Singapore House

Hi everyone! Someone recommended Singapore House to me and we decided to try it out. We had visited the website beforehand and the place looked quite impressive. Stepping through the door was like going through a time warp. Decor was very, very extensive and thought out. The restaurant section had a nice ambience with a collection of European and Asian artifacts on the walls and shelves all throughout the restaurant. On the other side was the Butterfly Room which I was told is usually reserve for groups of 25. There was a huge collection of butterflies on the wall on one side and access to the bar on the other. Lighting was however too dark in my opinion and the room was very red reminding me of a back lane brothel.

Check out their website for more photos

We decided to order 'Hawker Style Crispy BBQ pork' and 'Mushroom Tikka' for starters. The BBQ pork was essentially Chinese crispy roast pork served with a Hoi Sin dipping sauce. The crackling was nice and crispy and pork meat tender. The  Mushroom Tikka was an interesting dish of mushrooms stuffed with minced mushrooms topped with cheese and coated in what I think is Tikka seasoned rice flour. Unique and quite delicious. 

For our mains we ordered 'Beef Rendang' (they spelt it as Randang....fail) and 'Ikan Curry' (Ikan meaning fish). The beef rendang was nice to eat and passable but not authentic enough. It had too much sugar and lacked a bit of what we call "oomph" on the spices side. The fish curry was a whole barramundi, deep fried with a curry sauce poured over it with eggplant, fried beancurd and cherry tomatoes. It can be confronting for some to see the head and tail all there and it was nice of the waiter to mention that when I ordered. The dish was a bit cold and I found myself wiping up the what's left of the curry sauce with half a fish to go. A bit more curry sauce would have been nice. To be honest when I ordered it I expected a whole fish in a long bowl of curry with vegetables instead of a ladle of curry sauce poured over it. Flavour was okay.

Overall the experience was good and they have certainly provided something that is not currently found in the area - Malaysian/Singaporean/Indian food from the Straits of Malacca. Unfortunately, as a Malaysian fussy-palate Malaysian, the food here is a bit too far from authentic for me. Expect a nice meal, but not an authentic meal.

Visit their website for more information: http://www.singaporehouse.com.au/