$38 Seven-Course Dinner at The Scholar Chinese Restaurant NUSS Kent Ridge

Does a seven-course Chinese restaurant dinner for $38++ per person sound like a good deal? We thought so and headed down to The Scholar Chinese Restaurant at the NUSS Guild House. It is one of the Chef’s Selection set menus which are available from 1 October 2026 to 14 January 2027.

The Kent Ridge Guild House (KRGH)

KRGH is the largest of the three guild houses managed by the National University of Singapore Society (NUSS). It is situated within the NUS Campus. The vast complex offers a wide range of facilities including function rooms, a fitness centre, swimming pool, squash and tennis courts, restaurants, bar and karaoke rooms. These are accessible to their ordinary and associate members. NUSS Ordinary Membership is open to graduates of the National University of Singapore. NUSS Associate Membership is open to graduates of other local and foreign recognised universities.

The Scholar Chinese Restaurant NUSS Kent Ridge

There is a large ballroom and reception area on the ground floor of Kent Ridge Guild House (picture above). The Scholar restaurant is also on the ground floor, but situated at the back of the building. The entrance is spartan and looks more like an entry into an admin office rather than a restaurant.

Inside, the restaurant has a relaxed feel of a comfortable Chinese restaurant that does not try to have any fanciful intentions. On a weekday dinner, it was half-full. Not bad for a restaurant located in the hills of Kent Ridge.

Chef’s Selection Set Menus

The regular menu contains the usual Chinese restaurant classics. Occasionally they have special menus and for this period, there is the Chef’s Selection set menus. There are quite a number of these menus (details of which are on the NUSS website). For us only the first two were relevant as we were not dining in a big group. Both the $28 and $38 menus looked interesting. In the end we decided on the latter because of the first item: the twin barbecued meat combination.

The Scholar Chinese Restaurant $38 Seven-Course Dinner

Roast Meat Combination and Soup

Good roasted meats are the hallmark of a good Cantonese restaurant, The combination of char siew and roast duck formed the first dish of our 7 course dinner at Kent Ridge Guild House. We thought that both meats were nicely cooked. In particular we would rank the duck as above average among the Chinese restaurants in Singapore that we had tried. The meat was juicy, the skin was crisp and there was an absence of gaminess. In the case of the char siew, the high fat content reduced our enjoyment of it.

Our second course, the soup of the day was “shark’s fin melon” soup. Unfortunately, we did not have a picture of it. It was a pork rib soup made with a kind of gourd which has stringy pulp strands with a texture similar to shark’s fin, hence its nickname. It was a pleasant soup that was interesting because of its description but otherwise quite unremarkable.

Fish and Sweet and Sour Pork

Third and fourth courses were Wok-fried Garoupa Fillet (picture above) and Sweet and Sour Pork with Lychee and Mixed Capsicums (picture below). These were both delicious and attractively presented dishes. The sweet and sour pork in particular was the most beautiful dish of the day. Our only reservation with regards to these two dishes was the portion size. Especially in the case of the sweet and sour pork where the pieces of pork seemed lost in a sea of lychees and onions.

Dinner at The Scholar Chinese Restaurant : Chicken, Fried Rice and Dessert

Gong Bao Sliced Chicken with dried chilli was the final meat dish. We asked for a less spicy version and so you can hardly see any chilli in the picture below. Apart from being sweeter than what we would have liked this was a good dish. The portion size was also fair in this case.

The fried rice was possibly the most enjoyable dish of the day. It was perfectly done – simple egg fried rice expertly cooked with an egg well mixed, a slight wok hei and rice grains dry and in perfect shape. But I must say that it was a very small portion for each person. You will also notice from the picture above that the fried rice was served immediately after the preceding dishes. Asking for the dishes to be paced would be on our to-do list on any future visit to the Scholar Chinese Restaurant.

Dessert was a Chinese restaurant staple – mango pudding. A predictable but always enjoyable sweet end to a Chinese meal on a hot day.

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

The Scholar Chinese Restaurant 
Kent Ridge Guild House
9 Kent Ridge Drive, Singapore 119241

Open Daily
Lunch : 11.30am to 3pm (Last order 2.30pm)
Dinner : 6pm to 10pm (Last order 9.30pm)
*Closed from 3pm to 6pm

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