Xin Wang Taiwan Cafe, Citylink Mall

Only at the second time when I passed by this place (#B1-23 CityLink Mall, Raffles Link, tel : +65 6341 9542) that I did a double take and realised that this was actually a Taiwan themed cafe instead of the usual HK cafe that Xin Wang has numerous branches of. I was never one for those HK cafes that seemed to be opening everywhere else. Some of those franchised outlets might have been interesting when they first appeared but after a while, success formulas inevitably get whored with the same template applied repeatedly and en mass. What we eventually got was just mediocre food that was priced way above what it was worth. The situation was also saddened by the fact that I could probably cook more than a handful of what they had on menu myself at home. There was little reason why I would walk into one of them. 

But this was the Taiwan version and being the sucker for stuff like lu rou fan, I bit onto the bait.

We didn't end up with the lu rou fan. It was the mei cai kou rou fan (braised pork belly with mustard greens) that got us instead. While it didn't look great, the taste of it was pretty decent. The sliced pork belly underneath the gooey vegetable stew was actually not bad at all. I meant, with fats that would disintegrate in the mouth. 

The beef bowl with rice was edible. Nothing special in particular. I'm looking at you, solid egg yolk. Still in search for a good beef bowl that would bowl me over. 

There was a crispy fried pig intestines which was done with very little seasoning. No complains about that though. Also ordered a very regular deep fried chicken similar to those one could find in the night market. These were a little better done in comparison.

 

Dessert was also pleasant as well. It was listed on the menu as a peanut smoothie and I was thinking of a peanut shake of some sort. Turns out that, it was something akin to a frozen version of peanut paste that one could find in Cantonese dessert shops. The frozen peanut paste was covered by peanut butter and blanketed in finely ground peanuts. This was nice.