151 Scissors Cut Curry Rice

The turn of the new year does seem to have also resulted in new eats for those whom are working around the Central Business District — there seems to be quite a bit of change going around in the F&B tenants within a number of buildings within the area. Got to learn about the opening of the new 151 Scissors Cut Curry Rice at The Basement @ Hong Leong Building — the area had seen a number of vacated stalls as well as the opening of new ones such as The Warung recently. 151 Scissors Cut Curry Rice takes over the former premises of the now-defunct gomgom Sandwiches & Bowls, situated right beside the Prata Master @ the basement. Paying attention to the logo of 151 Scissors Cut Curry Rice, one would be able to spot the “AL MARCHE” wordings within the logo. Turns out, these folks are by the same people behind AL MARCHE; AL MARCHE being the deli-cum-grocer which had previously operated from a location at the basement of The Sail, and now currently runs a salad-cum-sandwich takeaway stall in the basement of Republic Plaza. Whilst the former tenant of the space does has dine-in facilities within the stall unit that it occupies, it seems that 151 Scissors Cut Curry Rice has done away with the dine-in area completely within the stall — that being said, patrons can still make their orders as a “dine-in” order and take up any table in the communal seating spaces within The Basement. 151 Scissors Cut Curry Rice does allow patrons to have the flexibility of ordering their preferred dishes to go with the curry rice, or by ordering the sets which comes with pre-determined elements that are listed on the menu. Prices of each element as well as the sets are prominently displayed on the menu which gives transparency to how each item is being priced here.

Wanting to go for a more fuss-free experience, we found ourselves going through the menu to check out on the various sets which they carry on their menu. Set 3 was the set that appealed to us the most and was also what we eventually ordered — the menu describes Set 3 to come with braised pork belly, braised cabbage, egg and rice. Patrons can feel free to request for the removal of an element that is listed, or add on further other elements that they may so wish to — one may also request for the dish to be served without curry gravy or braising liquid as well. The dine-in plating of the dish comes in a format that follows closely to that of what other Hainanese-style curry rice establishments would serve the same as well — all items atop waxed paper that is lined on a plastic tray. We do applaud how the folks at 151 Scissors Cut Curry Rice had kept to the spirit of Hainanese-style curry rice by drenching the elements in a curry gravy and a braised gravy, though we did wish that they could perhaps give a little more of both to get to more parts of the rice. The curry gravy here does come with its own flavour but we did feel that the flavours were a little one-dimensional more on just being savoury than emphasising on the fragrance of the curry spices — the level of spiciness also being relatively mild and should be manageable even for those whom have lower tolerance to spiciness. We also appreciated the fact that the the pork belly does come all tender, moist and with a mix of both lean and fattier parts; with that being said, we did feel that the flavours of the braising liquid weren’t rich enough — while the pork does come without any undesirable porky stench, the meat was also lacking that deep earthiness having absorbed all of the flavours of the braising liquid that one would be looking for. Meanwhile, the braised vegetables do come with a soft bite; while the sunny side-up comes with a fully-cooked egg yolk with crisp, browned edges — it also does not reek of any undesirable odour of overused oil as well. Whilst quite an ordinary rendition of the Hainanese-style curry rice that doesn’t really quite outshine the more stellar ones served by some hawker stalls in Chinatown, still one that serves as a more wallet-friendly eat within the Central Business District.