Shin Yeh Bistro

C says:

This casual outpost of Taiwanese restaurant Shin Yeh at Liang Court took over the premises at Square 2 that used to be occupied by Zhou's Kitchen (they're all Tung Lok restaurants anyway so I figure they just do musical chairs based on what's currently the most viable).

Most of our favourite dishes from the Liang Court branch are also available here, maybe in a simpler form. The oyster omelette, for example, is in the form of a thin layer of egg, topped with fried oysters and leeks. I actually think this is more successful than the regular version, which during recent visits has been bulked up with a bit too much starch for my liking.

A's favourite braised pig's intestine is also available. The intestines were nicely cooked but there wasn't enough braising liquid to douse our porridge the way we like to. The homemade Taiwan sausage was good, but the portion was a bit too much for me, since A's not a Taiwan sausage fan (all that for just $4.20, insane!).

Their drinks were a very pleasant surprise. I'm normally not one for weird sweet drinks but they didn't have a normal chrysanthemum tea and I was put on the spot to order something. I got Yogurt Green Tea, and A ordered the Watermelon Milk Tea. Mine was a nice refreshing mix of yakult and jasmine tea, and A is completely enamoured with the Watermelon Milk Tea.

Besides the food (and drinks) being really good, what strikes me is how reasonably priced it is. Every dish we ordered was under $10, including the oyster omelette which was an amazing $6.90.

Pity we don't live close to Square 2 anymore, or we'd be here every week.

A says:

Watermelon milk tea sounds crazy but it turned out to be crazy awesome. Great if you like sweet flavoured teas. The rest of the food is good and relatively cheap. Highly recommended.

Shin Yeh Bistro
Square 2 #01-73
10 Sinaran Drive
Tel : 6893-1123
Lunch: 11:30 - 3:00PM
Hi-Tea: 3:00 - 5:00PM
Dinner: 6:00 - 10:00PM
www.shinyehbistro.com.sg

The Asian Kitchen LuGangXiaoZhen

C says:

This branch of The Asian Kitchen at ION Orchard specialises in Taiwanese delicacies, particularly street food specialities. (I assume that’s what the name refers to, but my Mandarin abilities are sorely limited.) Since there wasn’t any queue at all, we decided to give them a try.

There were surprisingly quite a number of things on the menu that called to me, but we clearly couldn’t order all of them today. They sell limited portions of their famous roast pork every day, and since it was available we had to have it. We ordered their original “guitar duck” as well, and a stir fried tung hoon.


I was a bit disappointed with the duck, mainly because this was just like regular roast duck, and somehow from the description on the menu I expected this to be more like a crispy duck instead. Still, as far as roast duck goes, it was quite good – tender and not dry.


The roast pork was heavenly. The crackling was thick but pretty crispy, but what pleasantly surprised me was how remarkably tender and juicy the meat was. Pork belly has a tendency to be quite tough if it’s not cooked properly, but here it was almost melt-in-the-mouth tender, yet not overly fatty.


The tung hoon was another surprise. Fried with minced pork and diced mushrooms, this was very tasty without being greasy, which this dish has a tendency to do.

While this place probably won’t be our first or second choice when we’re in ION, now that we’ve discovered what it has to offer, it’s definitely another viable alternative when our default favourites are too packed.

A says:

We always avoided this place as it looked a bit blah. But I was happy to be proven wrong as the food here is not bad at all (except for the watery bubble tea). Like C says, not our first choice at ION, but a definite worthy option.

The Asian Kitchen LuGangXiaoZhen
#B3-22 ION Orchard
Tel: 6509-1128
Open daily: 11.30 am – 9.30 pm

Shin Yeh

C says:

Again, like Sage, this is proof that we should be open to new dining experiences. We always assumed this place was too Asian for us, but after numerous recommendations from A’s gang of friends, we decided to meet up for dinner here. Shin Yeh is a Taiwanese high-end chain restaurant, and was imported to Singapore by Tung Lok, so some of the dishes have been reinterpreted.


We took P’s cue and ordered most of the dishes that she suggested. The specialty here is mullet roe, which surprisingly comes sliced or in cubes, rather than in caviar form like most other fish roes. We ordered just the slices of roe, sandwiched between sliced tomato, daikon and leek. At $36 for 8 pieces, this isn’t cheap, but it gives you an unadulterated taste of the roe, and I must say it was way better than I expected. It didn’t taste fishy at all; in fact, it had an almost subtle cheese taste. Very interesting and very good.


Another must-try is their version of an oyster omelette. This is delicious, and I dare say even better than some of the best hawker –style “orh luaks”. Here it’s done with a soft interior and crispy exterior, not starchy or oily, and the oysters are fresh and not overly cloying. I would recommend ordering 2 portions if you have a group larger than 4.


They do a good pan-seared pig’s liver here, but this has to be eaten piping hot. The first few slices were fabulous – perfectly cooked with the liver still slightly runny inside. We got distracted as the other dishes arrived, and by the time we got back to the liver it was a bit cold and slightly overcooked.


We also tried the beef fillet with XO sauce. The beef was nice and rare, but I think their appetizers are probably better than ‘main’ dishes like the beef.

Besides the mullet roe, most of their appetizers are in the range of $12 to $18. Portions aren’t huge so this isn’t the cheapest of places, but I was very impressed with the food, particularly the oyster omelette. Also, their practice is to give free mochi when you ask for the bill, so don’t forget to ask for it. They didn’t offer it to us so we had to specifically ask them. It’s worth the slight embarrassment, cos the mochi rocks too.

A says:

I usually hate oyster omelette but this one rocks. No icky taste at all. The mullet roe is awesome too, but probably not worth the price. And the stuff here generally falls a bit on the pricy side.

I fully recommend this place and look forward to coming back. And for me to say that about a Chinese restaurant says a lot.

177 River Valley Road
#02-19, Liang Court Shopping Centre
Tel: 6338-7337
Lunch: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm
Dinner: 6 pm to 10.30 pm

Ryoriya Sangokushi

C says:

This place bills itself as serving “Japanese style Taiwanese cuisine”. A bit of an identity crisis, you might think, but I think the Japanese part is just a marketing ploy to target the clientele in the Robertson Quay area, because the food seems quite decidedly Taiwanese. We came with A’s friends so we managed to try quite a number of dishes.


I ordered a dish that was described as spicy chicken with century egg, but the literal Chinese translation was “Weird Taste Chicken”. I should’ve known better. Well, to be fair it was perfectly edible, and A and P seemed to like it even, but it had a predominantly sesame/peanut flavour which just isn’t my thing.


I would strongly recommend sharing their noodle dishes, because their portions are massive. The zha jiang mian that some of the others ordered was very tasty, but it came on such a huge plate that 2 people could easily share. And the mixed vegetable and mushroom noodle soup that I had was chockfull of vegetables, very light yet tasty, and just what I needed after a weekend of binging. They have sample portions of their Taiwanese soup noodle and their braised pork rice, for $4 each, which make for a good alternative if you want to try more dishes. Unfortunately the yummy zha jiang mian doesn’t seem to come in mini portions.


We picked at some of the dishes that the rest ordered. The Taiwan sausage is notable because of the presentation – from afar it almost looks like a Caprese salad, but taste wise I thought the sausages were a bit too lean. The stir fried beef with eggplant had rather overcooked and tough beef, but absolutely delicious eggplant. And the mixed vegetable and mushroom noodle soup that I had was chockfull of vegetables, very light yet tasty, and just what I needed after a weekend of binging.

None of us had any expectations, so the general consensus was that the food was actually pretty good. I know this isn’t quite A’s thing, but I really like the food here, so we better come more often while we're still in the area, because A certainly won’t agree to this as a destination place.

A says:

It’s not bad but I certainly wasn’t blown away. If C wants to go, I wouldn’t say no. But if she asks for suggestions, I wouldn’t bring it up.

Ryoriya Sangokushi
30 Robertson Quay
#01-03 Riverside View
Tel: 6238-8962
Daily: 11.30am - 2.30pm, 6pm - 10.30pm
(Closed during lunch on Mondays)