Ministry of Food is quite an interesting name for a restaurant, kind of like the Ministry of Sound. They’ve just opened a new branch at West Coast Plaza under the name of Emperor Q, and it serves mainly an assortment of Chinese fusion type of dishes. A bunch of colleagues and I went there for lunch. One of the items that caught my attention was the Hot Stone rice. Looks really nice. Somewhat like the kind from Japanese Dining SUN.
Although we were in a rush, we got stuck undecided over our menu choices. The food pictures all look so good. For me, I wanted the Hot Stone rice. But I wanted a set, and not order a la carte items. The set meals had all sorts of Hot Plate stuffs, but not Hot Stone rice. Well, in the end, actually someone pointed out that we could upgrade any set meal to include the Hot Stone rice. Great. But the upgrade price made the set meal too pricey.
For me, in the end, I decided on porridge. Cod Fish Porridge. Not terribly cheap either. I think it was $14.80+++. The cod fish is fried, and the porridge is served in a hot pot over a burning flame. It’s quite nice. Not superbly excellent, but certainly something worth trying.
The other thing I ordered is the Black Sesame Shake. It’s a little like Black Sesame Ice Cream which I love. The one from New Garo Japanese Restaurant is really nice. This one at Emperor Q did not have enough black sesame for me, but overall it’s still pretty yummy. I’m not sure how it would go for people who don’t fancy black sesame…
One person complained the food was expensive. His bowl of noodles had too little noodles to be worth the price.
The other Ministry of Food restaurants (at least the two I’ve been at Bugis Junction and Suntec) serve Japanese fusion kind of food. Emperor Q is something different. It’s worth trying, but I’m not sure if they’ll get enough crowds. I think West Coast Plaza has too much food, it’s not terribly accessible, and there’s not much of attraction to get people to head that way. (In fact, I find it is rather silly that their free shuttle service from NUS only starts from 2:30pm. They don’t want the lunch crowd to go there?)
Address: 154 West Coast Road, #01-67, West Coast Plaza, Singapore 127371
Tel : 67747598
To me, that actually looks like a good meal. It’s hard to find good “authentic” tasting oriental food in the US. I eat a lot of Thai food and I really enjoy the pepper and onion stir fry and the Pud Thai. Good article, keep up the good work!