A surprise find! Just dropped in at Bukit Timah Plaza for a visit and chanced upon this old style Western Cafe. Though not exactly cheap, the food served is really worth the money paid.

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Hailam Chicken Rice Set S$10.90++ with a cup of local coffee / tea

This is the first ever time I step into Bukit Timah plaza. If not for a certain audio related gagdet to be found only here…

After the mission was accomplished, we strolled around to find something for late lunch.

A cozy and old school western restaurant caught our attention.

And guess what, the most popular dish is their Hailam Chicken Rice set.

True to its popularity, the rice grains were very well flavoured, tasty homemade chilli sauce to add onto the generous portion of well poached chicken. Worth a try!

Waffle with Gula Melaka ice-cream S$5.50++

I saw Gula Melaka ice-cream at the entrance and I knew I got to have it.

So, ordered waffle with it (you have the other choice of brownie too).

Waffle wasn’t good, served cold, stodgy and no crisp. However, the big scoop of icy Gula Melaka was great, it’s coconut based, tasted like childhood to me.

The chicken rice was a surprise find nonetheless.

I dropped in for a quick coffee since it was raining cats and dogs. The place was not exactly crowded. There was just another table of patrons. The waiter (and later cashier) looked like they could do with a couple nights of good uninterrupted sleep. They probably believe in limiting noise pollution cos they uttered nary a word while taking our order. Sign language was his forte cos through a series of nods and grunts, he successfully conveyed his message to us.

We had a double expresso (which was neither expresso, nor double, nor good), a glass of warm barley drink (which was ok) and a scoop of yam ice-cream (which was certainly no better than any cheapo petrol station ice-cream). The bill came up to $19. The double expresso cost $9.60. (Since they did not actually have double expresso on the menu, they took the price of a cappucino and doubled it. Seriously.) Maybe I missed something. Maybe the coffee was civet cat coffee directly flown in from the most remote jungle in Vietnam. But maybe not.

I'd certainly visit this place again, if I were on the verge of dying from thirst and cannot walk the 3 metres to the Subway joint just opposite.