Singapore Garden

It's a little ironic that the best Malaysian food in London is available at a restaurant nominally claiming to serve food from Singapore. Singapore Garden, located off Finchley Road near Swiss Cottage, serves top quality Malaysian food while pretending to be a Chinese restaurant (in fact, it pretended so well that it won Best Chinese Restaurant at the ITV-Carlton Restaurant Awards in 2003). The restaurant's clientele can be divided into 2 segments - some people dive straight into the Malaysian-Singaporean section of the menu, others order the Chinese-Cantonese food off the main menu.

Singapore Garden recently underwent a renovation, so the facade is a lot newer than the picture above shows. The decor is now black marble and wooden panelling, although the staff are still dressed in kebaya (think Singapore Airlines cabin crew) and bowtie and waistcoat. The menu is still the same though, with the Malaysian / Singaporean specialties under the relevant section on the menu.

Singapore Garden
83 Fairfax Road
London NW6 4DY
020 7328 5314

The Malaysian dishes available are generally old hawker favourites that one can find at any hawker centre or coffeeshop in most towns in Malaysia. From experience, I can recommend the char koay teow, the mee goreng, the kangkong belachan, the hokkien mee and the hokkien hay mee. The Pretty Lady likes the laksa and the rendang. I have also heard that the o-jien, the tauhu goreng, the pig's trotters and the kon lo mee are excellent as well. All these are as authentic as can be gotten in London, and are highly recommended for the adventurous diner or the homesick Malaysian. I believe the secret is the level of heat Singapore Garden can achieve in the chef's wok - there is certainly more "breath of the wok" in the food here than in anywhere else in London. In addition, on Sundays there is usually an off-menu special - a Malaysian / Singaporean appetiser (e.g. ham lok chong and popiah) and a dessert (e.g. cendol and tau foo fah).

The main Singaporean specialty on the menu is Singapore fried noodles, which is fairly tasty too. Note that Singaporeans occasionally come away disappointed from a visit to Singapore Garden, because most of the dishes are cooked Malaysian style - for example, the char koay teow does not have sweet soya sauce in it.

As for the Chinese food on the menu, Singapore Garden offers excellent seafood. In particular, the chiew yim softshell crab and the fried squid are very good, with minimal batter and just the right amount of peppercorns. The typical Chinese restaurant mainstays, such as crispy aromatic duck and shredded Sichuan beef are done quite well here too.

As is usual for Chinese restaurants in the UK, where Singapore Garden struggles is the dessert menu. Although they offer Malaysian and Singaporean desserts (e.g. cendol, banana fritter), these also occasionally disappoint. For example, I have given up ordering the cendol here, as they use canned coconut milk, which is occasionally sour. The other dishes available are just various combinations of ice cream or branded bought-in desserts.

No matter. Singapore Garden is not for people with sweet tooths. The best thing to do here is to show up, dive straight into the hawker dishes with the occasional Chinese-Cantonese dish for variety, and stuff one's stomach to the brim.

Scores:

27 Feb 2008: TFQ = 25, CS = 26, S = 15, AD = 8, VfM = 8. Total = 82 points.

What does this mean?