Cafe On The Ridge and other Food Updates

It seems lately this blog has featured lots of food posts, and yet I still have a bunch of food photos queued up. So it’s time for a consolidated food update: Cafe on the Ridge, Central Square (NUS), Yakun, Casa Verde, and Hot Pot Culture.

First up is Cafe on the Ridge, the casual dining restaurant at NUSS Guild House on Kent Ridge campus. I originally wanted to have the Nasi Goreng Kampung (which is pretty good, by the way), but ended up ordering the Spaghetti Aglio Olio. It looks good, and it tasted good too.

Many of my colleagues go to Cafe on the Ridge for the Nasi Goreng Kampung. It’s good tasting and good value. We were all slightly apprehensive about trying out something different this time. But we did, although after much deliberation, and I think we were rewarded (at least for some of us).

One of the other “new dishes” we had was the Curry Chicken Set. The curry chicken looks nice. It looks spicy too, which would be lovely for people who love spicy food. The set comes with papadum (another of my favourite). I wasn’t in the mood for white rice, which is why I didn’t order this dish. Maybe some other time. I still think the Nasi Goreng Kampung is more value for money, but I suppose once in a while it is alight to try something different.

The other “new dish” was the Chicken Rice. There was a choice of breast meat or leg. My colleague chose leg. It took a long time to come. We wondered if the only chicken leg left went to the Curry Chicken Set. I think, compared with the other food that we had, the Chicken Rice didn’t look so interesting. The colleague who ordered this preferred the Nasi Goreng Kampung (I would too).

There were other stuffs, like the Graduate Club Sandwich (no photos here) and, well, someone still did end up with the Nasi Goreng Kampung afterall.

Next is Central Square. Yeah, it’s a nice sounding name, but basically it is the YIH canteen at NUS. The Nasi Briyani there is quite good, by the way, although the portion is a little small.

But that’s not what I had. I was in the mood to try something different and so I ended up with the dumpling ramen from the Noodles stall. The dumpling itself is really good. But the ramen itself is only so-so. I think it would probably be better to just get the dumplings alone to go with some other main course. Like perhaps the Nasi Briyani. The Nasi Briyani’s small portion would be pretty well complemented by the dumplings (I know, different types of cuisines but that doesn’t really matter).

Next time I might try the Malay rice stall which always seems to have the longest queue of patient diners (the queue does move fast though).

Next is the perfect soft-boiled eggs from Yakun. It’s such an age-old tradition but yet so surprising that few places can get this done right. This time we went to the Yakun at Takashimaya. I never realized there was a Yakun there, but we found that there was one in the basement near the food court. We checked online… wanted breakfast, and wanted to shop, so Takashimaya seems like the right destination.

This Yakun outlet doesn’t actually have a sitting area for dine-in patrons. So everything is take-away. You could sit at the food court of course, but well, Yakun’s operating mode at this outlet was 100% take-away.

How do you take-away soft-boiled eggs? Yeah, in a small little styrofoam cup. Then you eat it with a plastic spoon. Seems like not quite the same experience? But the soft-boiled eggs are still the same, as good as ever.

Here’s the Continental Breakfast set from Casa Verde at the Singapore Botanic Gardens (Visitor’s Centre). I don’t remember this place having this name before. Possibly something has changed. But the food seems like roughly about the same. Except that the Continental Breakfast set that used to include coffee does not come with coffee anymore. (Or did I order the wrong thing?) Well, anyway, it’s still pretty good. The set comes with bread, eggs (done whichever way you want), hash brown, bacon, sausages and tomato.

Then on the right is the Nasi Briyani with Mutton at Red Ginger (IMM). It’s pretty good. Just not “hot” enough: both the temperature hot and spicy hot. It’s still quite good. Just that when I have this kind of food, I like to have them really spicy.

Finally, the porridge buffet at Hot Pot Culture (Marina Square, near the Centre Stage). It’s really good value for money at $7.90++. They also have “higher-end” options at $13-something for a la carte items selection, and $18-something for steamboat items (on top of what you get for the $13-something package).

The items for for the standard $7.90++ buffet is nothing exquisite or exotic. But they are really nice when sometimes you just want a simple meal. Apart from the buffet table, the $7.90++ package also comes with one-time servings of dishes like cold chicken, tofu, etc. In my opinion, just go for the $7.90++ buffet.

The other nearby porridge buffet competitor (Suntec convention centre), nowadays, pales in comparison. The last time I visited, I was really disappointed. “Everything” was just not quite good enough. It is otherwise quite affordably priced too, just slightly more than Hot Pot Culture.