In one of those there-is-nothing-to-eat moods while wandering around Westgate looking for something to eat, I chanced upon a Tempura stall in a food court. Yeaaappp. Tempura in a food court.
Next thought: Only one way to find out if it's good!
I took some time to figure out how this place works. But basically, you pick the tempura you want to eat yourself (like Yong Tau Foo) and then go to the counter and order a "base dish" to eat with your tempura. And the base dish can be something like simple like: plain rice ($1), curry rice (3.50), hot or cold udon ($3.90), hot or cold soba ($4.50), curry udon ($5.90), and curry soba ($6.50).
There are also more substantial, and more expensive, base dishes like a beef rice bowl ($6.90), pork rice bowl ($6.50), teriyaki chicken bowl ($5.90), beef udon ($7.50), beef soba ($7.90), beef curry udon ($8.90), and beef curry soba (9.50).
So you can see this meal will get expensive very fast if you order something like beef curry soba. But it will still be reasonably affordable if you just get plain rice, or plain noodles.
There's an adequate variety of tempura to select as well. Not all of it will always be available though.
On the menu there are quite a lot of vegetables: seaweed ($0.50), young corn ($0.70), lotus root ($0.70), sweet potato ($0.90), pumpkin ($0.90), eggplant ($0.90), broccoli ($0.90), carrot ($0.90), zucchini ($0.90), and tofu ($1.50).
But in reality only about half of this was available when I was there: seaweed, sweet potato, pumpkin, eggplant, shiitake mushroom, and broccoli. And shiitake mushroom ($0.90) which was not on the menu.
They have some meats and seafood available as well. On the menu there is supposed to be chicken tempura ($2.00), chicken katsu (3.90), crabstick ($1.20), shishamo ($1.20), chikuwa ($1.50), shrimp ($1.90), and squid ($2.50).
What was available was the chicken katsu, crabstick, shishamo, shrimp and a salmon fillet ($2.90) that was not on the menu.
There was also croquettes that were not on the menu as well ($2.90).
So in reality, what's available is about half of what the menu promises. It's sufficient to choose from, but more variety would definitely have been nice as well. Especially amongst the vegetables.
The prices are okaaay. There are some things that are more worth it and some things that you know came straight from NTUC's freezer section. (Looking at you, fake crab meat sausage).
The tempura is pre-fried, and left on a rack. That's kind of the trade-off of not eating in a tendon restaurant, and cheaper prices. Ah well. This means that the tempura is not as crispy, perhaps a bit cold, and also has a bit of that oily taste that comes out when tempura gets cold.
I decided on the hot udon and the sweet potato, shishamo, salmon fillet, pumpkin and mushroom. In total it came up to $11.60. Yes, it's a bit more expensive than a regular $5 food court meal, but I did get quite a lot of tempura, and it's still cheaper than eating in a restaurant. No hidden service and GST costs. If you really want to save on costs, you can get the rice and it would be much cheaper.
The udon is normal. There's about only a few ways udon can taste. And as long as you're not handmaking those noodles, it's all going to taste the same. This tastes the same as if you were to buy udon and udon sauce from NTUC and make it yourself, you're just paying for the convenience of someone else cooking it for you and washing your bowl.
The tempura is hit and miss. There is some trade off with it not being freshly fried. The sweet potato was a bit disappointing. The potato itself was not as soft as I expected it to be, probably because it was no longer hot. You don't often find shishamo in food courts, and I did like that. The pumpkin was definitely a hit. I don't usually like pumpkin, but this one was crispy on the outside, and soft and sweet on the inside, the way the sweet potato should have been. The salmon was a surprise. I think I expected something like fake-salmon fishcake (well, look at the crabstick), but it was legit salmon meat inside, which was still soft and tender. I also stole my boyfriend's croquette for a bite, and while it probably did not come from NTUC's freezer section, it's likely some frozen pre-made croquette as well. No grudges really, I don't expect everything in a food court to be handmade from scratch. But that means the croquette was okay, the way all fried food is okay, but nothing mindblowing of course.
You know, tempura is a ridiculously easy thing to make at home that if anything, this meal inspired to do it at home myself for cheaper! And I can include all the kinds of veggies that were left out here. But yes, we are all lazy people. That's why I'm here at the food court eating tempura in a meal that costs above $5. The eternal battle between lazy and cheapo. And lazy won. Lazy always wins.
I think if you choose your tempura wisely, it will be a reasonably priced and reasonably delicious meal. But if you choose wrongly, well. It's still food. And fried.
Location
Food Republic (B1), Westgate
Nearest MRT: Jurong East (East-West Line/North-South Line)
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