Umar Ali Cafe, Havelock Road

Umar Ali Cafe (719 Havelock Road) has taken over the spot vacated by Boon Keng New Taste. Which is just as well since the closures of the chain of ABC mamaks have also inadvertently disappeared ABC Food Corner leaving this stretch of Havelock Road bereft of decent prata outpost(s) that operate into the night. 

Competently done banana egg cheese prata. Not gonna be tagging more adjectives to this and I'm deeming the shop good for returns based on this one. We're gonna have to see how the others fare from here.

Love their teh halia cino. Nice prickly heat from the ginger in the hot tea.

A few days later......

Shatteringly crispy roti tissue. Glad that there was a light hand with the sugar glaze

That's their strawberry cheese prata. If you didn't already know, it's "strawberry jam" and not actual strawberries in it. Said "strawberry jam" is a mostly syrup concoction with likely artificial strawberry flavouring that some might not even classify as jam. But all's good once you've made peace with the ingredient. That cheese - I was expecting the plastic wrapped sliced variety but instead it was something crusty and cheesy on the exterior which was equally nice. 

What surprised me here was that the person who plated this actually thought that whomever ordered it actually needed more sugar. 😵

This susu halia was not on the menu but we figured they'd be able to whip up one since they already have the ingredients. They did. It's sweet and spicy from the ginger just like the teh cino hala. Or was that teh halia cino.

Another few days later......

Off menu request which they obliged. Bee hoon goreng putih + keema + egg. It ended up being a whopping $8.50 but it sure was delicious. They were pretty generous with the ground mutton. I'm gonna just hope that they maintain this standards consistently while my fingers are crossed.

Note to self: Don't get the sweet lassi again. It's diluted and ice blended. It's my first ice blended lassi and this didn't taste good.

Yet another few days later......

Ghee thosai. Thin, light crisp, nice and buttery. Delicious with the bit of saltiness from the dal and coconut chutney. The orange chutney's spicy.