19/02/2010 Singma Deluxe 星馬殿
金鐘夏愨道16號遠東金融中心地下C2號舖
Shop C2, G/F, Far East Finance Centre, 16 Harcourt Road,, Admiralty
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/singmalay-part-20-not-so-delux-e2064175
Since there are no restaurant pictures of this place, I could only judge this place by its first review by faywongnum1 and the food pictures.
The food they ordered seemed the general Sing malay food, ie chicken, laksa so I assumed it to be a restaurant, same with the name, however with the word Deluxe, I thought it would be a high end Sing malay restaurant.
Arrived there around 6.30pm, which I am sure everyone would consider as EVENING, sat down, was given a free bottle of water and a menu to look at.
The place looked like a high-end restaurant, however my local friends said it looked like a pub.
Looked at the menu, maybe I was wrong, it was a bar indeed, it was a happy hour menu, I cant remember the exact time printed on the menu, either it said 3-6, or 6-9, all the items were salads and small things like that.
I then asked if there was a full menu, because it is a bit unbelievable a nice place like that doesn’t have a proper menu, but a printed menu encased in hard plastic.
They then gave us a menu for dinner, the items on it were not the usual Singmalay stuff, at that moment I wanted to leave because it didn’t serve LAKSA or HAINAN CHICKEN as mentioned in the first review. SECONDLY, it was served in the evening according to the review, so I was so confused by the waitress as she said the Laksa was only available for lunch!!!
At this point, I had reason to suspect the staff could have written the first review, since that user has only written one review so far.
I think that LAKSA or hainan chicken is a standard item for any singmalay place.
At that moment, I really wanted to leave the restaurant but there was also the dessert I wanted to try, so I ordered only one item from the main menu and the two desserts.
After a while, some other customers came in and after sitting down and looking at the menu, they left.
I think they probably read OpenRice and came for laksa or hainan chicken but found it wasn’t on the menu so left.
The waitress then came over and said she asked the Chef and we could order the Laksa and Chicken, so we ordered that, I finally caught a glimpse of that menu with those items and I didn’t see any specified time for ordering those items.
The Hainan chicken was the first to arrive, it came with soup. The soup was not the usual wintermelon soup served with the chicken, but mushroom soup.
The rice was piping hot, there was only 4-5 pieces of chicken, most of it was chicken skin, but consistent with the pictures in the first review, ie not many pieces.
All the dishes served had freshly picked yellow petals sprinkled on top, not sure what flowers they were, but they had a mini herb rack, where they picked herbs and flowers to garnish the dishes.
The seafood laksa was served in an elongated round bowl, many toppings just like the picture in the first review, this was one of the attractions that made me want to try it. I was curious to see what the green stuff was, but it turned out to be seaweed rather than laksa leaves. There were clams, surf clams, prawns, and this fried prawn ball covered in oats. There were long thin mushrooms, radish, tiny dried shrimps and boiled egg.
This was the first time I ate the yolk in a laksa dish as it was half done.
Taste wise, a little salty, overall the portion was very big, almost like a double portion. Although not that authentic, it was more like a supersize laksa with unusual toppings such as seaweed and mushrooms.
After finishing the mains, the waitress came over and said the Taro mousse I ordered had a problem, she said the Chef said there was something wrong with the TEXTURE so it wasn’t available. I wasn’t very pleased because I came here intending to have that. I would have preferred she told me when I ordered it, rather than telling me after I finished my food and expecting dessert to be served.
Since I ordered the Pandan bread pudding, I only had that, it was egg baked with pandan paste on top, when I cut it, green liquid oozed from the bottom.
Anyway as with all bread puddings they taste sweet, but this one was salty and sweet, I asked the waitress and she said it was normal.
After I finished the pudding, our bowls were replaced with cleans bowls, I thought it was weird, because we had finished all our food, unless the other dessert was suddenly available!!!!
I asked them to check if there was anything else to arrive, but it seemed there was nothing else to come.
The dessert bowls and spoons were tiny, it makes the dessert portion look big, and eating it in many rounds.
I only uploaded pictures of the dessert and surroundings as the food I ordered was more less the same as in the first review.
IMPROVEMENTS: I think this place needs to improve on their menu options unless they are relying solely on their alcohol business, if so why the singaporean name.
After eating all these singmalay places in Hong Kong, this is my 20th review, I didn’t expect this place to be like that, anyway Shiok here I come.
Previous Singmalay reviews:
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/review/search.htm?inputstrreview=singmalay
