Stopped by the three-month old The Peranakan at Claymore Connect for dinner. Fwaaah. It’s very brightly lit and gold and all that. 😛 Well, as usual, I reserve a truckload of skepticism when it comes to Peranakan food. Many supposedly good restaurants have fallen wayside and few remain when it comes to satisfying a craving for nyonya dishes. I wasn’t taken by the soups of itek tim or bakwan kepiting. Not when mine are way more nuanced, layered and hold thicker body. 😛 The mains fared better. In fact, they were GOOD. Totally enjoyed the kuah lada ikan. It’s been a while since I’ve had a decent version. The man had to have chap chye. He liked it. I’m not a fan of it at all, no matter who cooks it. The dish doesn’t appeal, even if it’s done by the best home cooks. LOVED THE BUAH KELUAK. There was chicken in the dish, of course. I ignored it. The gravy was a bit thin, but flavors were okay. The whole point of ayam buah keluak is to scoop up the gravy and dig out the bitter contents of the cooked nut. The restaurant did it properly- full on bitter black gold. None of that nonsense of mixing it with minced pork or chicken. YUMMY. Tickled that they offered petai kicap manis on the menu. Went perfect with their awesome spicy sambal belachan. As stuffed as the man was, he couldn’t resist dessert. Chendol. He ordered it without the durian. Hmmm. It was really sweet. But it came with an additional container of super well-made flavorful gula melaka because some diners thought the chendol wasn’t sweet enough. o.O My gosh, how sweet a tooth do people have?! Service was lovely and food came fast (within 10 minutes of ordering) when we were there. Just for its buah keluakand sambal belachan, I’ll return as long as the kitchen keeps its standards.  I understand that current standards of the dishes are inconsistent. I’ve had pretty decent food and service. Our friends had vastly different experiences over these three weeks on separate visits. 1) One complained the meatball in the bakwan kepiting wasn’t thoroughly cooked, i.e. pink in the center; 2) another said food took ages to arrive (about 35 minutes)when the restaurant was empty at 9pm, except for one other table of four which already had their food served; 3) a couple was a tad annoyed that the lady boss was really pushy in recommending too many dishes for two persons; 4) and this one was the strangest- apparently the table’s telur goreng chincalok didn’t hold an ounce of chincalok within. Instead, the chincalok came as a side (?!) to the omelette. I returned for ‘high tea’ on two separate days. Had different batches of guests to host. Both visits were fine, no complaints, except that while the drinks arrived first, the food took like 25 minutes to come. But the servers did mention that earlier. The only things I really wanted were its kueh pie tee, mee siam and its nasi ulam. These were all right. The rest went ga-ga over its durian items, and the kueh kosui. Hahaha. The local-style kopi and teh were so satisfying.

The high tea spread.

Source: http://faerieimps.blogspot.sg/2016/08/the-peranakan.html