Tony Cafe have been on my eat-list since reading buddy Jill's hilarious post about how Tony Cafe's boss won't let her have more than one fried meat ball even though she was a long time regular π
Her story made me super curious about what is so good about Tony Cafe's fried meat ball π
That was a while back, and today I managed to gather some makan kakis (eating buddies) to pay Tony Cafe a visit. It's a small eating shop at level 2 of The Adelphi shopping centre. Clean, air conditioned, simply furnished, it was comfortable enough.
The Adelphi is extremely conveniently located - 5 minutes walk from City Hall MRT station, 2 minutes from Funan Mall, 2 minutes from National Gallery Singapore (which we went after lunch and it was a fabulous place π ).
Tony Cafe's customers mostly work in The Adelphi or nearby buildings. Many seemed to be regulars, judging from their familial banter with the cafe's staff.
Tony Cafe is an "economic rice", "mixed dishes", "cai fun" or chup chai png shop. It's a place for rice with side dishes. Chup cai png is a convenient one plate meal - everything, rice and choice of sides on one plate (so it is a popular workday lunch for busy workers).
Yes! Jill's favourite deep fried meat balls were out in force.
The different selections of five of us - chup cai png is so democratic with freedom of choice but buddies were influenced by me to have a meat ball each π Everything above plus drinks (we had tea and coffee) came to a grand total of $35. We all agreed that the pricing was very reasonable.
Before I go any further, let me say here that my kopi C kosong was good. Robust flavour with nice caffeine kick (but I didn't take any picture of it).
There's a choice of plain white rice or chicken rice - I opted for the latter.
I like the flavour and aroma of the chicken rice. It was a little moist, not overly greasy, but the rice was slightly soft and of average quality.
The stir fried bean sprouts were beautifully done. Crunchy, juicy, sweet, and overlaid with slight savoury flavour from the sauce.
The chili long beans were nice too. Just mild spicy heat from the sambal chili enveloping the crunchy, juicy, sweetish long beans.
Tony Cafe's famous deep fried meat balls.
It was soft and moist inside with stiff chewy golden brown shell outside. The minced pork meat and vegetable ball tasted well balanced sweet savoury inside with slight Chinese 5-spice flavour on the outside.
Nice.
The baked soy sauce honey chicken wing was tender, juicy and tasted sweet savoury.
I enjoyed this deep dried chicken wing. The outside was lightly battered and deep fried to a golden crackly crisp. The meat inside was tender, juicy sweet with the crispy shell adding mild savoury flavours and aroma to the wing. Nice.
We had a pleasant lunch. We enjoyed the home cooked flavours which were well balanced and at the right intensity for me. The ingredients were fresh and well cleaned. Though they have many dishes, the food have a home cooked feel and did not feel soul less, mass produced (like so many chup chai png places).
The folks at the family run eatery were friendly. Coupled with the clean and comfortable environment, plus reasonable prices, this is definitely one of the better chup chai png places in town (if not Singapore).
Restaurant name: Tony Cafe ζ±ε°Όεε‘εΊ
Tel: +65 6336 7869 (they have different dishes on different days, so call ahead if you want to be sure your favourites are available)
Hours: 7:30am - 4:00pm (Sunday off)
Date visited: 27 Oct 2020
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