Mon Kee Cafe

Nestled at the corner of the revamped Raffles City Food Republic, this store was oft talked about by news, bloggers, and food influencers alike. Of course, I had to try it when I popped by after work for dinner.

Surprisingly enough, most of the menu items were listed as 'Unavailable' at around 7.30pm, so I settled for the Charsiew Scrambled Egg Rice ($8.50). Slices of lean charsiew were strewn about the layer of scrambled egg atop white rice, with this sweet-savoury sauce ladled over the entire dish. The lean charsiew would excite those who don't favour the usual fattiness, but not me. The scrambled egg layer was thin and firm, and I would have preferred it to be runnier. The sauce helped to give some flavour to the entire package, and I also do recommend asking for their chilli for an additional kick.

Overall, a decent meal but not really worth its hype and price tag. The layout of the store is also strange - you'll have to squeeze through the queue to collect your food and the utensils. Would I return to try their other offerings? Perhaps...but I won't be in a rush to.

The Food Place by Food Republic at Raffles City Shopping Centre has been one of the more anticipated revamps of a food court in recent times — the entire food hall has been through a much needed revamp with the space fully renovated with a brighter colour scheme and a change of layout of the dining hall that presumably would improve the dining experience there. Alongside the revamp would be the introduction of a few brand new tenants; notably that of Kam’s Roast Express, Ju Xing Fish (by the same folks behind Ju Xing Home), Mon Kee Cafe and Smashed by BurgerLabo which are some of the names that most are looking forward to with this revamp. Mon Kee Cafe is a Cha Chaan Teng brand that hails from Hong Kong; these folks do have multiple outlets there which includes one in Tsim Sha Tsui and one in Wan Chai — this would be their very first overseas outpost with the brand being brought in by the same folks behind The Naked Finn. Considering so, it is little wonder how these folks are located right beside Smashed by BurgerLabo within The Food Place by Food Republic at Raffles City Shopping Centre; BurgerLabo being another brand that is conceptualised by the same people. Mon Kee Cafe does seem to be noted for their scrambled egg offerings; the menu of its Singapore outlet is segregated into categories comprising of Scrambled Egg Rice, Hong Kong Specialty (consists of Macaroni dishes) and Bun series (consists of Pineapple Bun Sandwich). The establishment also does offer Silky HK Style Milk Tea that is offered as an add-on to the various dishes across the above-mentioned categories in the food menu.

With their scrambled egg rice dishes being much of the highlight here that are also mentioned quite a fair bit in the social media posts describing Mon Kee Cafe’s offerings within The Food Place, it is needless to say that we found ourselves wanting to try at least one of such items on the menu during our visit there. The Char Siew Scrambled Egg Rice with Homemade Sweet Soy Sauce is the rendition of the scrambled egg rice that is the most talked about online; that being said, we were more drawn towards the Roasted Pork Scrambled Egg Rice with Homemade Sweet Soy Sauce instead. The Hong Kong-style scrambled rice dish comes pretty much with similar elements that one will expect from an offering coming from the local scrambled egg rice specialty store DanLao 蛋佬; just soy sauce drizzled over scrambled egg coming with roast pork above a bed of rice — it also does come with a sprinkle of spring onions as well. One thing worth noting is how Mon Kee Cafe is quite generous with the drizzling of its Homemade Sweet Soy Sauce; in fact, this was the element that really helped to flavour up everything else with its sweet and savoury notes — especially so for the rice beneath and therefore easier to finish as such. The scrambled egg is sufficiently moist and done pretty much thinly like a piece of cloth draped over the rice; that being said, it is not quite as runny as the scrambled eggs that comes with the scrambled egg rice at DanLao locations, though still comes with an evidently eggy note nonetheless. The roast pork does come sliced in pretty chunky pieces; these do seem to be more on the leaner side of things where the cut of meat is of concern — the skin being considerably crisp and came with savoury and smoky hint of flavours from the spice rub.

The line-up in the Bun series of the food menu is probably the one to go for for those whom intend to try something that is a little bit on the lighter side for those visiting Mon Kee Cafe — Mon Kee Cafe does serve up two (2) variants of their Mon Kee Quartet Pineapple Sandwich; one that comes with Luncheon Meat, Scrambled Egg, Peanut Butter and Lettuce, whilst the other one sees the luncheon meat being replaced by corned beef instead. We found ourselves going for the version that came with Luncheon Meat. It does seem that it is very difficult to find a version of the pineapple bun in Singapore that satisfies and this rendition of it being served by Mon Kee Cafe just isn’t it — while we did like how everything in between in the sandwich was prepared ala-minute, the pineapple bun was rather lacking with the bun itself being barely crusty. There is some attempt in doing so where there is some crust going around the sides, but this does feel missing throughout most of the surface otherwise; makes the pineapple bun itself lack both texture and the sweet, buttery and milky fragrance that the crust typically would carry. The scrambled egg does come fluffy and sufficiently moist; did carry an evidently eggy note and came folded with shreds of lettuce — all that whilst the luncheon meat does come pan-fried with a light crust around it and carrying a savoury note for the meaty touch. The addition of peanut butter does attempt to gel everything together with its nuttiness and creaminess. Meanwhile, the iced Silky HK Style Milk Tea does carry a fragrance of tea leaves; the addition of milk giving it a little more depth in its flavours — the lack of inclusion of ice cubes helped prevent the milk tea from getting diluted from melted ice cubes over time. Whilst we had not been to Mon Kee Cafe’s locations in its home ground in Hong Kong before, we do feel that the items served up at their sole Singapore location for now feels a tad underwhelming — we would perhaps say that the scrambled egg rice offerings are probably the safest of the lot to go for; we definitely weren’t too big of a fan of the Mon Kee Quartet Pineapple Sandwich that we tried. Will be interesting to see how these folks would do as they progress further in the local F&B scene here.