Rumah Makan Minang

After reading a review of Rumah Makan Mining on ieatishootipost, I dragged my father to its location at Kandahar Street to da-pao some food for dinner. I had high hopes as I have been looking for a cheaper alternative to my favourite Tambuah Mas.

That afternoon, there were lots of food stalls and a huge crowd right outside Rumah Makan Minang. As such it was hard to take a picture of the cafe-front and the interior. Plus, anyway, I was more focussed on quickly ordering the food as it was already quickly running out at 3pm! (I had wanted to try their tahu telor but a lady in front of me had ordered the last plate)

The first dish that I dug into was the beef rendang. According to one of the owners of Rumah Makan Minang, as interviewed by ieatishootipost, their beef rendang is close to the authentic Minangkabau version. I am not at all sure what that is supposed to taste like, but the gravy that came with this beef rendang was packed with salt. The beef was tender, but the dish was too saltish, and I reckon not spicy enough.

Who thought sayur lodeh could be overly-saltish too. My parents refused to eat this. The only thing I liked was the mix of vegetables it came with.

With all that red chilli heaped on the ikan belado merah, I was hoping for some heat. But they must have used big red chillis because it was not spicy at all, and again very saltish. The fish tasted like average fried fish.

The same red chilli marinate was used for the ayam belado merah. The chicken flesh itself tasted alright after we removed the chilli marinade.

Mackeral fish with the same red chilli marinade. Unfortunately these were the few food items that were left for purchase.

Other than having your chicken with the red chilli marinade, you can also choose to have it with a green chilli marinade. ieatishootipost described the marinade in the ayam belado hijau as "very good and the sweet and piquant Belado hijau complements it perfectly". Whilst I found the taste of the ayam belado hijau to be a little unique, my family still found the marinade too saltish.

I am really puzzled as to why ieatishootipost rated Rumah Makan Minang so highly. All the dishes tasted like someone accidentally poured too much salt on them all. Minus the salt overload problem, I will admit that the chilli marinades are unique... but yet not delicious enough to make me sit up and take notice. All the dishes were otherwise very average.

At least the lady-boss at the cashier's counter was very polite. When we asked her how come her food was sold out so fast, she laughed and informed us that next time, we could ring her and place our order over the phone, and go down later to collect the food.

Rumah Makan Minang
http://www.minang.sg/

18-18A Kandahar Street
Singapore 198884

Tel: 6294 4805

Opening hours: Daily 8.30am to 7.30pm