My mum was reading the papers when she chanced upon a food column writing about the Top 10 Nasi Lemak stores in Singapore when she read about Momo Kitchen. Since it was around the area we stay, we decided to pop by and get lunch.
Momo Kitchen is located at the void deck of an HDB flat and can easily be missed out as their signboard is in Chinese which reads LeLe Kitchen. However, with the huge amount of posters and review write-ups that they have plastered all over their storefront, you can hardly miss this restaurant.
The restaurant itself is extremely small so they cater to many food delivery services. You are greeted by the main counter the moment you enter the shop. The chiller display stores the homemade drinks which is sold for both dine-in and take-outs. They include barley and herbal drinks.
There are only 5 tables in the whole restaurant which can seat up to 25 persons at one time and the space is quite tight if the restaurant hits full capacity at any time. However, this also means that you get the full attention of the staff since there are only a few tables to be serviced.
There is a small condiments area where you can help yourself to more utensils, napkins, chilli and sauces.
According to this report, they are actually within the Top 5 and not just Top 10. Just to give a short description to those who have never eaten this dish, it is a basic Malay dish which is eaten commonly during breakfast. The initial dish was simply a dish of rice cooked with coconut milk paired with fried anchovies and peanuts and sambal chilli. The dish slowly evolved to include fried fish, egg and chicken drumsticks.
Momo kitchen serves 3 kinds of Nasi Lemak; grilled chicken, lemongrass chicken and Rendang curry chicken. Each set comes with sambal chilli, a slice of omelette and fried anchovies, a slice of a cucumber and a huge chicken drumstick of your choice. Although Nasi Lemak is their flagship dish, they also serve other Malaysian delights like prawn noodles, Bak Kut Teh, crystal dumplings, Jawa noodles as well as herbal chicken noodle soup
We were rushing for time so we could only do a takeaway but when you dine in, the dishes are plated in this beautiful traditional rattan dish.
This is the original grilled chicken version of the Nasi Lemak and the main thing that differentiate Momo Kitchen from other Nasi Lemak is their rice. Unlike other coconut rice, their rice has an additional blue tinge of colour from using blue pea flowers to cook the rice. The rice itself is fragrant and has a good balance of coconut flavours. The chicken is very tender and succulent with a good flavour.
The next version is the lemongrass chicken which is the same grilled chicken but topped with stir-fried dried lemongrass herbs. The lemongrass sauce has bits of lemongrass and is both sweet and savoury in taste. The lemon flavours are strong so it creates a nice harmony with the sweet and savoury taste in the sauce to complement the grilled chicken.
The rendang curry chicken version has a nice thick coconut curry that coats the chicken well and complements the rice very well. The curry itself is more savoury and creamy than spicy although you can still get a slight kick from the spice. The chicken is still very tender and juicy and not too soft like most curry chicken.
We also ordered the herbal soup rice vermicelli noodles as it was strongly recommended by the staff who took our orders. The noodles were soft but not mashed up the soup had good herbal taste and fragrance without being too overpowering. Some herbal soups are too overpowering to the point of being bitter but this version was slightly sweet and flavourful. The mushroom and chicken were also nicely cooked and soft. This would be a great dish for elderlies or doing a cold day.
Overall, Momo kitchen serves pretty legit and authentic dishes and the flavours are all well balanced and the price point of the dishes are also quite affordable. The restaurant is pretty small so you can always order from the food delivery services.
Address: 146 Jalan Bukit Merah, #01-1090, Singapore 160146
Operating hours: 11 am to 3 pm and 5.30 pm to 8 pm on weekdays ( closed on Mon) 11 am to 8 pm on weekends
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