Bok's Kitchen by Hidden Chefs

Have went past Bok's Kitchen by Hidden Chefs a couple of times, but finall trying it recently!

Here is what we ordered:
-Char Siew Rice Bowl ($11+): This was the signature item! Most customers' food review for this place always featured their char siew don! So we had to get it to try! This char siew don is not like any other char siew don! Firstly, it comes with a sous vide egg. The char siew came with charred edges with a pinkish shade. The rice is also not just white rice, it was flavoured rice that appears slight yellowish brown! We couldnt pinpoint what spice the rice was flavoured with, but it tastes abit of indian spices to us? LOL However, as a fan of non-fatty char siew, I would have preferred it it was less fatty!

-Fish and Chip ($16+): We got a fish and chip too as didnt want two filling rice bowl, and we werent in the mood for pasta that night. You can opt to top up $2 for sweet potato fries too!

Between the two mains we tried, the clear winner is the char siew rice bowl! Do give it a try if you are in the area!

216 Boon Lay Ave, #01-01, Singapore 640216

A hole-in-a-hut kinda asian fusion cafe in the west! The google ratings were high and we’ve seen plenty of praises for their food going around on social media. We were naive to think that the queue would be manageable (or in fact, no queue) given how ‘ulu’ the place is. We arrived at 7+ pm and were greeted by a queue - we ended up having to leave our number on the waitlist. It was a 45mins wait before it was our turn!

The chilli crab pasta was not part of the regular menu. It’s found on the seasonal/ specials menu located at the order counter. The husband went for this, and thought that this was pretty decent. Nothing wow but a comfort for chilli crab and noods lovers. I took a mouthful - the chilli crab sauce was a lil’ too tomato-ish for me but that’s kinda a biased opinion as I’m not the greatest fan of of tomato based pasta. It was great that the pasta base was adequately spiced with chilli - the spiciness that cut through the tomato taste made the base a lot more palatable (to me). At this price point, the crab meat served was decent in portion - shredded in flakes, it was easy to consume. Of course, nothing like savouring a chill crab right from its flesh

A hidden find somewhere in the west! The google ratings were high and we’ve seen plenty of praises for their food going around on social media. We were naive to think that the queue would be manageable (or in fact, no queue) given how ‘ulu’ the place is. We arrived at 7+ pm and were greeted by a queue - we ended up having to leave our number on the waitlist. It was a 45mins wait before it was our turn!

I went for the charsiew don which interestingly came served with Italian spiced rice. I couldn’t quite identify the spices used in their special homemade blend (secret blend that’s closely safeguarded I guess!) in the rice - every grain was nicely infused with the aroma of the spices. It wasn’t thyme, oregano or anything close to the spices you’d find in pastas. It was subtle, and not exactly herbaceous. I’m clearly not a spice connoisseur and I can’t quite pin point to any, except that it’s perhaps sth yellowish that gave the spiced rice a light yellow hint. It was rather addictive and I polished off all my rice! My husband who’s used to finishing my leftover carbs was actually quite impressed!

The Italian-asian fusion turned out surprisingly well. The poached egg was more ‘done’ than I’d expected. It wasn’t onsen; wasn’t at all slowly-gooey-runny and perhaps it was intentionally done so to avoid clashing in taste with the Italian spiced rice (?) That’s just a wild guess on my part.

I also loved the charsiew - clearly a signature item on their menu. At the time of order placement, the staff had to do a quick run to the kitchen to confirm that there’s still charsiew leftover. Apparently, it’s one of the cafe’s signature item! While some may complain of the charsiew being sliced too thinly, I think they’re in the right thickness in this Italian-Asian fusion (it’s fusion! Not your typical HK char chaan teng kinda charred, shiny, thick cuts with generous sweet marinate doused over it!) Think of it like a kurobuta pork don - it’s the same concept here, except it’s char siew!

Very tasty beef bowl, enoki mushroom and garlic winglet, everything is well seasoned😍

I always thought the rice will be normal white rice but it came out to be Italian spices rice which is so tasty 😍

The price is reasonable which makes this cafe a 💯 !
Will definitely come back again for the food 🤤

What’s special about their rice bowl was the Italian spiced rice. And one of the signature item on the menu would be their legendary char siew served with pickled radish and sous vibe egg.

The char siew was juicy and tasty with the sweet sauce, mix well with the egg. $9

So Bok’s Kitchen not only has nice Char Siew Bowls and Beef Bowls, their Beef Burger is also very good. The beef patty was exactly like I ordered - medium. The sunny side egg had runny yolk and whites with edge fried crispy.