Gurney Drive Restaurant (Ang Mo Kio)

Expectations contributes a lot to opinion about food. So visiting a Gurney Drive cafe, a day after the Groupon offer (15min queue) in the heartland near other good hawker food really skewed my opinion.

Here's the run down on the food (prices are estimated including taxes):

Laksa $7  - I like the sour tang and the use of udon like thick noodles that makes eating easier, but I wish there was a more generous portion of the mackeral fish flakes.

Fried Kway Teow $8 - quite good... but I kept thinking I can get a similar dish at the coffee shop 20m away... Ok, this one's the penang version, different

Generally I felt the quality of ingredients and execution could be better to warrant the premium over hawker prices, but if I visit Gurney Dr in another setting, I may have a different opinion

I felt thirsty after eating, due to the MSG? or the generous use of prawn paste?

Visited on a Sunday lunch. Ample seats available. Ordered prawn noodles and a cup of coffee. The service was quite efficient, and the food arrived shortly. They even gave an extra plate to place the prawn shells. How thoughtful. But perhaps, the chef could've just de-shelled the prawns or at least remove just the mid-part shells of the prawns so that it's easier to eat?

Anyway, took a sip of the coffee and was immediately hit by the strong milk taste. The prawn noodles was quite a big bowl with 2 medium sized prawns in it. By default, it's a mix of meehoon and mee. The soup was tasty, but doesn't impress. The spice level was quite mild, and the soup temperature was not hot enough. The pork was quite tough as well.

Other things on the menu looked more promising, such as the belachan chicken wings and the ampla drink.

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Was shopping in AMK Hub last weekend and most of the restaurant were really crowded thus me and my wife + my 2 year old girl decided to walk around AMK neighbourhood. As we walked towards Jubilee, we realised that so much have changed since then. Saw the familiar Gurney Drive and decided to give it a try. They were not as crowded as AMK hub restaurant but had a shorter queue. Was good to see popeye there as well.

The menu was really friendly cause it had the kid's logo and it didnt take long for us to decide what to get for our girl. I ordered the char koay teow which was really good and my wife ordered the Crayfish noodle. Soup was thick and good. Good value for its food. $10.80 for 1 pc of crayfish + 2 prawns.

Concluded with a great coffee which ended this meal wonderfully. Saw the ghee hiang white coffee at their counter and thought the owner probably is also from Penang. Was informed by the manager they have another outlet in Suntec. Shall try it out soon.

I patronized this place on a weekday afternoon for lunch with my wife.

We ordered:Curry Chicken + Rojak + Tea SetGlass Noodles + Lor Bak + Tea Set

My wife had the curry chicken and commented that it wasn't spicy but she liked it that way. The chicken was cooked till tender, melts in your mouth. 

I had the glass noodles. I wasn't expecting it to be spicy but it was! Came with seafood in it. Quite a nice dish.

Rojak was special and mixed with an assortment of fruits. Guava, apple, pineapple, turnip, cucumber, you char kuay (not enough), tao pok, bean sprouts, peanuts and prawn paste. Very nice mix.

Lor Bak consisted of Fried Tofu and Ngor Hiang. Both of which are soft and tasty!

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They have a pretty affordable lunch set at $7.90++ or $8.90++ which includes a side dish, main course and coffee/tea (you can change to another drink and top-up the balance).

i tried the Gurney nasi lemak, and i was surprised to find out that it was pretty different from the nasi lemak that i normally find in Singapore! I guess here is just the penang version to add on to the malay and chinese nasi lemak, which are also pretty different (: the most significant part of the nasi lemak is probably the curry chicken, but i was disappointed by it. The chicken lacked gravy and was rather dry. yikes! ): the rice was fragrant though, and the ikan bilis and omelette couldn't possibly go wrong. the chili was really spicy! which gave a nice kick to the dish, but nearly impossible to withstand. i liked how the sour achar added to the taste of the dish.

This was my first time trying penang lor bak. hmmm isn't lor bak simply stewed pork?? I'm kinda confused. anyway, the closest food i would relate this to would be ngoh hiang? it's pork wrapped in beancurd skin and comes with tofu (yay!!). The lor bak and tofu are a good contrast to one another, the former being rather salty, while the tofu restores your palate (: and i liked the sauce that came with it (:

Been to this little Penang eat quite a number of times, and each time I'm there, I'd never failed to order my same old staple-Penang Asam Laska ($5.90).

The flavour is good, sour enough, with the right texture of noodles as well as the minced fish.  Good for days when your appetite ain't all that great.

Of course, I'd tried some of the other food as well (my eating partners are not as boring as I am).

The Penang prawn noodle($6.90) was good.  Although the ingredients weren't plentiful, the quality of the soup was good.  The Penang Char Kway Teow($6.90) was not too bad either.  But the ingredients are once again, a little scanty.

The lor bak was reasonable, so was the Penang rojak ($3.90) (though I'd think they can increase on the quantity)

For the first time today, we tried their new recommendation-Premium grilled platter for 2. It consisted of grilled stingray, crayfish, prawns and sotong.

This was one disappointment.  Maybe our expectations were different, but the grilled taste was not what I expected, and it even came with satay sauce, which was sweet.  Didn't seem to go all that well.  Besides, for $19.90, the quantity was quite little.  There was 1 piece of stingray (which was dry and hard), 2 prawns, a few sotong rings, and a small crayfish cut into 2.

I'd certainly return for the Penang Laska, and even their drinks (calamansi and ampla).  But certainly not the grilled platter...

One thing to add.  This is one of those eating places that refuse to provide water, and hope that you'll order something to drink (which is usually quite essential since most of the food's pretty flavourful)

We ordered a nasi lemak and penang fried kway teow and the lor bar and were utterly disappointed with the quality of the food.

The curry chicken of the nasi lemak was diluted and very small portion. The ikan bills & peanuts was ok. The coconut rice was ok.

The penang fried kway teow was nothing but lots of kway teow with 3 small slices of chinese sausage and some egg. Portion was decent, but just all carbo. The fried kway teow was so so. We did not even finish half a plate.

The lor bar and the fried toufu was ok, not out of this world.

We paid almost $20 for all 3 dishes, which was a rip off, given the terrible quality of the food.

Will not recommend this place to anyone looking to eat Penang food. Poor representation and unappetizing food. Service of the staff was ok though, but that's about it.

We tried the Penang fried koay teow and hokkien prawn mee.  The koay teow was rightly moist and easy to devour. The prawn mee was not overly oily so you can 'afford' to finish the soup.  

On the side was a Penang Rojak. The prawn paste was quite good, not overly sweet or overpowering, but the you-tiao was a bit tough.  

We finished with a Gurney kopi and teh-c. The kopi was good - the strength was just nice and not too sweet, but the latter was a little bland.  

The staff were friendly and efficient. They seem to know the menus well and were smiley when serving customers.  The place was bustling during weekend lunch but not too noisy so the ambience was quite pleasant.  

That said, Ang Mo Kio is full of cheap good food so the place will definitely face some stiff competition.