C-Nai Hong Kong Cafe

This is going to be a special write-up because it's about one of my favourite restaurants and to me, the best Hong Kong-styled cafes here in sunny Singapore. Other than C-Nai, there's the larger Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe chain (see: I, II and III), Man Jia Le Full House (see I), Tong Shui Cafe (see I and II), Bugis' Wong Kok Char Chan Teng, Orchard and Vivocity's Central HK Cafe etc etc. Yet to me, C-Nai somehow reigns over these other HK restaurants, which is proving to be more and more popular with Singaporeans.


And a la Russell Crowe in the movie Gladiator, C-Nai too believes that "There is only ONE Hong Kong Cafe", there is no one else other than itself apparently. C-Nai boasts quite a few television and magazine reviews and is truly worth a shot, even if you're not exactly a fan of HK-style food. Unless you're from Hong Kong like my friend, who believes Singapore can never replicate the real deal haha. I've never been to Hong Kong though, so this is probably the closest I could get.


This is me and Daphne's first visit to the Novena branch. We used to frequent the Marine Parade and East Coast branches, but Novena's so much closer to her place.


They've revised their menu a bit, seems to have lesser choices now, but still soooooo many dishes to choose from. Don't be fooled by the store's menu about prices from $2 though, typically with a standard main course like fried rice, a side and a drink would cost around $15 per person. And that's what we had =)

I've added two photos for three dishes because they come from my N73 (the orangey ones - but restaurant front pics by my N73 too) and the girlfriend's E900. We forgot to take out her Lumix, probably because we were too hungry?

(237) Hot and Spicy Seafood Fried Rice: 8.5/10


Some might feel this is a far too high rating but man, I love it! Nice slices of fish, bits of squid and prawns to spicy fried rice, which I added more oomph with the sambal chilli provided on the table. Ahhh.... YUMMY!

(231) Cafe Fried Rice: 7.6/10


Daphne impressed me no end with how much she is willing to "sacrifice" for this blog. She initially wanted to eat the same Hot & Spicy Seafood Fried Rice, but after I remarked that that would be one less thing to blog about, she immediately chose something else. Sweet,

Thankfully, she liked what she had too, though I couldn't taste it because it has chinese sausages and char siew, which are both pork. Like me, she added the sambal chilli provided for that spicy zest to her food.

(609) Deep Fried Squid with Spicy Crispy Garlic: 8.3/10


We were flirting with the idea of ordering this because it sounded tasty. We decided not to because it might be too heavy a lunch. And then we saw another table tucking in to it, and I bolted for the piece of paper, scribbled the dish number on it (if you haven't realised, it's the number preceding the dish name) and handed it to the waitress. It came just in time together with our fried rice, and was a splendid side dish.

This had a unique taste because of the mix of fried garlic and chilli. So while you're chewing on the crispy calamari, you've got the garlic and chilli adding oomphloads to the taste. We might be sooooo full after the meal, but it was worth it ;)

(22) Iced Blended "Perfect" Float: 7/10
(57) House Brewed Iced Peach Tea: 6/10


SO MUCH FOR "DIETING". I didn't expect us to order the calamari, so decided to pamper myself with the ice-blend, which came with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream as well. There goes the forty laps. It's called "Perfect" because it's what chinese call "yuan yang", "yin-yang" sorta thing, and is an even combination of milk tea and coffee. I felt the taste was a tad lost in the ice and ice-cream. It was however considerably much less sweeter than the iced peach tea, which Daphne frowned on and thought was really far too sweet and concentrated.

Service
The staff were pretty quick on their feet, but we waited quite a while for the food to arrive. It wasn't very packed on a Friday lunchtime though, but I heard this place (as with it's other two branches) is much more popular for dinners.

Price
Hot and Spicy Seafood Fried Rice: $7.80
Cafe Fried Rice: $7.80
Deep Fried Squid with Spicy Crispy Garlic: $6.80
House Brewed Iced Peach Tea: $3.00
Iced Blended "Perfect" Float: $3.80
(exclusive of the usual 10% service charge and 7% gst)

Place
275 Thomson Road, Novena Ville (opp Novena Church)
Also: 378 East Coast Road (opp Caltex petrol station) and
1000 East Coast Park (next to McDonald's).
Website: http://www.hkcafe.com.sg/index.php

Additional Comments
Opening Hours:
Novena Ville (opp Novena Church): 11.30am - 11.30pm
East Coast Road (opp Caltex petrol station): 6.00pm - 3.00am
East Coast Park (next to McDonald's): 12.00pm - 12.00am

TSC by Tong Shui Cafe

Tong Shui has its quirky element of Italian fusion in it with its baked pasta, and yes a variety of Western dishes as well, making its menu pretty extensive. In fact, it boasts close to 600 items!

TSC by Tong Shui Cafe is the chain's first attempt at reaching out to the Muslim community in Singapore with its Halal certification, and to me it's a pretty impressive concept (and effort) that's worth some praise. Of course, they could have done better with the naming, TSC still stands for Tong Shui Cafe if you think about it, but perhaps it's all under one simple branding strategy.


The interior is quite pretty, the usual Tong Shui design actually. One thing I found odd was that yes, I know it's Halal, but you don't have to play Suria channel on the television right?! I think to make it more authentic, it's fine playing some HongKong serials instead. The other television was showing MTV. Well, on to the food!

(1) HK Milk Tea: 6/10


The milk tea wasn't particularly milky, nor did it have a strong tea taste. Should have gotten the yuan yang coffee-tea combination.

(72) Mango Cooler: 6/10


Daphne had this, but she found it too fizzy for her liking. Still, she liked the fruits and jellies in the drink.

(557) Macaroni Mat Tu Loh: 7/10


"Mat tu loh" refers to what I would call the "processed meat trinity" HAHA - chicken sausage, chicken ham and chicken salami. The macaroni tasted pretty good actually, the cheese was yummy. The processed meats may have made the dish a tad saltier than it would otherwise been, but mixing it with fried chicken wings (chicken again!) did the trick.

(372) HK Dried Noodles - Sunset Egg and Shrimp Wanton: 8.3/10


Daphne liked this a lot, and was grinning everytime she bit into the crispy crunchy fried wanton. The noodles were evenly cooked and if you look at it, it's like a balanced meal in itself.

(300) Half Dozen Chicken Wings with Fries: 8/10


Half a dozen makes 6, but in essence it really means six chicken wing parts rather than six full chicken wings. We liked the spices and marinate used for the chicken, which made them a good complement to our main dishes.

Service
Friendly, and it wasn't really a long wait. Then again, it was close to 8.30 on a Monday evening and there weren't many people around. The airport was pretty quiet, you could play bowling if you wanted to with all the clear lanes.


You've got to write your orders on a piece of paper and pass it to the waitress. If you hadn't known by now, the numbers preceding the food names above refer to their menu item numbers.

Price
HK Milk Tea: $1.88
Mango Cooler: $3.88
Macaroni Mat Tu Loh: $9.88
HK Dried Noodles Sunset Egg & Shrimp Wanton: $5.88
Half Dozen Chicken Wings with Fries: $9.88

Yeah "88" indeed!

Place
Changi Airport Terminal 2
Viewing Mall, Level 3

Additional Comments
1. Halal-certified, but the only Tong Shui Cafe branch that is.
2. Open 24 hours.

Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe

Xin Wang Hong Kong cafe is probably one of the most popular HK-themed cafes with the youths in Singapore. The one me and Daphne visited this time round is the one located at Orchard Cineleisure, and even at an odd time like 2.30pm the place was packed with people.

Chicken Curry with Rice: 8.3/10


Perhaps I haven't been trying that many a range of chinese curries, but this one is one of the better ones really, and I almost always stick to this when I visit XinWang for a meal. The gravy is nicely aromatic and thick, and the chicken slices are very tender. I normally leave the gravy till the end to just lap it up with my spoon! Yummy.

Ham and Egg Mee Sua: 7/10


I couldn't taste this because of the ham in it, but Daphne felt the dish was pretty much ordinary. The ham, or luncheon meat rather, was too deep-fried for her liking and she found it quite salty.

Fried Radish Cake: 8/10


This really turned out better than expected because of the crispy exterior and yet very soft and smooth inside. Also has a pretty sweet taste that we couldn't actually point to, but really is worth the try.

Peach Tea Cooler


Daphne's usual. Real peach slices in it.

Service
Satisfactory. While the cooking of the food was pretty quick, ordering could have been made quicker with more attentive staff, half of whom spent their time chatting at a corner and the rest were left to scurry around the lil restaurant.

Price
Around $12 per person.

Place
Orchard Cineleisure.
Also: Marina Square
Website: http://xinwang.com.sg/index.htm

Additional Comment
Operating Hours:
Monday to Wednesday – 11am to 2am
Thursday and Sunday – 11am to 3am
Friday, Saturday and Eve of PH – 24hrs