Blue Ginger Great World City – New Peranakan Restaurant

Blue Ginger Great World City is the famous Peranakan restaurant’s second outlet in Singapore. Their first one is at Tanjong Pagar and has been in business for more than 20 years. We had our nonya lunch there recently and were impressed by how good the food was at the new Blue Ginger restaurant.

The whole of level one at Great World has undergone a major transformation. Most of the space is now occupied by restaurants. Blue Ginger Great World has a long narrow restaurant which is tastefully fitted out. The decor is attractive but not overly ornate. The front half of the restaurant was filled up when we were there for lunch.

Blue Ginger Great World Menu

Here are pictures of some pages of the Blue Ginger Great World menu. It is quite a comprehensive menu containing many of our favourite Peranakan dishes and more. We selected an assortment of dishes to eat with steamed rice.

Lunch

A “cover charge” of $2.80 is levied on each diner for rice, sambal and pickles. Rice and sambal were replenished as the lunch got underway.

The two starters were well received. Blue Ginger’s otak otak ($4 per piece, picture above) had a delicious blend of tumeric and galangal flavours, with a level of spiciness that was just right for us (i.e. not very high). The texture of the fishcake was even and almost creamy. Ngo heong ($14, picture below) had a delightfully crisp skin. We enjoyed it with either the sweet sauce provided or the sambal.

The bakwan kepiting ($7 each) were individual bowls of lightly flavoured broth with two meatballs (minced pork and crabmeat) each. There were enough of thinly sliced bamboo shoots to make their presence felt but without being over-powering. The taste of the broth was light and delicate. Everyone’s bowl quickly dried up.

Our more substantial dishes were beef rendang ($20, picture above) and terong goreng chili ($13, picture below). The beef was very good – soft and the gravy was rich and powerful. The fried eggplant with chilli was fine but we would have liked it more if the eggplant was more well-cooked and softer.

Desserts and Coffee

For desserts we had chendol ($5, picture above) and kueh ko swee, a soft nonya kueh made with gula melaka with coconut shreds ($5, picture below). The chendol was average but the kueh was very good. The coffee ($4.5 / $4 for cappuccino and black respectively) was watery and disappointing.

Ratings:
Food: 4
Service: 4
Value: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Overall Rating: 4 TOPs

Blue Ginger Great World
#01-106, 1 Kim Seng Promenade
Singapore 237994

Tel: +65 6235 7042

Opening hours:
Mondays – Fridays
Lunch : 11am – 3pm ( last order 2.15pm )
Dinner : 6pm – 10pm ( last order 9.15pm )

Saturdays , Sundays & Public Holidays
11am – 10pm ( last order 9.15pm )

The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog