Shiok Singaporean Cuisine — Restaurant in Vancouver

As a Singaporean lively in Tacoma WA, it's tough to find somewhere that gives you the taste of home. That search is likely ended given that I've found this gem called Shiok Singapore.

Vancouver has lots of options for Southeast Asian food, and we've been to a few of them since moving to the States, and weekend trips up to Vancouver is like long weekend trips to Malacca or KL - food pilgramage for Singaporeans who #liveto eat.

Singaporeans are picky about food, and especially when it comes to overseas restaurants touted to have Singapore food, my expectations are really really high! Nevertheless, Shiok Singapore blew my mind and transported me and my tastebuds back to Singapore!

Starting with their prawn paste fried chicken wings, it's a favourite of my family back in Singapore. Whoa, the taste and juiciness of the wing hits a sweet spot which I daresay beats some Singaporean stores.

We also ordered a Roti Prata, which is crispy and resembles that of Thomson Prata House, and their chicken curry taste ridiculously alike! I was totally blown away!

The chweekueh is great! In Singapore we had Jian Bo Chwee Kueh, which is really hard to beat, however, it came close! Tasting the cai po on the chwee kueh is refreshing as we had our doubts about getting it so far away from home!

For mains, we order prawn noodle soup and laksa, both of which are sent us back to our favourite hawker stores in Singapore. The broth are rich and thick, and that umami flavour leaves us wondering what the other mains tastes like.

Dessert and drinks, we ordered goreng pisang (fried banana) with ice cream, and our usual Singapore hawker drinks - kopi O and iced teh C. The goreng pisang has such a soft outer layer that it crumbles at your first touch, and the banana inside melts in your mouth, oh my god, it's so surreal as it brought me back to my days having the goreng pisang from golden mile food center.

We order curry puffs for takeaway, and I remembered uncle's daring statement that their curry puff is "better than old chang kee". OCK is a chain of stores in Singapore selling snacks and small bites, and their speciality is curry puffs. However, uncle is not wrong, the curry puffs are tasty and so full of tasty ingredients that made me question OCK's reign on curry puffs.

Hence, I got to say, this place is legit. If you are far away from home and want to be teleported back, this is the place. If you're looking to get acquainted with southeast asian food, this is the place.

Will I be back? Definitely! Thanks uncle and auntie for the great food and hospitality!

(no, this is not a paid review. my family and I love it so much that these information needs to be made known...

Agree with most previous reviewers but I thought I would provide my context to it all.

Came here on a Saturday with family, we were a party of 4.

I personally did not mind the "pay first, then sit down", but I do agree with others that the menu is hard to read. The menu needs to be larger and more prominent.

When you order and pay for your meal, you do not need to tip if you don't want to. Many of the credit card machines come with that option as a default. If you decide you want to tip afterwards, then leave a cash tip at the end of your meal if you so choose.

We ordered the laksa, hainanese chicken rice, roti, satay, chendol and the pandan cake as recommended from others.

Once we ordered our meal, we sat down and all the food items came within 10 minutes. I do agree that having multiple "1 hour time limit when food arrive" signs are distracting, but I thought there was ample time to eat after the food arrived.

Satay - Portion was a bit small, agree that there could have been more meat on the skewers. Laksa - Decent portion, but I thought there seemed to be a something lacking in depth of flavour. It was more spicy than flavourful in my opinion. I would prefer the laksa from Singapore Hawker in Coquitlam. Hainanese Chicken - Rice was delicious! Chicken was good too, but did not come with the sauces (not sure if that was on purpose or not). Roti - Good as well, it wasn't "fluffy" and cut up as we're used to Chendol - Unfortunately did not hit the mark for me. Wasn't sure what I was drinking. Disappointed because I love icy desserts. Pandan cake - Good, flavourful and light.

Overall, it was decent service and the food was good. I don't think its worth the 4.4 stars so far, but a sold high 3s to a 4.

Update: I tried this restaurant again and I have to say there has been quite a noticeable change - and for the better!

The distracting signs have been replaced with colourful laminated menus, and the "order and pay first" style has been eliminated. Visited the restaurant with a party of 4 and was promptly seated. We came early at around 5:00pm and there was nobody in the restaurant.

We ordered the Hainesese Chicken, Seafood Laksa, Roti, and the Nasi Lemak.

The Hainanese Chicken was spot on. Rice was flavourful and the soup was so good! Wish they gave more! Seafood Laksa was way better than before. Roti was delightfully crispy. Nasi Lemak was standard.

Menus were easy to read with nice pictures and the prices for the mains were $13.95. Not bad for this current climate of...

Finally! a Singaporean restaurant in Vancouver worthy of taking the mantle of representing Singaporean food. You will first have to read this review with the lens of knowing that Singaporeans can be some of the pickiest eaters on the planet. It is often said that every Singaporean is a food critic.

Enough preamble. Onto the food!

The Chicken rice is very passable. Wish that the rice had more chicken oil. The accompanying condiments were on point. Chicken could do with some mechanical tenderisation before serving (i.e. whacked with a cleaver). (7/10)

Prata was very good. The gravy that came with it was as good as anything in Singapore. (8/10)

Rendang was absolutely amazing. By far the best in the city. You could serve this rendang in Singapore and still get accolades. I have only had better or equivalent rendang in Indonesia itself.(10/10)

Satay was weak. The peanut sauce was authentic but the meat on the skewers were slightly dry. Possibly improved by using thicker and fattier cuts. (5/10)

Mee Siam was authentic. My mom loves Mee Siam and she was happy with it. I have heard other people say good things about the Mee Siam too but I can't fairly judge as I have never been fond of Mee Siam. (8/10)

Laksa was of the Nyonya variant. It was good. I do like the version with more "lemak" flavour from added coconut cream. The addition of Persicaria odorata (Laksa leaves) chiffonade as garnishing was a great little touch that many restaurants outside of South East Asia lack. (7/10)

Chicken Wings. Winner winner chicken dinner. These were very good and would get a good review even in Singapore. (9/10)

The Mee Rebus was absolutely top notch. As good as anything you could get in Singapore. Only thing missing is a sliced calamansi lime. (10/10)

The tea was very good. Could do with a bit more evaporated milk. The flavour profile was authentic. The owner imports the correct tea dust. The Teh Alia (Halia) was just right. They used ginger in the infusion instead of powdered stuff that some other places try to get away with. (8/10)

The Chiffon Pandan was as good as anything you can get in Singapore. It could be a little more moist but that's just a personal preference.(7/10)

The Cassava Cake (Kuih Bingka Ubi Kayu) was spot on. (8/10)

Some of the dishes come out drier than expected as the owner said that he wanted to present a more healthy version of the dish. Overall, this is a restaurant I could proudly take my friends to give them a taste of what food in Singapore is...