Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe

Supposed to be a 2 stars review but. there was something that was worth adding another star.
Came here with a group of friends during lunch hour on a Saturday. It was pretty empty. Even though I tried to avoid dining here, my friends on the other hand decided to try the foods out as the items on the menu looked appetizing.
The server came over and sat us at a semi-​circle seating area. He then let us take our time to decide on what we wanted and even explained to us the difference between condensed milk and evaporated milk as one of my friend hadn’t tried hong kong style milk tea prior to coming here. It was pretty quick decision for me as I decided to give their baked rice with cheese and mushroom a try. For drink, I ordered ice lemon tea (homemade) and requested for less ice.
Drinks came pretty quickly and the food was served within 5 minutes (pretty efficient). Took a bite of my cheesy baked rice and my brain suddenly stopped for awhile as the tongue gave a signal that the dish was way too salty. When the waiter walked over to hand over my friend’s dish, I asked him whether it is supposed to be overly salty. He took my dish away and probably asked the chef to try and yup. I was right. While waiting, he gave me a bowl of homemade soya bean curd. (+1 star here) — pretty smooth, not too sweet and big portion. I even let my friends tried and they gave me the same feedback.
The second baked rice arrived. And this time round it was still salty but tolerable. The rice unfortunately wasn’t cooked properly as some side of the dish has rice which are softer than the others. And I realized that beneath the top layer of cheese, they placed uneven tomato sauce which might be another reason of why it was too salty. I probably ate only half of the dish.
For dessert, my friend ordered a tower of mango shaved ice with mango ice cream, some mango syrup and bits of mangoes. The middle part of the ice was hollow and after a few bites, we realized that it had more ice than other things so we probably only touch a quarter of it.
Price wise it was pretty costly. Spent approximately $ 25 for the three items (shared the dessert cost). If you joined their $ 15 per year membership, you can get some freebies (free dish, free milk tea) — which my friends did and that covered some of the costs.
Besides the good customer service and the soya bean curd, there isn’t much to crave for.

This one is notable because it’s one of the few eateries that’s still open after a late night movie at Cineleisure. Food-​wise it’s so-​so, nothing spectacular and you’re definitely not here looking for gourmet food — it’s good for people who get instant noodle cravings and don’t mind shelling out money for other people to cook it for them. I usually decide on the cheese baked dishes which look a lot more like TV dinners than anything else. Decent HK milk tea though, at least they got that covered.
It’s hard to tell but it’s surprisingly large inside. So-​so grub all around, good location and situation.

There are a number of Hong Kong Cafes in Singapore and Xin Wang Café is one of the more popular ones. Even though at times I feel that it’s not really worth the money for I can also dish up something similar with my instant noodles.
On the other hand, the curry and dim sum at Xin Wang are rather decent and worthy of your money. A good thing about this café is its opening hours. It opens till late at night and many people visit the café for desserts or late dinner after a movie or so.
I like their milk tea with grass jelly and the yuan yang (coffee and tea) drinks. I’ve heard that the papaya soup is bad, but do try the thick bread toasts.