This newly opened Cafe in the northern suburb of Strathmore (8 Lloyd Street) just across the way from the local IGA has a reasonably interesting menu, alot of which sadly were not available to order when we were there - and this was their very first day! So it could either be a massive Fail! Or if we're kinder, we could say something like "oh they're just finding their feet ... give them time".
Service is, shall we say, attentive enough but also a little fraught, but again "finding their feet" is the axiom that springs to mind. Unable to try our benchmark dishes (including their version of Hainanse Chicken Rice), we decided on an entree of Fried Chicken (the one we actually wanted was not available so we had to choose this alternative):
The chicken pieces were on the bone and cut into manageable sizes - big tick. The usual curry powder style marinade had a lovely home-made feel to it. I say entree, it actually came out after the mains - but that is more akin to Malaysian style eating so I shouldn't really grumble.
M had the Char Hor Fun for his main. After our slight misreading of this menu item at another establishment, we decided to clarify whether this was soup or dry. Blank stares and cross cultural mayhem ensued, but we did manage to work out that we were talking about the dry version, although you would be hard pressed to agree from the photo below - but yes it was erring more on the dry side than a soup.
The cook did the right thing by char frying the noodles first before dumping the sauce in the wok - so it had that smoky seafoody hor fun flavour - perhaps a smidge on the salty side, but yummy. I do miss the hot pickled green chilli option, but they did have a chilli oil type sauce of the Vietnamese variety with crispy ikan billis (anchovies) in the mix.
I had the Beef brisket egg noodle - which was pretty good but perhaps a little heavy. When I chose it from the menu, I was hoping that it would be the Hong Kong Noodle House style of dish, and it pretty much was. The Brisket was a little tough but there was a nice balance with the 5 spice and soy flavours. I would have preferred less sauce and a bit more noodle - the blanched cauliflower was an "interesting" touch ... but I would have liked some choy sum instead.
In summation, unless you're local, I probably wouldn't be travelling too far to check this place out. Although I personally would still like to try the benchmarks here (Hainanese chicken rice, beef rendang) before fully committing to a review. Oh and they should really do Teh Tarek!
PS: From now until 13th March, you get 20%!
Edit - 3rd April - it now has an entry on Urbanspoon!!
