Central (VivoCity)

C says:

Not to be confused with the shopping mall of the same name located on Eu Tong Sen Street, Central is a Hong Kong cha chan teng with other branches at Parkway Parade, Tampines Mall and, most notably, the basement of Ngee Ann City. VivoCity is their newest outlet.

Having never been to the other outlets, I can’t really make a comparison but I believe the menu offerings are different. My brother’s tried the instant noodles with luncheon meat and egg at the Ngee Ann City outlet, but that dish was conspicuously absent from the menu. Instead, they seem to have a whole section devoted to what they term ‘pick-up sticks’ – sticks of anything from fishballs, parcels of minced meat wrapped with cabbage, meat to even pig’s intestines are cooked with your choice of noodle then served either dry or in soup (I think). I think this is similar in concept to the Trolley Noodles at the Marina Square food court.


We shared a luncheon meat and egg sandwich but that was pretty uneventful – a thin sliver of luncheon meat and omelette between soft white bread. I ordered the Central special chicken with scallion la mian. The chicken was essentially poached chicken rice-style chicken topped with a spring onion and minced ginger combi (which had a tiny trace of coriander, ugh), and the noodles were tossed in a soy-based sauced and topped with some dried shrimp. The chicken wasn’t too bad, save for the hints of coriander, and the noodles were ok, if a bit ordinary.


A ordered the pork chop noodles, which came with rather generous portions of battered pork chop that were pretty tender. I really like the noodles – while they may not have had the rich taste of the wonton noodles from Hong Kong, they definitely had the texture. The noodles were delightfully springy, which is quite rare here in Singapore.

The drinks and dessert items far outweigh the food proper here, which is a little strange. A had the yin yang and I, to nurse a throat that’s still very slightly under the weather, opted for the hot ginger drink. This tasted like the ginger teas that they always serve at the start/end of spa treatments, but a much more intense version. This really packed a punch but also really hit the spot.

I expect we’ll be back, at least in the month of June, cos we still have parking credits in VivoCity that we need to use up by then. I’m definitely going for something with the springy noodles.

A says:

Sigh. Another place where the wait staff don’t speak English.

At least our waitress wrote down the numbers of our orders and asked us to check.

Anyway, the selection of food is not big and the standard is decent. The desserts and drink selection is much better and I’ll probably go try the interesting items when I’m hungrier. The only thing off-putting is the inclusion of durian items (like Durian Fried Rice. What’s up with that?!). Durian really taints everything near it.

Central
#B2-13/14 VivoCity
Tel: 6376-8270