The Asian Kitchen
23 Serangoon Central
#B1-73 Nex
201 Victoria Street
#04-07 Bugis+
1 Harbourfront Walk
#B2-29 Vivocity
6 Raffles Boulevard
#02-201 Marina Square
5 Changi Business Park Central 1
#01-43 Changi City Point
1 Raffles Link
#B1-21 Citylink Mall
9 Raffles Place
#B1-01 Republic Plaza
1 Raffles Quay
#B2-04 One Raffles Quay
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-14 Raffles City
2 Orchard Turn
#B3-22 ION
http://www.theasiankitchen.com.sg/
Yummy Taiwanese And Szechuan Chinese Food, Excellent Service
(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 9
Ambience & Setting: 8
Food & Beverage: 9
Service: 9
Value for Money: 9
Spent about SGD $20 per person.
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More Taiwanese and Szechuan restaurant than Chinese Zi Char, The Asian Kitchen serves up delicious Taiwanese and Szechuan inspired dishes in a casual, modern setting with great service.
Ambience at The Asian Kitchen is simple and comfortable. Decor is minimal, but designed with touches of oriental influences. This is the kind of place you could have a business lunch, then casually continue discussion after your meal. The Asian Kitchen is also suitable for group dining, or casual dates.
I find the service at The Asian Kitchen to be excellent. Staff are friendly and attentive to requests, and the food is served surprisingly quickly. Overall, I've had a good impression of the service here.
The food at The Asian Kitchen is also outstanding. The menu is Taiwanese and Szechuan in nature, with some Chinese Zi Char dishes as well. Overall, the food is fresh and flavourful. However, there were a few dishes which weren't as good as the others.
Ask those who've dined here, and the following dishes will usually be recommended - LuGang Fried Rice, T.A.K. Chilli Soft Shell Crab Noodles, Tanghoon Paradize, Any Soup on the menu EXCEPT the Seafood Tofu Soup, Reunion Omelette, Original Teahouse Crispy Duck, or T.A.K. Pork Belly.
I find myself wishing I had discovered The Asian Kitchen earlier!
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T.A.K. Pork Belly is one of the signature dishes. Well marbled sliced pork belly is flash fried, leaving the outside crisp but the inside moist and tender. Very sinful but addictive. Eat it with the pickled cabbage for extra kick.
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| T.A.K. Pork Belly |
Grandma Wu's Vegge is basically stir-fried sweet potato leaves. The vegetables are fresh and still crunchy after cooking. You have a choice of preparing it with garlic or with sambal chili.
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| Grandma Wu's Vegge |
The LuGang Fried Rice is a signature rice dish with generous sprinkling of eggs and chinese waxed sausage (Lup Cheong), and 4 - 5 shelled prawns. Very fragrant and aromatic.
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| LuGang Fried Rice |
Tanghoon Paradize is a signature noodle dish, and you can choose to have it spicy or non-spicy. While somewhat oily, the dish is highly aromatic, and the noodles have been infused with flavour, resulting in a tasty dish.
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| Tanghoon Paradize |
On its own, the Signature Roast Pork is above average. The skin is slightly crisp, and the meat has very little fat, but with a porky taste. When compared with other dishes in the restaurant however, I have to say this was the absolute weakest dish I've had here, and is best skipped. Ironic that their supposed 'signature' dish is actually the worst, while the 'normal' dishes are much better.
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| Signature Roast Pork |
The Asian Kitchen is famous for their soups, and Ah Ma Spinach Soup is one of the must-tries on the menu. Filled with spinach, eggs and minced pork, the soup is thin but flavourful. Extremely satisfying, and I could probably drink bowls of this!
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| Ah Ma Spinach Soup |
The Garlic Dou Miao is one of the recommended vegetable dishes here, because of its crisp and clean flavours, and crunchy texture. Teochew chinese folks will love this.
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| Garlic Dou Miao |
While tasty, the Salted Egg Season Beans comes in rather small portions, and isn't value for money as compared to some of the other vegetables dishes. But the unique combination of salted egg flavours and crunchy long beans might be worth a try.
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| Salted Egg Season Beans |
The Seafood Tofu Soup is without a doubt, the weakest soup on the menu. This is because of poor naming, as this dish has very little seafood within, with only a few pieces of prawns and fish. It's more of a tofu soup, and as such, not value for money at all. The soup has the consistency of a stew, thick and somewhat gluey. The overall flavour is weak because tofu naturally doesn't have much taste, and the soup isn't enhanced with other flavours. This is the only soup most people will tell you to avoid here, as every other soup is fantastic.
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| Seafood Tofu Soup |
The Chicken Mushroom Pot is a love-hate dish, as some like it, while others don't. It's basically a claypot of chicken and mushrooms, with a savoury chicken gravy. Those who like it will praise the savoury umami taste of the gravy, and chunky pieces of tender chicken. Those who don't may point out that the chicken contains a lot of bones, or that there are only 3 - 4 mushrooms, or that the gravy is too little.
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| Chicken Mushroom Pot |
A combination of fried prawns fritters and salad prawns, with a twist. Lean bacon is wrapped around shelled prawns, deep fried, and served with thousand island sauce. Very tasty but unhealthy.
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| Bacon Wrapped Prawns |
The Alley Oyster Omelette, while tasty, had only 4 - 5 small oysters within. Not very value for money, skip this and go for the Reunion Omelette instead.
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| Alley Oyster Omelette |
The Apple Chicken Soup is served in a smaller bowl compared to the other soups, and is a sort of fusion double boiled soup. The chicken is fall off the bone tender, and the apples are soft enough that chewing isn't required.
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| Apple Chicken Soup |
The Cereal Fried Rice is sweeter and more fragrant than the LuGang Fried Rice, due to the additional covering of fried oats. Tasty, but those who prefer more ingredients in their fried rice should opt for the LuGang Fried Rice instead.
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| Cereal Fried Rice |
A signature item, the Original Crispy Duck is tender and juicy, and the small portion size is enough for 3 people to share. The skin is nicely roasted, crisp and salty.
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| Original Crispy Duck |
Tasty Fish Slices. Very Fresh. Thickly sliced. Salty. Savoury. Delicious.
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| Tasty Fish Slices |
The Taiwan Granny Meesua is pretty good, though slightly lacking in ingredients. The soup is nicely thick without being too gluey, and the noodles are cooked perfectly, not too hard and not too soft. But the only other ingredients within is 4 - 5 oysters and some sliced mushrooms, they don't add shredded chicken.
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| Taiwan Granny Meesua |
The Stew Pork Noodle surprised me, as the noodles were pratically drowned in the thick layer of minced pork. Another very good dish!
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| Stew Pork Noodle |
The T.A.K. Braised Pork Belly was rather decent, tasty but not outstanding. The soy braising sauce was a little thin, not able to properly coat the meat, plus there was a very strong porky smell which may not appeal to everyone.
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| T.A.K. Braised Pork Belly |
The T.A.K. Signature Roast Chicken is quite good, above average for a typical roast chicken. The gravy is proper chicken rice gravy, and the cucumbers are fresh and crunchy. The chicken meat is tender and well cooked, but not dry, and the skin is wonderfully crisp.
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| T.A.K. Signature Roast Chicken |
The La Mian Soup has nice flavour, and the noodles are springy with a slight bite. Not freshly made noodles, but still decent.
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| La Mian Soup |
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