I had lunch on a Saturday afternoon with the Missus and Penguin Junior Two at The Coconut Club. My Missus had been there a couple of times but this was my first time there.
Even though it was quite late (it was already after 2.00pm) for lunch, there was still a short que of people waiting for a table. Luckily we did not have to wait too long before we were ushered to our table.
We decided to order 2 plates of their standard Nasi Lemak rice set which comprises of coconut rice, fried chicken thigh, ikan bilis peanut, fried egg, cucumber and sambal chilli. We also had an order of Otak-Otak to share. For drinks, the Missus and I had the Lemongrass Tea and Peguin Junior Two had the Iced Milo.
Now Nasi Lemak to me is about the coconut rice and sambal chilli. The sambal chilli at The Coconut Club had a “kick” to it; if you like your Nasi Lemak to be a bit spicy, this would be right up your alley; if not , you might one to go easy on it. The Coconut Club uses long grained Bismati rice which tends to be a bit on the dry side. It does have a nice “lemak” taste to it but I felt it could do with a bit more “pandan” fragrance. My Missus commented that the rice was richer and more “lemak” in her previous visits (maybe the recipe was tweak since).
The Chicken thigh was delicious – juicy and flavorful. No complaints about the Ikan Bilis peanut and Fried Egg. However, the Otak-Otak was a disappointment; although there were chunks of fresh fish inside, the serving was rather small and the flavor was rather bland. It certainly did not excite the taste bud. I would recommend to give it a miss. I spied quite a few tables ordered the sambal La-La – maybe that is the go-to dish (but I am not a “La-La” eater, so it will not be on my dish to order). Penguin Junior Two wanted more rice, so we ordered an extra serving of rice for him; surprisingly the serving was quite large, in fact more than amount of rice in their standard Nasi Lemak set. I would have prefer to have more coconut rice in their standard rice set as it now seems to be a bit overwhelm by the accompanying dishes.
The service was brisk – even though the restaurant was full when we were there, catching the attention of the service staff was not difficult.
It is certainly one of the best version of the dish which I ever had but I certainly not the best. I would say it is better than the famous Nasi Lemak from Adam Road Hawker Centre (which also uses Bismati rice) but then it costs more than twice as much. I would get just as much satisfaction from eating Nasi Lemak from Amoy Hawker Centre or Tanjong Pagar Hawker Centre without paying the premium. Of course, The Coconut Club is an air-conditioned restaurant environment and one would expect to pay a premium for it.
I think if you are in the vicinity and craving for Nasi Lemak, the Coconut Club will not be a bad choice.
Address: 6 Ann Siang Hill, Singapore 069787
Ratings: 3.5 (out of 5.0)
