Kumi Taiwanese Eatery

It hasn’t been too long ago when we had visited a Taiwanese-themed dining establishment in Singapore; having visited the new Tai Shi Ke that had opened its doors at Circular Road not too long ago, we had learnt about the existence of yet another Taiwanese eatery that had opened fairly recently as well. Located in the Margaret Drive Marketplace (i.e. also known as the Blk 38 Commonwealth Avenue Wet Market & Food Centre) is Kumi; in fact, the building has been seeing a bit of a switch-up with the F&B tenants on the ground level, with tenants such as that of Petit Fangko and eMart24 having moved out in recent times. Interestingly, Kumi takes up a space that had been carved out of the entire shop space that Margie The Market Bar occupies — Margie The Market Bar now only occupies half the space that is used to have occupied, with Kumi now taking up half the remaining space of the lot. That being said, Kumi does not actually have a dine-in space of its very own within Margaret Drive Market; that being said, diners can still opt for dine-in utilising the communal dining space in the middle of the first floor. Being an establishment which serves up Taiwanese fare, Kumi’s menu is section across different categories such as that of Bao, Snacks, Rice and Sets. For dessert, Kumi does serve up a Mochi Waffle, while the drinks menu consists of various types of tea brewed in-house, as well as a line-up of lemonades.

For those whom are intending to visit Kumi and try out their various offerings across different sections of the menu all in a single seating, the item that seemingly checks off the boxes will be the Kumi Bento — that is if one decides to skip on its Bao offerings. Whilst Kumi does not describe on its menu the elements that would come with their dishes on their menu, it can be observed from our order that the Kumi Bento is essentially a combination of the Pork Belly Rice from the “Rice” section of the menu, as well as the Smashed Cucumber and Salt & Pepper Chicken from the “Snacks” section of the menu and soft-boiled eggs served in a single bento box. The food at Kumi does require some preparation time to be served — patrons will be issued with an electronic buzzer which they would be used to page the patrons to collect their order once the food is ready. Digging into the Pork Belly Rice first, whilst we had initial expectations of the rice being a little dry, the rice had turned out to be adequately moist having absorbed the savoury notes of the braising liquid that also hints of spices such as cinnamon and star anise. Whilst the minced pork did carry a texture that is slightly towards the leaner end, there was still a good balance between lean meat and fattier cuts to provide a variance of texture with every mouthful. The inclusion of coriander also helps to cut through the savouriness, meatiness and carb-y feels that inherently comes with the dish as well. Meanwhile, the Salt & Pepper Chicken came in the form of popcorn chicken; can’t really say that these were crisp but we liked how they weren’t too crazy with the salt and pepper — just enough to provide flavour without overpowering the chicken itself. The soft-boiled eggs did come with soft whites, though it does seemingly lack the molten egg yolks that most would be looking for in such eggs.

There also wasn’t much to mention about the Smashed Cucumbers as well; these felt almost akin to that of sliced up cucumbers in the level of crunch that they came — kinda lacked the softness or the beaten-up fibres in some variants that we had previously come across. After learning about their teas being brewed in-house here, we decided to go for the Wintermelon Tea — itself coming with lime. Thought that it does carry the usual notes of Wintermelon Tea well enough, though could match up with our preferences a little more if they went slightly easier with the level of sweetness. Having only tried a small selection of the offerings at Kumi, we do feel that Kumi’s execution of Taiwanese fare does stay true to what we know about Taiwanese cuisine — we were definitely satiated with what we have had. No doubt that there may be some minor tweaks that can be made to their offerings to bring them to the next level, but these aren’t major issues that hampers them anyway. Prices for the Bao offerings at Kumi range from $9.50 to $14.50: the Rice offerings in the meanwhile would range from $9.50 to $12.90 — whilst prices are a little high for the heartlands, they are however priced reasonably against the other F&B establishments within Margaret Drive Market. A dining option that one can definitely think of if one is looking for a meal that is slightly different from the norm and does not mind shelling a little bit more to satisfy those cravings for Taiwanese cuisine!