-boiled egg slices, and some achar but I ventured on the Bukhari rice [Coconut and turmeric rice with shallots] set which comes with shredded beef rendang, a couple of medium assam prawns with fried onion, some achar and a large deep-fried chicken thigh. The nasi lemak presentation did not give a good impression to my wife who kept criticising throughout the meal that the nasi lemak set was not the same as the one she tasted at Madam Kwan's - rice not as fragrant, curry chicken not as tasty... almost everything is not as good... But I found some consolation with the Bukhari rice set given the tasty beef rendang and the slightly over-fried but well marinated chicken thigh which was fortunately juicy and tasty inside. We had fresh icy cold calamansi juice to flush down the spicy food.

Verdict - my wife wasn't happy with everything but I think they are OK and worth another try. 

As usual, came here on recommnedation from a friend....and considering this friend doesn't eat spicy food, or much Malay food at that, I was a bit sceptical.

I have to say, I was impressed. I was genuinly surprised to find someone of such good value is such a nice setting along Orchard Rd in one of the main shopping malls.

The service here is decent, and I certainly love the cheap beer deals they do :-) washes down Malay makan very nicely.

Since coming here, I have to say I have only ventured to try the Rendang and the Nasi Lemak...as frankly the Nasi Lemak was so good that whenever I end up going there I just stick with it. The chicken is succulent, the achar is perfect, and the rice is beautifully cooked. I really can't complain. And I think it costs around $9, which is not bad for a restaurant atmoshphere in Paragon. Granted, it is a bit noisy and the tables are very close together so you don't get much privacy...Having said that, it's great for a group dinner.

This Paragon branch is the 3rd outlet of the chain of Grandma's Restaurants, the pioneer being the one at Orchard Parade Hotel.

1) Nasi Bukhari ($14), savoury pilaf rice with fried chicken thigh, half a boiled egg, and sides of beef rendang and prawns with sweet onions. The chicken thigh was fried very well, crisp on the outside but retaining its juiciness on the inside.

2) Ipoh Kway Teow in clear broth with shredded chicken and prawns ($8.80), The soup was predominantly very light. I love the smoothness of the kway teow.

3) Claypot Beancurd ($8.80), braised deep fried egg beancurd with squid, prawns, pork slices, cauliflower, snowpeas, and garlic. This had a homecooked taste to it.

4) Chendol (promo price of only $0.60): This was slurpalicious. Green jelly, red beans, coconut milk, atap seed, and bits of sago, slathered in rich and sweet gula melaka.

5) Sago Gula Melaka ($3.80), pearl sago drenched in coconut milk and gula melaka. This was served cold. Very yummy.

Check out the pics at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com

 

I am around Orchard/Paragon area a lot but have had problem finding a decent place for local food. I have tried food court but none seems to be doing decent food - or perhaps I have not found the right one! Anyway, I went to Grandma's today, after the renovation. The place looks really nice and cosy. I liked the old decor, too as it reflected more of the tradition but I guess being in Paragon you need to dress up the restuarant a bit more!

I only had a curry laksa and a cendol and it only costed $15.00. I think it's such a good price for where it is located! The laksa was a bit thick for me but there is another choice of Assam Laksa which I think the broth is thinner. The lady sitting at the next table was having that and it did look nice. Also, I saw the lasi lemak and it was huge!

Cendol was nice, just big enough to satisfy the craving and finish the meal nicely. The staff were all very prompt and quick. It's a great place to have local food in this area.