Violet Oon at Dempsey

After the dust has settled over the brand's lawsuit, staffing issues and outlet locations, I stopped by Violet Oon at Dempsey. I dunno about the rental (although the winning bid of $52,615 for the address is public knowledge), but the renovations must have cost a bomb. Well, they'll have it for 5+4 years, which meant that as long as they can pay rental, they will have stability in terms of business plans since it's a decent length of time. 

It's a beautiful space and that patio is gorgeous. It was well ventilated and cooled with decent overhead fans. The mozzies are kept at bay for now. The area is clean and the floor is Choya-approved. Without me asking, they even brought out a stainless steel bowl for Choya and poured her chilled water from the flask. Lovely. 

While waiting for the rest of the table to turn up, I started with a glass of Prosecco. Then we moved on to an easy pinot noir that goes really well with spices. It's a light one from Giant Steps. I've always liked this winery for their dependable flavors. 

The menu is fairly extensive. Tonight, we skipped the nasi ulam, garam assam red snapper and beef rendang and ordered other stuff. There were starters of pong tauhu soup, tauhu goreng and ngoh hiang. The kerabu kacang botol didn't disappoint. It was excellent, sufficiently piquant and spicy! 

There were the friendly chap chye, the irresistible hati babi bungkus, which was superb, and babi pongteh. I don't like babi pongteh per se. I'm not into pork belly like this or it's tau-cheo gravy. The dried mushrooms used it in were big and fat and rehydrated juicy. Noms.  The dry laksa is good, but it doesn't hit a spot like my favorite iteration done by Daisy's.

I largely ignored the dessert. The table had kueh beng kah and gula melaka tea cake with gula melaka ice-cream. Both of which were okay not but outstanding. If you ask me, the kueh bingka is an iteration I'm not even sure it's considered good by traditional bakers... but what do I know?

The sambal belachan though, hasn't improved. :PPppppPPP It's sort of spicy, flavorful and all, but it needs a lot more work.