This post was first posted at Rendezvous Restaurant Hock Lock Kee ~ The Central, Singapore on Deliciouslogy | Wordpress.
This first guest post is from Gwen in Singapore. She enjoys food as much as me but she has a big hate for Singaporean food. And in a way, I kinda agree with her haha! Someone really needs to bring me for good food in Singapore.
Rendezvous Restaurant Hock Lock Kee is now in Central. The map can be found here. Other reviews can be found at hungrygowhere, fifo.sg and atetoomuch.blogspot.com
Opening Hours 11am – 10pm
I'd been hearing about the nasi padang from Rendezvous Hotel for a while now. So one afternoon, not knowing what to eat, I ended up going down to Central with my family since my dad had been pretty much raving about the food there.
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, since I've seen nasi padang stalls mostly at the food courts or hawker centers. The place itself is spacious, very well lit, and the pricing is quite decent (if you don't factor in the 17% charge, that is).
Everything at the counter looks some shade of red or orange.
We ordered two types of chicken, curry chicken and chicken begadel (well, I think that's what it's called), a plate of goreng fish, another plate of cabbage, potato cutlets and vegetable salad. When the order came, it also came with a small dish of curry gravy.
The curry chicken and chicken begadel were good, the meat was soft and tender and comes off the bone easily. I can't entirely tell the difference between the two, they really do taste the same. It makes me happy that the curry gravy was actually spicy, since whatever claims to be curry or spicy here in Singapore seems to never tastes spicy in most of the places I go.
The only turn off by the somewhat heavy coconut taste on the curry, and maybe the fact that the chicken wasn't de-boned. Yes, I'm a lazy eater, I prefer my chicken boneless.
On the bright side, at least there weren't any bone fragments in the meat.
Next, the goreng fish. I've never been a fan of fried fish, there's just something about it that's dry and sometimes tasteless, but I definitely don't regret trying the one from Rendezvous. The fish was crispy on the outside, but the meat inside remained soft and tender. The chilli surprised me a bit, it wasn't exactly spicy (and I had been avoiding it for fear of it being burning), and was kinda oily.
Likewise, no stray bones in the fish. I'm impressed.
The potato cutlet for once, was good. Obviously, I've been exposed to too many instances of tasteless potato cutlets. This one held together nicely and was quite tasty. It goes well with the curry too, though I don't think that was how they're meant to be eaten.
The cabbage was crisp, not soggy, but slightly bland though, maybe the lodeh would have been a better order instead. That said, judging by the amount of spicy food on the table, lodeh might actually have been overkill.
Didn't touch the vegetable salad at all, so no comments on that one.
Overall, didn't regret going all the way downtown for coffee-shop food, but wouldn't make it a regular habit if I get nasi padang cravings. The 17% charge on the bill can really hurt your wallet.