Jia Yuen Eating House is pretty much a familiar name to the residents in the East — perhaps also especially so for those whom have served their National Service in the same area as well — previously located at Crane Road, Jia Yuen Eating House is perhaps best known for the Creamy Salted Egg Yolk dishes. They have since been re-located; now taking over the former premises of The Hainan Street at Tanjong Pagar Xchange within Tanjong Pagar MRT Station, Jia Yuen Eating House had yet to retrofit their own signages to the signboards — does create somewhat of an identity crisis that makes them a little non-descript until they come up. With a dine-in space that is located across the counter and kitchen from the shopping aisle, Jia Yuen Eating House does not only serve up their mini wok-esque sort of dishes here — they do also have Yong Tau Foo on the menu where patrons get to pick and choose their preferred items as well.

Found it a little hard to resist giving their Creamy Butter Chicken Rice a go — was also recommended to add cereal at $2 extra since the staff at the counter was saying that it would most certainly complement the dish. We were actually impressed that the item did come with a sunny side-up by default — though there again, the base price of the Creamy Butter Chicken Rice is $8.00; not quite the most affordable eat in the Central Business District though the portion sizes are considered a little more generous than what some other places may serve up. First few mouthfuls on the dish and it felt decent — the creamy butter sauce does feel a tad bit on the savoury side, which somewhat differs from the more sweet-ish sort of buttermilk sauce that we are used to having from Three Meals a Day at Sim Lim Square. That aside, the light hint of flavour from the curry leaves and chili padi creates somewhat of a flavour contrast, though the flavours of the sauce does turn a little flat and jelak as it cools down. Best to be had when still warm, the chicken does feel tender and considerably juicy when we first started the meal, though it does turn a little tough as we took some time to polish it up. If anything, the cereal does add a little to the experience here — that being said, we felt that the fragrance of buttery cereal wasn’t quite unleashed to its fullest potential here; possibly so in order to not make the item too heavy as it already was. We were pretty glad that the sunny side-up turned out fine however — runny yolk without any undesirable notes of overused oil.

Considering how big the portions are for us, and how the item does generally feel jelak as it turns cold while we attempted to finish it — the Creamy Butter Chicken Rice from Jia Yuen Eating House is something that didn’t seem to really go together with our tastebuds that well. That being said, we would guess that there is a reason why it is so popular with the army boys whilst they were at Crane Road — its that craving for a sinful meal after a long day of training that makes it an especially attractive option to have. With prices being this steep especially at this end of the Central Business District for local cuisine, it would remain to be seen if Jia Yuen Eating House is an option that would be popular with office workers in time to come …