It seems that many eating places are going big on the nostalgia factor with old-school or retro furnishings, cutlery or traditional foods which are not widely available these days. As things around us change at breakneck speed, it is no wonder that people feel a longing for things in the past.
Curry Times, a new brand under the familiar Old Chang Kee, has a new branch at the airport's terminal 3's level B2 which is easily noticeable as soon as you exit from the MRT station. You can see various old-style items displayed at the counter area and the furniture used here are marble table-tops with wooden chairs which were seen commonly in old-style coffee shops.
As the name suggests, the selling point of this eating place would be different types of curry. Old Chang Kee prides itself as being able to produce the best curry puffs thus it seemed like a natural extension for them to open a curry-themed restaurant. First up was the curry chicken hor fun which actually looked quite presentable in the sense that the ingredients were nicely laid-out rather than scattered in a haphazard manner. Following that was the curry chicken set which you can choose to pair with the conventional choices of rice or bread or a relatively new idea of prata. I've never seen prata being offered together with curry chicken so far but since I'm not a fan of prata, I chose the tried and tested rice during my first visit and bread on a separate occasion. Actually, the curry used in the chicken hor fun and the curry rice is the same so taste-wise, they are largely the same. I like the curry here for the fact that there is no heavy curry powder smell and it is not too spicy for me. Be it whether you pair it with hor fun or rice, I think it tastes equally good. As for the bread which I suppose is a French loaf, I would have preferred it to be lightly toasted on the outside because it seems a bit too soft and mushy when eaten with the curry. A crispy exterior would have made the texture a bit more exciting and different.
Here comes the side dishes and we started off with the potato prawn ball which actually wasn't given any recommendation mark in the menu. Nonetheless, we wanted to try some unusual stuff and this wasn't something readily found elsewhere so we decided to give it a shot. Personally, I think it's not bad with a good balance of potato and the prawn and neither ingredient was too overwhelming or overly heavy in terms of proportion and flavour. However, it would have been nice to have something like a Thai sweet chilli sauce to go with this which I suppose may be better at improving the taste of this dish compared to mayonnaise. Not many people prefer the taste of creamy taste of mayonnaise with fried items but I think kids and adults would like the Thai sweet chilli sauce to go with something which looks as cute as this.
Next was otah which on the surface may seem a bit boring or nothing unusual. The catch here is that the otah was made from salmon which I've never tried or seen before. In addition, the dish looked pretty appealing on the menu so we decided to try it. However, being not so much of a fan of salmon, I think I wasn't very impressed with this. No doubt it tasted alright, the texture of the fish just felt too different from the otah I usually eat. Even if I wasn't told beforehand that this is made from salmon, I think I would still have my reservations over whether salmon is a good choice for this traditional dish. I applaud Curry Times for having the guts to do something different but I would prefer to have a more ordinary type of otah in future if they do revamp their menu.
Last but not least, we chose chendol to round up the meal. Do not assume that the portion is going to be as big as what you see in the menu. We were quite surprised to see such a small bowl when it was served and wondered if we should have ordered more. Anyway, this chendol was fairly decent except for the fact that the coconut milk on top of it had solidified due to some unknown reason. I wasn't sure if this had to do with the freshness of the coconut milk or whether it was meant to be as such but it was kinda shocking to see bits and pieces of it on the top so we ended scrapping it off.
In conclusion, I think Curry Times offers a pretty good deal with nice food and a rather comfortable old school setting to relax in. However, not all of its non-curry dishes scored with me so it remains to be seen if I will be impressed by the other items in the menu or continue to be disappointed during subsequent visits. Even if you are not so much of a curry person, there are other local dishes for your selection so you may wish to give it a shot. I think I'll probably try a non-curry main dish next time to assess how it performs in this area.
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