Thursday 23 May 2013

Madam Kwan's SG Local Hawker Food Restaurant Dining @ Vivocity Harbour Front Walk

Update Fri 11 Apr 2014 12:17pm: 

Flies.  We won't be going back. Lousy food & expensive. No one can say we didn't give this restaurant many tries.

Whether day or night, they have flies hovering inside the restaurant.  We mentioned this to the staff in the daytime previously and was given excuses why the flies are inevitable.

Last night, a fly hovered around our food and I had to spread 2 paper napkins to cover our dishes. As usual, their food is lousy. I tried the Chicken Satay again & it's still lousy this 2nd time. 

Even though we were sitting outermost along the main floor area & the staff saw our food covered with paper napkins, they pretended not to see. One female waitress in white shirt who clears tables even rudely kept staring out the corner of her eye as she walked by.

Supervisors in white shirts and even the manager Jimmy kept walking by, yet none of them even bothered to address the situation in front of them.  (They need to take lessons from the Asst manager of Skinny Pizza @ Westgate).  

If we didn't cover the food, the fly would come. With the food covered,  how to eat? 

At the end when I didn't finish the food, I called a supervisor over (since Jimmy had disappeared).

He said weakly that tonight was because of the rain.

[The rain? What a poor excuse. He is either stupid or thinks the customer is.].

I said I had to cover the food. How to eat like that? (every time, I have to lift up the napkin to take & dip my satay & bro can't access it from his side). 

He mumbled that if don't cover the "fly will drop in.". 

[More than just drop in. If the fly lands & walks on the food with those dirty feet (or worse, eats & regurgitates on the food),  your know what will happen to the customer?

Also, are flies also in your kitchen Madam Kwan?  Shall I call NEA?]

The supervisor murmured he can put a candle on our table. I said, "It's Ok. We are leaving.". 

[A candle? I don't think a candle is going to work.]


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Update Wed 12 Feb 2014:  The best so far is the Mushroom Chicken Noodles (dry). Chunks of lean chicken meat, the best most perfect springy good quality noodles with no cheap aftertaste, nice mushrooms (presumably China) with nice light marinated flavor, nice background sauces. I like it much & recommended to Bro to try.  Today, he tried it for lunch & agreed it was nice. But gave it 4/5 because he said it was not fragrant. He's a hawker food guy, so 4/5 is already pretty good.  At $11.90, it's expensive for just Mushroom Chicken Noodles.

While he ate that, I had the Wanton/Dumplings Noodles Soup. Dumplings are filled with shrimp & chicken. Very nice with thin skin. Nice clear soup. Pretty good, smooth and filling noodles. I like it & have been ordering this a few times already.  Again, at an expensive price.

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Update 28 June 2am: Bro has since refused to order anything there. I have tried their Laksa a few more times, still only just passable with 2 large soccer balls of Tau Pok that are tough to chew (seems like they were just put in there when ordered). Shouldn't Laksa have long strips of soft Laksa-soaked Tau Pok?

Recently, I tried their Nasi Lemak. It's a Chinese version. If you are into the Malay version, then you won't like it. Bro is right that it has no kick. To me, it's passable. It's not oily and not fragrant. Maybe because it's healthier?

Their food service has also become much faster. Super fast. I guess depending on what you order.

Note that this is the first time I go back to a place that I said I wouldn't be returning to. This is because Bro didn't like it at all and since we have dinners together, I said "We just won't be going back". 

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It's not really local SG. Not what we are used to at the hawker centers. Not really our hawker center style. Bro had to keep reminding me that it's Malaysian.

After 2 times eating there, bro sums it up thus:  "Bland and expensive. Bo ho Jiak (not nice to eat). Tastes like heated up food from the previous night. Bland taste. Bueh Pang (not fragrant).". 

He thinks they skimp on ingredients, that's why the quality is poor.

As of this post, Madam Kwan's is new, just opened recently.

First time, Bro ate Nasi Lemak, while I had the Laksa.  Bundung Soda drink and Gula Melaka Sago dessert.

The Laksa was so-so only. No kick.

Bro said his Nasi Lemak loses to our downstairs hawker center (when  there was a Malay shop that used to sell it).

The Bundung Soda was Ok. Nothing special.  No kick.

The Sago Gula Melaka was a big disappointment for me. This is my favourite dessert that I haven't eaten in a long time and was looking forward to. Was really disappointed by the poor production of this dessert. It ain't cheap either.

Second time was last night 22 May.  I still have the receipt. *looking at it*

Bro ordered the Nasi Bojari while I got the Chicken Rice. Also ordered 6 pieces Satay Chicken which they said they didn't have the first time we were there. And a Lychee Lemon Cooler drink.

Total = $56.75. A hefty price for just 4 items and not nice.

Bro wasn't impressed with his meal. It only confirmed his first impression that it was lousy and expensive.

My Chicken Rice was so-so only. The rice was hard and too small. I know chicken rice is supposed to be small rice grains, but this is really too small and hard, like little pellets and tasteless. Hawker center chicken rice is usually very nice, soft and fragrant.

The chicken was thin, not much meat although quite lean. The only saving point was the cucumber slices soaked with the sauce. 

The Satay Chicken was a disappointment as well. The Ketupat rice squares were only 5 or 6 little squares measuring about 2 x 2 cm each. How can they possibly serve so little like that??

The chicken meat was lean but nothing special. Not fragrant. In fact, the whole restaurant lacks the fragrance of delicious food.   Out of 6 sticks, we left 1 behind. Also, the first night there, I noticed many people did not completely finish their food, leaving quite a lot behind.

The peanut sauce was quite good, however. And this was the only good thing.

The Lychee Lemon Cooler was made by a waiter instead of the actual drinks guy. I saw this waiter enter the drinks area and make the drink. He held up the glass of half-made drink and asked the drinks guy whether it was right or something. Then the drinks guy nodded approval.

How can the drink be made by someone who doesn't even know how to make it?  The result was that the drink was too sour. Even though it was stirred, it seemed syrup had not been added. The proportion of the ingredients was wrong.

I wanted to call that waiter out and demand for a better one, but bro said he would drink it.

We were supposed to share that drink, but ended up I had to endure the super sour taste.


And what's with the shortage of that hand-held device for taking orders? Not all the staff have it?

The first time we were there, a waitress took our order. When asked about the pink drink in the menu, she didn't know what it was. She guessed that it was Bundung but wasn't really sure. So I had to tell her to go ask someone.  Didn't they train their staff? 

After taking our orders, she left. But the assistant floor manager Jimmy suddenly appeared rather impolitely beside us to "confirm" our orders using his hand-held device.  Why take our orders twice because not all the staff have that device? Why should the customer have to repeat the order?

We just won't be going back.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Wow.. that bad huh? I was just thinking of going tomorrow for lunch. Guess I'll have to change venue then. Thanks for the post!

zinepin said...


Well, you can try. :) Their menu is quite plenty to choose from.

Although I said not going back, I have gone back twice for the Laksa because not much else to eat @ Vivo.

The Laksa is passable. 2 large prawns and some lean meat. The noodles are too little though.