The Cow in Lai Lai

Rather irritated the baby room in the Basement 1 of Jurong Point's new extension has not even started renovation yet, so ended up changing Sam's diaper along the corridors, cos was too lazy to go back to the old wing for a simple change.

Had wanted to find out why the Lai Lai Casual Dining in the new extension is so popular, so went for an early weekday lunch before the lunchtime crowd comes in.

The white Ikea baby chair brought a smile to my face. They've personalised the chair with their red company logo! Sam, too, found the cow in the centre of the red circle attractive, and willingly pointed out the cow for me to photograph!

The signature dishes I was interested in were all spicy. In the end, I decided on a small bowl of taiwanese vermicelli with pork meatballs ($5.90), as I wasn't too hungry after a rather large breakfast. Drinks was a fruit punch ($3.90), though the waitress forgot my specific request of 'no ice'.

The Taiwanese version of rice vermicelli is very different from our local version - thick soup, noddle strands cut short, it's more like drinking the vermicelli than eating it. Lai Lai's version is not bad, small portion, just like in Taiwan, where the dish is more like the snack at tea time, I believe. But if feeding this dish to children, do take note: while the vermicelli is soft & very easy for Sam to chew, the liquid-like texture of the dish caused Sam to drink it like soup, and once he nearly choked. After that I tried hard to drain out most of the soup, not an easy task, given the nature of the dish.

The 5 meatballs with the vermicelli were pretty good, so much so that Sam finished 4 of them easily. Luckily I expected this, and ordered a fried pork cutlet ($6.90) in advance. ;P Though the cutlet was tender & crispy, I still much prefer the Japanese style. *I miss my Tonkichi!*

The waitress had anticipated our need for kids' utensils, and the plastic bowl & spoon turned out to be those commonly used in certain Chinese restaurants. The spoon is an adult size soup spoon though, causing me to give Sam too large mouthfuls several times.

It was a good thing I had the early lunch, cos by 12:30pm, before I even finished my pork cutlet, the queue started! I guess smaller portions are rather popular with the office crowd. Besides, Lai Lai is the only other Chinese restaurant (besides Ding Tai Feng) in that part of the new wing.

Perhaps next time I'll just get hubby to try the set menu, starring their signature spicy noodles. But then, I don't really want Sam to get full on the accompanying bubble tea leh...........

Members of Jurong Point's Shiok! card take note - 10% discount on a la carte items only.


Lai Lai Casual Dining 来来红烧牛肉面
#B1-60/61 Jurong Point (extension, or JP2)
Tel: 6861-1004