Seasonal Salad Bar, Toa Payoh

Children from the eighties and nineties might be able to recall American-style salad bar restaurants having a major presence in Singapore. The likes of Ponderosa, Denny's and later Sizzler all offered a similar premise: unlimited helpings at the salad bar, with or without a main course, for under $25 at most (about $35 in today's money). Oddly enough, despite its name, the salad bar offered more, hot pasta and even ice-cream being typical. This made it viable to go without the main course and still have a decent dinner for even less.

They're all gone now, though nobody knows why. Denny's beat a hasty retreat to Marina Square, where it made its last stand briefly as Checkers. Ponderosa had a happier ending, its chef going on to start Aston's, now a mainstay of eating out here. The most recent memory I had of the salad bar restaurants was a gathering I had at Sizzler in Suntec City, as late as 2010. Since then they appeared to have vanished without a trace.

... Until recently, when two things happened. Swensen's stepped in to fill the gap with Swensen's Earle, and Seasonal Salad Bar - earlier known as Chum's Steak House - took on the premises previously occupied by Sizzler in Toa Payoh, later expanding to a second location in Kent Ridge. On a whim, the family went to Toa Payoh for dinner last night, and so I get to relive my memories gorging myself on salad from my younger days.

The salad bar is now slightly more localised, with Singapore fried noodles appearing alongside pasta amongst other things, and there are several changes to the main courses on offer (Country Fried Steak might be of interest). Quality of food is largely the same, ie, not great, but you were not here for that as you were for the quantity. 

The premises were spacious and can seat large crowds, which might make this the ideal place for large groups with tenuous aspirations to go into competitive eating. Alternatively, this might just be the sort of place you would want to take your significant other on a date if you really want to relive the past, and want a break from the offerings from more contemporary eating places.

Verdict:

3/4 - that one oso can

Location:

190 Lorong 6,
Toa Payoh #02-516
Singapore 310190

Tian Yuan Chicken Rice, Tekka Centre

Tekka Centre owes much of its crowds to its hawker stalls, able to count amongst its best offerings food as diverse as roast goose rice, murtabak, the obscure chi kak kueh of Teochew culinary tradition and even the simple congee. The section for the hawker centre has plenty of room for stalls however, and just as there are good stalls, there are also those which have yet to make a name for themselves (I noticed while wandering around a stall trying to sell "Western breakfast", an unusual offering even in Tekka, which, for their sake, I hope catches on).

There were a couple of stalls which sell chicken rice, and Tian Yuan in particular caught my eye since it appeared to be twinned with the adjacent zhi cha stall. The approaches to preparing the food offered by both stalls are vastly different to one another, so it's slightly puzzling that the two stalls would be run by the same guy, if indeed they are. The stall did not appear to be getting much custom, but unfazed I decided to find out why.

The generous helping of rice was fluffy and flavourful, its richness cut through only by the sting that came with the chilli. Paired with a good chicken, this would have gone down very well. Sadly, despite avoiding getting breast meat, the chicken was still dry, perhaps from having been left hanging for too long, and left me looking slightly longingly at the guy at my table who got chicken rice from the other stall.

The food aside, it might be interesting to explore at a later point how the two are related to one another, and one came to share the name with the other, although the reason might be something as mundane as buying out a retiring owner.

Verdict: 2/4 - liddat lor

Location:
Tian Yuan Chicken Rice
#01-292, Tekka Centre,
665 Buffalo Road

QBab Handmade Kebabs, Raffles City

Kebab joints only seem to have taken off in Singapore within the last five years or so. They are excellent to have when drunk or suffering from hangover, and since they are a form of street food, they are usually priced cheaply. Neither of those advantages seems to have worked in its favour here though, a haven of hawker fare which discourages the regular drinker through heavy taxation.

With prices around $10 for a kebab and drink, it places itself in competition with more familiar offerings from the Soup Spoon Union and Nam Nam, both within walking distance. It had to take a voucher from Sugar to get me to try this out. It turned out to be worth the money spent: with about $5 I bought a Create Your Own QBab voucher, and chose to have their signature chicken with chilli sesame and tzatziki, and the standard salad fillings in a spinach wrap. The chicken was succulent and well-flavoured, having been marinated in Mediterranean spices and slow grilled on a rotary shawarma grill, and the salad that went with it was fresh.

Perhaps the only gripe I would have other than the pricing is that this is not something that can be easily had every day: the rich flavours that are characteristic of the cuisine can be quite rich and jelat, or stodgy. They do have lighter options like the standard chicken, which is more lightly marinated with herbs. Still, with the Sugar deal and eaten on occasion, it's certainly another useful lunch option to know about.

Verdict
3/4 - That one oso can

Location:
QBab Kebabs
#B1-72 Raffles City

Sanyou Fishball Noodles, Kopitiam Food Court, Singapore Post Centre

Singapore Post Centre serves as the headquarters of the postal service, and also hosts a small cluster of shops and eateries, the latter presumably for those working in the centre itself. The food court at the centre is operated by Kopitiam, and, as one might expect with places with a steady flow of business from a regular lunchtime crowd, has the stalls to offer a wide enough variety of food to attract people to come, in the absence of highly reputable hawkers with a dedicated following. This is further compounded by the general lack of eating places within a 200m radius.

On a routine lunch outing, I noticed that amongst the stalls that are there, aside from the Astons Express, one of them - Sanyou Fishball Noodles - consistently had a queue of about 2-3 queue, each queue lasting about 5 minutes or so before clearing. Drawn by the prospect of eating something with a spicy sambal kick that I might find hard to get from the other stalls, I joined the queue.

You can't go wrong with mini-wok noodles, really. It's fairly routine to have a bowl of mee kia or mee pok drenched in the sambal and vinegar that's common with most fishball noodle establishments, accompanied with a pot of egg wash soup with fish/pork balls, Chinese cabbage, a crabstick or two, and whatever else deemed suitable. Sanyou has a small container of sambal that you can help yourself to, on top of the usual soya sauce and chilli condiments, which is a nice touch. Other than that however, today's lunch is a pretty uneventful affair.

Curiously, the food court is open on weekends, despite the general lack of crowds, although that might change, along with the fortunes of the retail outlets there. Paya Lebar Square is due to open next to the MRT station in due course, and given its focus as a shopping centre, and I cannot imagine that those working at SingPost would choose to keep going to the Kopitiam once the Square opens, especially if it has more and better food to offer.

Verdict:
2/4 - Liddat lor

Location:
Kopitiam Foodcourt, Basement Level 2, Singapore Post Centre
Nearest MRT station: Paya Lebar