La Pasa on Alinga St in Civic is, in my opinion, a pretty good Singaporean restaurant for a sit down meal.
But at lunchtimes they set up a little booth shelling out a small selection of dishes into “lunch boxes” for $8.
Basically it’s a standard take-away carton with your choice of noodles or rice for a base and then one or two choices on top.
There are a lot of vegetarian options, but I went for the chilli salt pork and the chicken curry on noodles.
In many ways the noodles were the star, not too greasy, a nice mix of vegetables, but the pork and chicken was great.
A thoroughly enjoyable lunch for under $10.
(For more sub $10 lunches in Civic check it)
With thanks to JB for the recommendation, I had a crack at La Pasa for lunch today and have a few comments.
Firstly they are quick. Wham/bam/thank you ma’am and you’re out the door. Can’t fault that for service. Staff are very friendly too, which is appreciated but often overlooked. The dishes were being constantly replenished from the kitchen, which shows that they’re as fresh as you could hope for. I was however surprised that “a lot of vegetarian options” (see OP) was a choice between two dishes, of which I selected the vegetarian green curry. Oddly they serve this with special fried rice — full of prawns and pork.
I won’t go into much detail on the taste because that is purely subjective, suffice to say that for a green curry it was particularly bland and overly thick and oily. I’m sure this might be to some people’s taste but it’s isn’t what I want in a green curry.
I’d still recommend people give La Pasa the benefit of the doubt, so don’t let my words dissuade you from trying their food.
far_northact said :
Okay. So may be it is just bad timing on my behalf. So many people say the place is great. Seems I’ve just been unlucky.
I love that you’ve reviewed all my favourites – and I look forward to hearing about your new discoveries.
For the record, eating inside at La Pasa is the best, though WAY more expensive. I get chicken satay skewars to start, fried rice, and zesty steak. Its impressed everyone I’ve always taken and I’ve never order anything else (when eating in).
We have really tried to like La Pasa. But their Duck Pancakes were boring, as was their Hainan Chicken Rice. Better chicken rice can be had a short walk away. I would like to think we just went on bad nights, but can a restaurant afford to be disappointing on a Saturday night? Highly unlikely we’ll be going back.
Bad reviews can have unexpected and humourous results.
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/01/benihana-kuwait-sues.html
Kerryhemsley said :
Why would I choose to eat a bad lunch??
Always lots of garlic (of course), if you are having all afternoon meetings in small rooms (without airconditioning…). Its a good meal.
I go there all the time, even for dinners with friends. Their dishes are always top notch, good value for money and good sized too!
Been there twice, each time I have ended up with the dreaded MSG headache, so is no go back for me!
Been there twice, each time got the dreaded MSG headache, so is no go back for me!
All positive reviews so far JB. Is it time to get cynical and have a crack at an outlet for serving food that is overpriced and frankly inedible?