Was here for lunch with my colleague.

It was the notice board placed outside the cafe which stated '$7.50 nett' set lunch that attracted and lure us into the cafe. One can choose chicken leg, fish and chips or beef goulash for the main course. So we chose the former 2.

We waited for quite a while for our food to be served. (in fact, we were standing outside the cafe but the waitresses were too busy doing other things who did not pay attention to us earlier to usher us in).

The portion served was huge. The chicken was tender and the fish was soft which was good. They were well marinated and honestly to us, quite good! The garnish include some salad and huge french fries, quite a lot too! We have no issue about the food taste and quality. Luckily we didn't add $2 for the soup as the main course was really filling already!

However, the service was slow. Our glasses of water were not refilled regularly as we had to signal to the waitress for them to do so. Even that, they would take quite a while to come to us. It also took some time for them to settle our bills.

Ambience wise, still ok. We chose to sit inside as it was very sunny sitting outside. However, the tables were arranged quite close to one another and the lights are a bit dim. Generally, its ok.

As for the price, its $7.50 nett, meaning there was no service charge or GST, which was good to us! Considering the big portion of food served, we felt it was quite good value for money and we enjoyed our lunch!

Maybe the cafe can introduce more varieties of the set meals at this price and improves its service, I am sure more people will come here
for their lunch as paying a western food set at food court would cost one at least $6!

The Far East / China Sq area makes a good choice for lunch affairs in the biz district... The Straits is juz one of e many drinking holes tat offer set lunches for e working lunch crowd... Set lunch choices r few and simple.. u can have e grilled chicken leg or fish n chips or beef goulash at $7.50 nett n a $2 top up for either a soup or a drink...pretty decent deal..oh n of coz beer if u wana numb youself for e work day ahead.. ha!

Of all e 3 choices... i would strongly recommend the grilled chicken leg... to b honest i dun usually order chicken items coz i'm alwaz leaning towards beef n seafood but trust me.. e chicken beats e cow n e fish this round! i've tried e beef goulash on my 1st n it's pretty disappointing.. it all tasted very straight from e can n i totally hated e taste... even e bread tat comes along tasted so stale.. yucks! dun order this!

on my 2nd visit .. my fren had e fish n chips n it looked pretty decent though.. pretty big portion n it looks kinda plump n crispy.. however e comment at e end of e meal was tat it's soooo oily tat it makes u go yucks as well!

i had e grilled chicken leg n it looks good.. pretty decent sized of boneless (hooray!) chicken leg tat's quite nicely grilled with fries n e best part? it came with a black pepper (?) brown sauce on e side! i liked sauces coz it alwaz add some dimension to a dish.. n although e sauce here is nothing fabulous... it's quite a nice touch to e chicken!

i would normally have e soup as well to start n e cream of mushroom is not too bad... slightly salty but at least it's not campbell's boring cream of mushroom.. for this u can taste bits n pieces of mushrooms in it so tat's good for me!

overall not a bad place for having a chicken lunch...tat's all....

i had lunch with 3 other friends on friday at the straits, having seen their lunch specials of fish and chips or grilled chicken at $6.50 nett. (this offer also applies for dinner, but within selected hours)

so well we had two fish and chips and two grilled chicken, and it wasnt half bad. it was pretty decent for the price.

the grilled chicken comes with fries, some salad leaves (im not sure which vegetable it is from but it wasnt lettuce) and a dollop of coleslaw. The coleslaw was not good. it was extremely sour, as though the dressing was vinegar. perhaps there was a mix up in the kitchen or something. My friend and i (both of us had the chicken) liked the straight cut fries - it was slightly fatter than shoestring, and it wasnt overfried or soggy. just nice. The grilled chicken is just a boneless fillet (i think of the chicken breast) and as with all such fillets with skin, there was layer of skin with fat over the fillet. (which i cut off in my bid to not eat so much fat). they also serve gravy atop the fillet, which was okay tasting- nondescript. brown gravy, so it was a little like what you would put ontop of mash, but less tasty.

My two other friends had the fish and chips. i think the fish was dory. anyhow, one of them said that it was pretty good fish for the price. the other said that having had the fish and its batter made her feel terribly stuffed, in the not so good way. i suspect it may have been the batter, because what you get is this piece of fish covered in batter and fries. and the batter was quite a thick layer around the fish. but i mean, for $6.50 we weren't expecting alot. the fries served were the same as the grilled chicken, so thumbs up.

the only problem we had at lunch that day was the impossibly slow (non existent at times) service. it appears that there is only one dude at the bar, and two waitresses who occasionally, serve, when they arent walking around. plates were piled on tables and left uncleared until customers who wanted to occupy the tables requested that the waitresses so did. there appears no system of any sort. tables were wet and kinda gross, and only when asked did a waitress come back with a ton of serviettes and attempt to wipe the tables.
they didnt appear friendly to us, but when a trio of western dudes arrived, you should have seen and heard the change in demeanour.

but well. i dont care. i was just there to eat, and get back to work.
the food was served 15 minutes after our order was taken, and i suppose that was reasonable.

we just feel that the service was lacking, and that the place run more than just a little disorderly.

anyhow, we didnt order any drinks, so the price per head is solely for food.