While on a surftrip to the Mentawai Islands, a Malaysian friend of mine argued how superior his cuisine was over my own.
I love food from all regions and find the subtle nuances that make each cuisine special. Although growing up in the USA, being a Fil-Am makes me a huge fan of Filipino food by default. My Dad being
Kapampangan, had the skills of a master chef and dinner was always a treat in my household.
Despite my national spirit, I had to agree with him with regard to the food centered around mainland Southeast Asia, most specifically Singapore, Malaysia, & Thailand.
Due to their proximity to each other, it's no wonder that each of their respective cuisines have culturally exchanged the best each has to offer. The trade routes that interconnected each of these cultures offered the best spices form around the world. Peranakan, Chinese, Hindu, Indonesian and Malay all come together to form some of the best food throughout all of Asia.
"What a treat", I thought to myself when I saw "
Orchard Road" (famed street of Dowtown Singapore) at Megamall in Manila, Philippines. There aren't too many S'pore-centric restaurants in town, so I thought this was a dream come true.
My mouth began to water and I instantly became nostalgic for some of my best food memories.
Its a unique place you place your order near the plexiglass clear view kitchen. you can see all the chefs and ingredients before your eyes. with such visibility you would expect freshness at an all-time level.
They even offer local Singaporean favorites, like the Milo Dinosaur and Rojak.
The fantasy ended as soon as the food arrived. Our eager anticipation was immediately let down by the flat appearance and taste of the Roti Pratha w/ Malay curry sauce (P110)
The Roti was a joke. According to the Roti-Wala, the dough is prepared and fried into pancakes offsite and delivered. There is a flat skillet on site, which seemed only for show, because you never witness freshly ladled roti batter. They are simply reheated by buttering each side, pan fried and sliced like a pizza. Such a shame because it is simple to make and tastes best hot off the griddle. It should have a crispy shell, with a fluffy-doughy inner layer. Sadly this Roti was a flattened chewy pancake.
Don't even get me started on the watered down Curry sauce.
We were hoping that the Roast chicken Rice (P165) would redeem this place.
Sadly, it seems that I beat the lunch crowd and being too early for freshly prepared food, I was subject to (what seemed like) last night's reheated left overs. The chicken was dry and tasted stale. it was as if they took old refrigerated chicken, micro-waved it, and brushed it with sesame oil to make it appear fresh.
The only thing worth mention was the Beef Hor Fun (P185). At least this menu item was Wok fried on demand. The only downer was that the beef was a tad bit tough.
All in all I grade this mall based establishment as follows:
Appearance of Restaurant: A (very clean, unique presentation of visible kitchen, and modern looking)
Food Quality: C- (might have been D if not for noodles)
Price: C (overpriced for the quality and size)
Orchard road is located at Megamall 2nd floor, just across from the entrance of the Atrium. I feel the place still has potential as soon as they revise the Roti preparation and improve the freshness.
Who knows, maybe if you arrive at lunch/dinner rush hour traffic then you'd probably finally taste the freshest food with crowds forcing the kitchen to make each item to order.
The silver lining of the entire event was that I was reminded that there are other Malay/Singaporean options here in Manila. Orchard Road's failure reminded me that
Banana Leaf will still be the best "mall-based" staple for Malay/S'Pore cuisine.
All Images shot with an Iphone 3Gs
