Simply Peranakan at Hotel Chancellor

It's such so lovely to have the friends buy us dinner. They insisted on getting the bill. We thought it was to be a casual get-together (of which we split the bill) because all of us have been swamped at work and with adulting, and haven't been able to meet much except for a few chats when we run into one another at the gym. It was fantastic to be able to chat at length.

Dinner was at Simply Peranakan. This is the same restaurant that moved from Esplanade Mall to the ground floor of Hotel Chancellor. It's now sited at a rather awkward corner though. That evening, we got there just as busloads of tourists exited the restaurant. Whewww. I guess they gotta do whatever it takes to ensure continuity of the business. Rents in Singapore are crazy, so it's cool that restaurants still survive. The restaurant's food didn't blow me away when they were at the Esplanade Mall, but it didn't suck. It was somewhere I would eat at again. Although I wondered if their food standards have been compromised if they do mainly tourist business...

Food was surprisingly decent! At least the kitchen didn't sting on the spices. Ordered standard items of babi buah keluak, chap chye, and rending. It was a casual meal, and none of us were that hungry, so we didn't need to go overboard. We finished whatever we ordered. Yay! They had to have dessert. Cheng tng and chendol, and both were good.