From the airport, I took the train going to my hotel in Chinatown. After leaving my luggage in the hotel at just a couple of minutes before noon, I went out to find a place to eat. The challenge was that there are countless restaurants nearby.
I walked farther and came across the corner of Pagoda Street. I turned into the street and got engrossed in looking for souvenir items instead of having lunch immediately. When I eventually felt my hunger, I started to look at the restaurants. I do not understand most of the menus since those are not written in English so I moved from one to another until I noticed the $8.88++ sign in front of this restaurant. There are English translations on the menu and the dishes somehow look familiar. While I was still reading the menu and trying to make up my mind, a waitress approached me and asked in English that I did not understand much. I just motioned that I will eat in the restaurant. She motioned me to get inside.
The restaurant has elongated space. It has two columns of tables from the entrance up to the cashier counter at the other end. The tables on the right are good for only two persons while the ones on the left are good for groups. The area is clean, fully ventilated and have fairly enough decorations that make it cozy and lively at the same time.
I took the first table on the right.
When the waitress came to my table, she handed a fairly thick menu book and three flaps.
It was surprising to see that they have many options to choose from. That makes it exciting to dine in this restaurant at the same time challenging to choose which to eat if you are like me who is not familiar with many of the options.
I scanned through the menus and figure out what to eat.
In the end, I went back to the menu that has what I saw outside. That is because I wanted a heavy meal so I looked for the rice meal set. I raised my hand to get the attention of the waitress. When she came back to my table, I told my order and she looked a little blank so I have to point on the menu. Scallion chicken + rice. She nooded, took note and left.
These wi-fi credentials are pasted on every table. How nice! I have something to get busy with while waiting for my order.
Few minutes later, the waitress came to serve my drinks. I do not recall the meal set including the drink so I asked.
"The drink is included in the set?"
She apparently understood as she answered, "Yes, free drink."
Cool! I wonder how much is the whole meal set because the price is not in the menu.
When my order was served, it was served with an extra small plate with chop sticks on it. I motioned for utensils so the waitress left and came back with spoon and fork. She put them on the plate as I captured on the photo.
The scallion chicken is not like how it was presented on the menu with many vegetable toppings. I do not see scallion at all but just plain chicken meat which looked steamed. I tasted the sauce and smiled. It is like our patis in the Philippines. Patis is a dish sauce made from fermented fish and is salty in nature. What I like with this version of the patis is the additional ingredients like onions that gave a little variation of the saltiness. It was a good match with the chicken.
In between my meal, I was taking photos of the restaurant. This art on the wall to my right caught my attention. It looked very artistic even though I do not understand its meaning. I wonder what it is...
When I was done with my meal, I again raised my hand to call for attention. The waitress came and I motioned for the bill while pronouncing it. I thought she understood as she nooded and left. She came back with the receipt. The receipt was printed before I paid? That's something new. All other restaurants that I knew would first issue an order slip and print the receipt only when they receive the payment. I guess this restaurant is more trusting.
But have you got any guess as to how much the total bill was? It was SG $11.00. That was SG $ 2.2 as the ++ on the menu. I did not care knowing about what the ++ is for until now that I have to pay. Those are for service charge, GST charge (which I do not know the meaning but I am guessing it is tax) and wet tissue. Yap, tissue. I did not order for it but there it is. It was fine either way. I gave $50 bill and she came back with my change.
I left and wondered if the price was right for the set meal. It was more than nine years ago when I last ate in this country. This is my first time eating here again after that long period so I do not have an answer to my own question. Let's see on my next reviews. I would know when I try other restaurants during my stay here.
Si Chuan Restaurant
64 Pagoda Street
Singapore 059223
Restaurant Information
Si Chuan Restaurant
64 Pagoda St Singapore 059223 Pagoda St, Singapore 059223
Discovering for the second time along Pagoda Street
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