Hainan English Breakfast New Nanyang isn’t a new establishment to us; for those whom have been following us for quite a while, we had first visited New Nanyang when they had just opened their doors at HillV2 — these folks had since expanded their operations, having opened up new locations at One@KentRidge and most recently, West Coast Plaza. Taking over the former premises of the now-defunct Gloria Jean’s Coffee within the mall, New Nanyang occupies a unit with a little bit of a terraced layout — the store is located in Basement 1 of the mall, though the interior features a link towards the ground level and a mezzanine level in between all linked up via a series of stairs. The folks at New Nanyang had done some work to the space, giving the interior some nostalgic elements with the use of faux mosaic tiles for the vinyls used for its flooring; all that matched with walls featuring red wallpaper and dining furniture that features elements of rattan and wood. The seating at the main dining hall just after the entrance at Basement 1 mostly caters to groups of diners of four (4) pax, while a larger, circular table occupies the mezzanine level — the tables situated on the highest level leading to the ground floor mostly cater for two (2) pax. It seems that there is some variance between the food items that are being served on the menu at their West Coast Plaza location as opposed to their HillV2 outlet — the food menu is being segmented into section dedicated to All Day Breakfast, Nasi Lemak, Rice Specials, Noodles, Hainanese Western, and Pasta & Baked Rice. Beverages available at New Nanyang’s West Coast Plaza location include Traditional (featuring Nanyang-style Kopi & Teh), New Nanyang Specials (i.e. special house-made concoctions — mostly involving Coolers), and Freshly Made (think Barley, Ice Honey Grass Jelly Drink; just to name a few).
We made our visit to New Nanyang after we had learnt about the offering of their New Nanyang Waffle Kueh — something which seems to be a new offering that we did not recall seeing being served when we previously went to the HillV2 location. Whilst the New Nanyang Waffle Kueh is an item belonging in the All Day Breakfast section of the menu that is offered in a trio, we did notice that the Hainan English Breakfast is a dish that also features the New Nanyang Waffle Kueh. New Nanyang does not describe the elements that comes with their dishes on its menu; that being said, it can be observed from our order that the Hainan English Breakfast does come with tomatoes, cucumber, bacon, scrambled eggs and honey that comes with a knob of butter as well. The New Nanyang Waffle Kueh comes in three different flavours and stamped in three different designs with a look that replicates that of Ang Ku Kueh; “新”, “南” and “洋” — each bearing one Chinese character in the namesake of the brand. Turns out 新 comes with Nian Gao filling, while 南 comes filled with Kaya; the 洋 New Nanyang Waffle Kueh comes with ham & cheese. Only 南 and 洋 New Nanyang Waffle Kuehs are served with the Hainan English Breakfast.
We did find it a little odd that New Nanyang had termed this item as Waffle Kuehs since these feel more like pancakes than a waffle with fillings encased within — at least the interior of the Waffle Kuehs did not feel as dense and was even a wee bit chewy whilst wafting of a the fragrance of its batter. The Kaya one features a Hainanese-style Kaya filling whilst being served warm; carried quite a bit of sweetness and doesn’t require dipping into the honey and butter in our opinion. The one that was more pleasant to have being dipped into the honey and butter was the Ham & Cheese that was mildly savoury but not overly salty; dipping it into the honey gives it that sweet-saltishness that some would really prefer. The scrambled eggs do seem a little bit more like folded eggs here; still runny, though some parts are a little more done than the rest. The rashes of bacon were done with a slightly more chewy consistency and can be a wee bit salty to some, though that could be balanced by the slices of cucumber and tomatoes which seems to be served as-is that felt a little odd, but still something to refresh the tastebuds nonetheless. Whilst the New Nanyang Waffle Kueh is something more of a novelty item to have, it probably wouldn’t be something that we would be making a special trip down to New Nanyang just to have.
