Jason L.
Yelp
A good chance... Not well taken
Good chance has been a favourite for not only Popiah but Hokkien food for many many years.
One search on Google for the best Popiah in Singapore and Good Chance's name will definitely be on a list somewhere.
I've had a few chances to try their popiahs so far but strangely never at their restaurant.
The first time I had it was when the GF's mom ordered in for CNY (I know.. Crazy expensive but oh well....).
The second time was at the Heritage Fest's "A Taste of Heritage" at The National Museum.
Both times I thought that it was pretty good Popiah. The Bangkuang was sweet and succulent with the carrots adding an additional sweet essence to it while the skin was not too thick and really tasty. Oh... And the Chilli gave quite a kick too.
So with the Gf and family being in the mood for Popiah, I couldn't be more excited when we decided to head over to their restaurant!
Taking a quick glance through the menu, we decided to go for the set menu for 4.
Do note that this could easily serve 5-6 if you're group does not have big eaters.
4 Pax Set Meal ($108.00)
Good Chance Popiah.
The star! The signature dish! The the the.... Let down. What happened to the Bangkuang?!
What happened to that sweet, yummy filling I had at home and at National Museum? While it was still tender and juicy, it lacked all the natural sweetness of the ingredients that should have come from the Bangkuang, carrots, cabbage, bamboo shoots, shrimp etc and it tasted a little... Diluted.
While the chilli still packed a punch and the Popiah skin still thin and yummy, the sweet sauce was clearly diluted as compared to the one that came with the Home Made Prawn Roll.
Fish Maw Soup
This turned out to be the star of the set meal for me. It was tasty, generous with fish maw and crab meat and it wasn't over starched. One of the nicest, simple, fish maw soup I've had in a while.
Cereal Prawn
While the cereal was nice and not too oily, the prawn itself was..... Kinda tasteless.
It was crunchy and a little sweet, it tasted a little like frozen prawns. Like the kind you find in fried rice.
Baby Kailan
While the way they fried it and the flavour of the seasoning was nice, the baby Kailan tasted a little old.
That slight bitterness had started coming through the leaves but it was still a decently fried plate of Veges.
Home-Made Prawn Roll
I love my Prawn roles.
Crispy, juicy, salty, sweet, dipped in a beautiful sweet sauce, the prawn roll is one of those many comfort dishes.
This one however was a little disappointing.
No much flavour, not much texture. Tasted almost like my first attempt at making wanton, where you add a whole load of seasoning, only to cook it and wonder where all that seasoning went. Certainly not a favourite.
Fried Vermicelli
This would definitely be the biggest disappointment of our dinner. It looked good. Moist, full of ingredients (it was meant to be a seafood vermicelli) and it looked ready to erase my memory of the lousy seafood Beehoon I had yesterday (Xing Lou Seafood White Bee Hoon).
Unfortunately, it became my second seafood noodle disappointment in 2 days.
While Xing Lou just tasted salty, the Vermicelli here tasted of absolute nothing.
No seafood, no oil, no soya sauce, no salt.......Nothing. It just tasted like plain Vermicelli.
Logan with Almond And Mango Jelly.
Aka left over "stew".
While there was Yam Paste and mango pudding on their main menu, we ended up with the ugly step sister.
Fair enough, it was a refreshing end to dinner but you can't really get it wrong with canned longan and factory made jelly.
Sadly I was quite disappointed with the overall food. While the staff were friendly enough and the waiting time for food is not long at all and the food all being served piping hot, the quality unfortunately wasn't up to par.
There were a few dishes we like, a few we thought were just alright and a few we really didn't like. Overall with the service we'll give it a solid 3*.
Food alone I'd give it 2.5*. Is success getting to its head? Maybe.... But a lot more needs to be done to ensure that this heritage restaurant continues surviving.