Arcadia Room

Came across the new Arcadia Room via social media recently — the establishment, which is located at 10A Trengganu Street, is a little bit of a hidden find considering how it is located at the second level of a shophouse (think the likes of Nirvana Dessert Cafe at Arab Street) just a short distance away from Chinatown MRT Station. Marked by a circular sign stating “Arcadia Room” that is hung on the wall right beside the doorway of the shophouse, patrons will need to climb up the stairs where the steps has a projection of animations leading up to the second level of the shophouse — one will find yet another sign indicating “Arcadia Room” beside the door to enter the establishment. Opening the door, patrons will find the main dining hall of Arcadia Room — the first section has dim lighting and its walls filled with projections of animations playing on its walls with soft music in the background; the other dining area is separated with a curtain with star-shaped cutouts that features brighter lighting with tables that are able to accommodate bigger groups. With an emphasis on serving up Swatow and Teochew cuisine, Arcadia Room’s all-day menu features rice rolls and beef ball soup, though also consists of other items such as stir-fried kway teow — they also do offer a beef hot pot promotion set during our visit that is priced at $68++; comes with selected cuts of beef, beef balls, assorted vegetables and kway teow. Choices of beverages include canned drinks, as well as other options such as flower teas and AR Signature Cold Brews — the latter essentially being their line-up of bottled cold brew coffee options.

The highlight at Arcadia Room as it seems from their menu would be their rice rolls and beef balls soup — they do allow patrons to try both items at one go through their Rice Roll Sets. Patrons will be able to pick their choice of Rice Rolls (Pork, Beef or Vegetable), whilst also accompanied with a serving of Beef Balls Soup on the side. Whilst the menu does not list it as an option, they do also offer patrons a choice between Beef Balls Soup or Pork Balls Soup — a good consideration that seems to have been made for non-beef eaters. Opting for the Pork Rice Roll + Beef Ball Soup, we were also served with a saucer that comes with chili and Shacha sauce on the side — the former is to be had with the rice roll while the latter is to be enjoyed with the beef balls in the beef balls soup. Going straight for the rice roll first, the rice roll does remind us of the ones that are served at YinJi 银记肠粉店 at Far East Square it terms of aesthetic. Despite it being a Pork Rice Roll, it also comes with egg, beansprouts and prawns apart from the sliced pork that can be found rolled within. Tearing off a morsel of the rice roll, it is noted that the rice roll isn’t only smooth and silky, but it is sufficiently thin yet carries a texture almost akin to Mochi being quite stretchy especially when it is warm — the sliced pork being tender without carrying any undesirable porky stench; all that while the omelette-like egg comes with bits of prawn for a good bite and a bit of sweetness. The rice roll comes doused with the same soy sauce one would usually be served with Hong Kong-style Chee Cheong Fun — the rice roll here absorbing those sweet-savoury notes that creates a medley of flavours with the elements it comes with. While the beef balls soup does come with a soup that is pretty clean-tasting, what we really enjoyed with the Beef Balls Soup were the beef balls itself — they were incredibly fibrous and had a good firm bite whilst being savoury, yet didn’t taste particularly gamey; the texture being so on-point that we found ourselves devouring the beef balls in no time.

Those who have been following me for a while now may probably know I am not a fan of gimmicky setups with the likes of using projections of animations — a little unnecessary and cliche but who are we to judge; it is after all the look that they are trying to go for. That being said Arcadia Room does seem to do well where their food is of concern; probably somewhat of a rarity for an establishment of its type, though we have probably only tried a small selection of what they serve up. Still, we were pretty impressed with the items we had, including that of the Traditional Kopi Cold Brew which had all the traits of what Nanyang-style coffee should have. Arcadia Room does have a pretty promising start — a hidden location with some sort of attraction to it considering the use of projections; not sure how authentic their Swatow and Teochew cuisine are, but definitely something which we would like to have again.