Underrated AF 🇸🇬

I know they’re famous for their herbal roasted duck but trust me on this, their Marmite Chicken is something I highly recommend getting. It’s crunchy, succulent and coated in a sticky-sweet molasses-like glaze that provides both a savory and umami kick.

Most people come for the tonkatsu but trust me, once you’ve tried their Ebi Fry Ramen, you’ll be instantly converted. The soup base is heady, flavorful and chocked full of umami—almost reminiscent to Hae Mee but accented with Sakura prawns instead of conventional river prawns. The Ebi Fry is truly a work of art. Tender, crispy and just everything the average tempura wishes it could be.

No matter how tempting their tonkatsu is, give that a miss for a changeand opt for this instead. You’ll thank me later.

Founder and Head Chef Tan-San’s expertise and masterful skill shows in the way he presents his signature Tonkatsu made with premium pork loin. The fat-to-meat ratio is what makes it for me. Incredibly moist yet tender and juicy in all the right places. The way the crispy batter hugs onto the meat is impressive as well.

The set comes with refillable diced cabbage and Niigata rice. Everything at Hajime is made in-house from their tonjiru soup, their pickled cabbage to even their cabbage which they painstakingly dice themselves daily. If that isn’t testament to how much care and passion they dedicate to their craft, I don’t know what is.

One of the best ribeyes you can possibly buy at $15 and the best part is you don’t even have to dress fancy to enjoy it. This humble western food stall has been a go-to of mine since I was in primary school and the quality has never once dipped. Everything on their menu is good but I’d recommend gunning for their Black Pepper Ribeye. It comes served with baked beans, a slice of tomato and a potato croquette studded with cheese. Delicious.

Besides being a fun place to get properly buzzed, this popular night spot in Clarke Quay is also home to a repertoire of delicious grub. No, this isn’t your typical spam fries and chicken wings sort of menu (although I’m pretty sure they have them too). In fact, I dare go as far as to say that their food rivals some established bistros.

Their beef sliders are rock solid. ‘Nuff said. The patties are cooked to a perfect medium rare and everything component just works so well together from the tanginess of the pickled gherkins, buttery-sweet brioche buns to the creamy melted cheese.

$5.90 for absolute fried chicken heaven in a plate, the Super Value Meal comes with tender, boneless fried chicken, rice and a fried egg.

With fried chicken, waffles and burgers as old school and delicious as this, who even needs over-exorbitant Shake Shack and A&W?

This Thai delicacy sees pork spines served in a savory pig bone broth, accented with fresh lime juice, birds eye chili and cilantro (lots of it).

The meat comes off the bone with relative ease and is very tasty when eaten with the sourish broth. I typically have it with rice until recently when I decided to go all #YOLO and ordered a platter of crispy fried mantou. Trust me, it may seem like your ordinary mantou but somehow they manage to fry it so perfectly golden and crispy that it stands up well by itself. Order it the next time you visit, you’ll be glad you did.

Name me a pork dish more frighteningly alluring than this. Go on, I’ll wait.

A dish that I simply cannot do without when having Sichuan food is a fried mutton. Every place has their own version of preparing it but what I particularly love about Dong Fang Mei Shi Fan Din’s is that they season their mutton with lots of cumin and chili powder which really amps up the savoriness of the dish.

The sweated onions provide sweetness which nicely balances out the saltiness of the mutton and the handful of cilantro tossed in towards the end lends an element of freshness. Pure meaty bliss, that is.

The mala fever is at an all-time-high but what if I told you that mala xiang guo is literally only the tip of Sichuan’s diverse array of delicacies?

Located along North Bridge Road, Dong Fang Mei Shi Fan Dian occupies 2 shophouse spaces and dishes out a full-on array of dishes spanning North-Eastern China. Their menu boasts more than a hundred items but the one thing I always, ALWAYS return for is their Shao kao. Their Shao kao (a barbecued meat on a stick variant) is heavily seasoned in spices and is an excellent snack to have with beer, if not, an accompaniment to your main meal. Pictured here is pig’s intestine, mantou, chicken hearts and chicken thigh meat.