Get A Taste of Singapore at Ang Mo Kio

My friend Rico has been bragging to me the new restaurant of his brother Ang Mo Kio even before it has opened. When I was surfing for new vouchers at Ensogo, I saw this   great deal on Ang Mo Kio: Pay only P250 for P500 worth of food and drinks. So I decided to buy a voucher so I can check out if their food was really good.

My workplace is just walking distance from Ang Mo Kio, which is located at the 3rd floor of Podium Mall in Ortigas Center. I invited my former colleague to join me for lunch since the voucher was about to expire. She's really a nice person so I decided to treat her and was also excited to taste Singaporean food. I have never been to Singapore (what a loser!), but I have eaten at different Asian fusion restaurants so the food there was not that alien to me. 

I was looking for dishes that would amount to P500 so that I won't have to pay extra because if you exceed the amount of the voucher, they would charge you tax and service charge. I decided to order the Half Hainanese Chicken with 2 Rice which is worth P448 and was looking for a dish that is worth around P50. I was supposed to order the Chicken Wings which is worth P45, but I overlooked the note there that it should be minimum order of 3 pcs. I asked the waiter what he can recommend that is worth P50 and he pointed to me the Roti Prata,which is exactly P50 per piece so I ordered one piece.

I have eaten Roti Prata before, but this was new to my friend and she said it tasted good. I agree with her because the roti is soft and the curry is flavorful. The other rotis I have eaten before are a bit thinner, but that does not really matter much as long as the curry is good.

Now the main meal has finally arrived! The Hainanese Chicken and rice have huge servings. This meal can actually be shared by 3 or even 4 people if they don't have a huge appetite (which we don't). Since it was just the two of us, then we started to eat to our delight. The chicken was tender and juicy. I was checking for blood because there were incidents that I've seen blood in Hainanese Chicken...really yucky! I was glad that the chicken was perfectly poached so kudos to the chef! 

The rice is not just any ordinary white rice because it has flavor...maybe they used chicken stock when cooking the rice. 

What I like most about eating Hainanese Chicken are using different kinds of sauces. I love condiments! It makes eating more exciting and sometimes I feel unsatisfied eating a dish without any condiments or dips. They got three sauces to choose from: ginger, chili and sweet soy sauce. Of course, I used all of them! 

My friend was in a hurry to go back to work because she only has 1-hour lunch break so we asked the bill from the waiter. I was wondering what was taking them so long because I know that I won't have to pay for anything anymore. I was surprised when he came back and asked me to sign the receipt wherein I have to pay P98 pesos more. I asked why I have to pay and he said it was the service charge. I did not have time to double check the bill and my friend offered to pay it so we can just leave. When I got to work, I was still puzzled because I have eaten in other restaurants before using vouchers and never paid any cent...unless I exceeded the amount indicated in the voucher. I checked the Ensogo voucher details again (see the photo above) and it says there that the vouchers include service charge and tax. I also saw that they charged me 2 pcs of Roti Prata. I called up the restaurant and the girl told me that's what the waiter wrote, but I insisted we only ordered 1 and I even got a picture to prove that. She said she would just return the P50 pesos. I told Rico about it and he told me to go back there so I did and when I got there the girl (Jona) gave me back the money, but I told her that I should not have any service charge. She said that all Ensogo vouchers have additional service charge already. I even showed her what's indicated on the voucher and asked her who changed the rule, but she can't answer. I even talked to Ritchie (my friend's brother) and he also thought that the service charge was not included in the voucher. But the girl never returned that to me. I left Ang Mo Kio a little frustrated. The food was great, but the waiters are sneaky! I don't know if that's their modus operandi or it was an honest mistake. Please don't ever do that again to other customers. I always speak my mind when it comes to being treated unfair...maybe others just let it pass by or never notice it. It only made me feel better when Rico told me to think of it as charity because Ang Mo Kio donated food to the victims of the recent calamity. Some would say...why would I make a big fuss of P98...but it is not about the amount, but the dishonesty of the waiters that bothers me.

I took photos of the menu for those who are interested in eating at Ang Mo Kio:

TRIVIA: Ang Mo Koi is a new town located in north central Singapore and contains many of the common features of other neighborhoods such as hawker centers, wet markets and HDB Housing Blocks. 
Ang Mo Koi is a Hokkien phrase which means "Red Tomato". Ang Mo means "red hair".
(ref: Wikipedia)