[CLOSED] Merriment

Pretty standard pasta and lunch sets for the working class here but my salted egg linguine was a slight disappointment though it was the most expensive. —$12 The cajun chicken rice and curry katsu was around $5.50-$7.50. However, the cakes and coffee were pretty decent at this spacious cafe. So go for those if you are there.

The cafe is huge with fast and stable WiFi (by JTC) and food prices are reasonable. Though their menu is small with some @inthebrickyard cakes, @drurylanesg coffee and a small selection of rice bowls, pastas, sandwiches and salads, the offerings are updated every few months so that you won't be bored dining here. On the flip side, if you particularly like any dish, it will sadly be gone within a few months.
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Featured: Salted Egg Yolk Linguine with breaded prawns, S$12 Nett (15% off for jtc staff)
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I am someone who prefers Aglio Olio/ tomato based pasta to cream pasta but I like this salted egg cream sauce. It is not too rich, probably due to the addition of curry leaves. It's also not too sweet or too salty, achieving a nice balance between the flavors. Spice level is low but chilli padi is added for that extra oomph.

Fancy name but it is essentially our familiar Hokkien Mee! I actually visualized this to be more wanton mee style before it was served. Ingredients used were fresh and noodles were cooked more al dente. It's different but still fragrant and surprisingly decent. I would however, prefer to cross the street and get one from our hawkers next time!

The salted egg yolk ben as compared to the one we tried at Drury Lane this was quite a disappointment. Taste of salted egg yolks was hardly noticeable but the prawns were well marinated if only it's a tad less saltish. End up its was the pork bun (扣肉) that stole the show. Didn't expect a cafe to fare this well in this Asian cuisine. The skin was braised to perfection. We don't take fatty meat but in this case we finished EVERYTHING. Unlike the usual where lettuce are normally used Merriment uses 酸菜 in addition to lettuce. Nice twist there. Will back for the pork bun. 👍🏼

Fluffy and light sponge with fragrant Thai Milk Tea cream, this is a lovely choice for tea break!

Merriment serves up different daily specials and one of them was this Cutlet Chicken Rice. The daily specials are usually local dishes, like Mee Rebus, Nasi Lemak, etc. but I'm not sure if it's a fixed weekly menu. This was a pleasant surprise as I expected plain white rice but was welcomed by rather fragrant and well cooked chicken rice (yup I read it as cutlet chicken + rice haha). The chicken cutlet was lightly fried hence crispy yet still tender and juicy, but it could have been even better if the amount of salt and seasoning used was lesser and more evenly spread out all around. Some mouths were too salty. Plus point's that they serve chicken rice chili!