Feb 25, 2007
Riiiiight.....I have been to Sim Lim countless times (like all Singaporean GUYS!), but funny thing is....never stepped into this place!
Food is not the best I have eaten (except for the cereal prawns...more on that soon!)...BUT in terms of value, it actually ranks up there. For the meal below (and a drink), it cost me less than $20
In summary, this is what I had with a group of buddies:
The GOOD
(1) Cereal Prawns - Good texture, and no need to peel! It is cooked just right, and has a really tasty zest to it
(2) Sliced Fish in some kind of special sauce - Unlike the standard "just fry with ginger and spring onion" variety, this slightly sweetish sauce actually went quite well with the fish!
(3) Har Cheong Gai (Prawn Paste Chicken) - Taste nice, but ya know...I'm always biased towards Har Cheong Gai...so you can't take my word for it here!
The SO-SO
(4) Beef fried with ginger and spring onion - Kinda flat
(5) Claypot Tauhu - Tasted a tad funny and weird
The DON"T KNOW
(6) Kai Lan Dish - Somehow I did not get a chance to eat this as it got swiped up fairly quick - guess it must have been good!
(7) Yu Sheng - I'm really a bad reader of this dish, as they somehow all taste the same very year???? Think I should not be a Yu Sheng reviewer!
All in all, it was a nice hidden find. Prices are decent, you get a fairly good meal if you order the right dishes, and best part is, the waiters/waitresses don't seem to have the traditional bad service that I and many Singaporeans have come to expect from Chinese restaurants that are at least half decent! My experience is that usually really jialat Chinese restaurants OR super high class Chinese restaurants give good service - for different reasons. The former is desperate for your money, the latter feel so bad about getting such high margins that they decide to give you good service!!!
In fact, they actually did not mind when we created a din by singing a really loud birthday song that echoed off the plain white walls (we had someone who had huge lungs and other impressive attributes!) or when we ordered our drinks in batches (1 drink, then later another drink, then 2 drinks, then 1 drink, then another 3 drinks.....all in the space of 5-10min....imagine doing this at some "famous" zi char and see what you get!) Service here is actually not too bad!
Must tries: Cereal Prawns
I also recommend this place for: