Parking is always a challenge in this region but its free parking after 5pm though. We parked near the indian provision shops area and walked down instead. This coffeeshop interior has been given new reinforcement in the form of steel support beams etc, probably with the concern of caving in due to the site works just nearby?

Anyway to the food, there were 5 of us and qty ordered below was just nice.

we ordered the large crispy vermicelli $18, one baby cabbage with fried hay bee shrimps $10, one steamed kampung chicken with wolf-berry $14 and one thai style pig trotter $22. The chao ta bee hoon came looking like Korean pancake actually with some green scallion, beanspouts and fored pork lard on top. It taste good, i like this style better that the toa payoh bai meefen, its slightly moist not not overly wet. The fried mini shrimps for the vege were bigger than normal, it went went with the nai bai chye. The wolfberry chicken reminds me of home-cooked style dish, i like the sauce though i find it a little too oiy, also it seems like this dish is a pre frozen one then heated up upon demand. The pig trotter was good not fatty, the only fatty part felt more like collagen. The skin is mostly crispy and dipped in the thai style chilli, it rivals that of german pork knuckle.

Drove by the area and saw this Balestier market place is opened after closing for renovations for months. Glad that the reno made the place brighter and airier. Not many stalls were opened yet but King's Roast caught my eye with its roasted meat selection, and of coz the cute looking logo. I had a hard time deciding between roast duck, sesame char siew, normal char siew, sio bak, white chic, roast chick and oil chicken. Settled for roast duck and char siew combination ($5) in the end as it was gleaming and shinning well . I also had a $4 dumpling soup to go along. The meat was the lean type which I like, very well roasted. But I felt the sauce could be better improved to match the nicely roasted duck and char siew. Fortunately the meats were good on its own. Do hope they improve on that. 

My dumpling bowl came in six nicely wrapped sacks, perfect to go with my rice dish as mains. It's cooked with xiao bai chye which for once I get a stalk and not just a few pieces like others. They also had a bit of pork lard added to enhance the flavor which I sneakily ate it with my rice (I'm supposed to be on diet )


I certainly want to try their Thai style toufu next time, it was placed behind the chef and its sheer size attracted me 

Newly opened for 2 weeks, decided to try them out. They have made this coffeeshop brighter kit up than before.As I was alone I could only evaluate their food based on individual portion dish. I've always like to use hor fun as a benchmark. Waiting time was impressive with my hor fun served in less than 4minutes. It look overly starchy from its look but I was pleasantly surprised with its taste. The kway teow was nicely pan fried before hand, fish cakes were thicker than most places and sauce was perfect. I slurp up all the sauce for the hor fun in he end. For only $3.50 I give this the thumbs up. Hopefully can bring my folks here next time to do a more extensive food testing.

Ordered the following dishes. Nasi Bukhari (basmathi rice with fried chicken leg, love the hot fresh from frying chicken meat) $14.90, one stir fried dou miao $9.90 (for this price, its a letdown, taste is too bland), one honey chic $9.90 (not too bad, quantity was ok also), one otak otak $7.90 (impressive, i can even literally see fish meat mixed with otak filling, nice) and one hokkien noodles $10.90 (nice thick noodles, sedap) . 10% serv charge and 7% gst is applicable. Total bill works out to be $62.95. ice water is FOC.

One think i want to highlight is from where i was sitting, i could easily see the staff sleeping at the other coner on the chairs, some of the staff was also working and eating at the same time, not the best sight to show customer, perhaps they could install a veil or curtain so that this is shielded from the diners.

also initially they waitress gave us a small table. then the manager (Indian lady) offered to join another table for us, nice gesture and initiative from her,

Recently there is a hype over the price of chicken rice at orchard ion. Today I will review another orchard rd chic rice and thankfully it's not $8.50. Packet in a standard styrofoam box, I get around 10 slices of chicken and handful of chicken gizzards 鸡肝 together with the fragrant rice. This sets me back at $6. Roasted chicken is my choice, they also sell white chicken. My only gripe is its a little dry otherwise a fantastic eat, totally satisfying the chic rice craving. I also like that only lean meat is given. It's also nice they offer both dark soy sauce and chili for take away.