Tom The White Tiffin is a Peranakan-themed restaurant that sells local favourites such as nasi lemak, mee siam, laksa, tauhu goreng and delectable dishes that, as they call it, are “rice stealers”. White Tiffin offers dishes such as curry chicken, babi pongteh and beef rendang that goes so well with rice that a small scoop of these dishes often accompanies a copious amount of rice.
About The White Tiffin Restaurant
There are currently 3 White Tiffin Restaurants located at Changi City Point, Esplanade Xchange as well as Woods Square. This time, we visited the Woods Square outlet and were welcomed by the Peranakan-themed decorations…
What we liked about The White Tiffin is that its premise is unpretentious and inviting. The typical peranakan-printed tiles invites diners to its casual dining premise, reminiscent of yester-years. At the Woods Square restaurant, you can choose to dine al fresco (outdoors) or choose to enjoy the comforts of air-conditioning within. The concept is “free-seating” style and once we chose our seats, all we had to do was to head over to the counter to order and pay for our food this afternoon…
The White Tiffin Menu
The menu of The White Tiffin is relatively simple. There is the food menu as well as the beverage and desserts menu as shown below…
One of the more famous offerings at The White Tiffin has got to be its Nasi Lemak – complete with blue pea rice to add to its authenticity. In the nasi lemak section, you can choose from ingredients such as
– Prawn Paste Chicken ($9.9)
– Crispy Battered Fish Fillet ($9.9)
– Curry Chicken ($12.9)
– Whole Fried Seabass ($18.9)
– Beef Rendang ($17.9)
– Sambal Scallop Gratin ($19.9)
or choose to GO BIG with the Nasi Lemak XXL that includes 4 half shell scallop, curry chicken and whole fried seabass that is good for 4 to share.
As for the Rice section, you can pick your “rice stealers” that includes
– Curry Chicken ($9.9)
– Babi Pongteh ($10.9)
– Black Vinegar Pork Trotters ($11.9)
– Tiffin’s Lu Rou Fan with Egg (Braised Pork) ($11.9)
– Fish Maw Seafood Soup ($14.5)
– Signature Beef Rendang with Rice ($14.9)
For Noodles, you can enjoy
– Mee Siam with Prawns, Egg and Begedil ($7.9)
– Laksa with Baby Abalone, Prawn & Egg ($9.9)
– Premium Laksa with Scallop Gratin & Seafood ($19.9)
– Tiffin’s Ah Gong Noodle with Prawn and Meatball ($12.9): Served with silver fish broth, hand-made meat ball, spinach, prawn and minced meat (aka ba chor)
For Sides, you can choose from
– House-made Begedil ($1.9)
– Tauhu Goreng ($6.9) – this is pretty good!
– Tiffin’s Sayur Lodeh Small ($5.5)
– Home-made Meatball (2pc) ($3.5)
Signature Sides include:
– Trio Snack Platter ($18.9): Includes 4 pc house-made begedil, 4 pc prawn paste mid wings and 4 pc house-made hae cho (prawn roll)
– Hakka Pork Belly ($12.9)
– Prawn Paste Mid Wings (7pc) ($12.9)
– Longtong with Begedil and Egg ($8.9)
Of course, if you, like us, just want to try out the best of what The White Tiffin offers, you can also check out the White Tiffin Special section that features:
– Local Trio ($13.9): A sampling set that includes mini laksa, mini mee siam, mini nasi lemak (contains prawn, baby abalone & chicken cutlet)
– Tiffin’s Sampler for 1 ($18.9): A sampler that includes grandma’s curry chicken, signature beef rendang, babi pongteh, black vinegar pork, veg of the day, fragrant jasmine rice with nyonya achar & crispy papadum cracker
Finally, you can also choose from Desserts such as:
– Chendol Ice Cream ($4.5): House-made chendol, coconut ice cream, red bean, gula jawa, toasted coconut flakes
– Pulut Hitam Hot ($2.9): Black glutinous rice, gula jawa, coconut milk
– Pulut Hitam with Coconut Ice Cream ($4.5)
You can also choose to have a Set Meal with your mains ordered:
Set A (+$1.2): To add-on hot coffee or tea
Set B (+$2.3): To add-on hot coffee or tea and Kueh/Cake of your choice
Set C (+$4.5): To add-on hot coffee or tea and Chendol Ice Cream
After scanning through the menu, we decided to go with
– Nasi Lemak with Whole Fried Seabass ($18.9) : For us to check out how sizeable this “whole fried seabass” really is
– Tiffin’s Sampler for 1 ($18.9) : For us to sample the various “rice stealing” dishes that everyone has been raving about
What We Had at The White Tiffin Review
In this review of The White Tiffin, we decided to go with the Tiffin’s Sampler for 1 which included (from top anti-clockwise):
– black vinegar pork
– grandma’s curry chicken
– signature beef rendang
– babi pongteh
– veg of the day (curry vegetables this time)
After trying out the Tiffin’s Sampler for 1, we can totally understand why these dishes are known as “rice stealers”. For starters, the black vinegar pork was so enticing and the pork itself was absolutely tender as well (perhaps except the top piece which was a little dry). This dish opened our palates to try out the spice-infused dishes of curry chicken and beef rendang. Slightly spicy but you could taste the effort in creating such tender meats and also the amount of time that must have been placed into putting together the rempah used to create these spice-packed flavours.
The other absolute rice-stealer was the babi pongteh where you can taste the fragrance from the soy bean sauce and if we were to hazard a guess, a sizeable amount of onions were also used to create that texture in the gravy. Yum! Lastly, we found that even the curry vegetables had different dimensions to it. Slightly spicy but completely fragrant and flavourful – not bland like most renditions out there. If we were to pick, the curry chicken (spicy), beef rendang (spicy) and babi pongteh (non-spicy) are definitely our favourites this time. The dishes were so good that we had an internal struggle whether to ask for additional rice – perhaps a feature that the White Tiffin should add so that diners would not be paiseh to ask for more rice? 😅
The picture doesn’t really show justice to the size of the whole fried seabass but it is just like the size of the Thai Steamed Sea Bass (with lime and garlic) that you would order at a Thai restaurant. Comparable in size. The Whole Fried Seabass is pretty sizeable for a nasi lemak we must say. As for the taste of the fish itself, we love that it is well-prepared. You’ve got to get the timing just right during the frying process to have the crisp textures all round and yet having the meat within cooked, without losing the juices at the same time. This was exactly what we savoured at The White Tiffin – a crisp outer layer of skin with tender/juicy sea bass within.
The only gripe about this dish is that the fish is not as “sweet” as we were expecting. Nonetheless, the sambal chili that accompanied the dish gelled the entire nasi lemak together. Crisp, fragrant, spicy, tender. Yum!
Offerings at The White Tiffin are definitely a little pricier than what you might get your regular food court. However, when it comes to quality (and portion), the price does seem equitable. Hence, if you compare to Peranakan restaurants that offers beef rendang, babi pongteh and the likes, The White Tiffin does stay rather competitive in its pricing.
As for us, next time if we were to have cravings for Peranakan food, The White Tiffin would be high on our list for our next peranakan-food-fix! 😋
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The White Tiffin Revisited
It actually wasn’t long before we visited The White Tiffin again – on 2 separate occasions! These were what we had during these visits
1. Local Trio ($16.90)
– Sampling Set: Mini Laksa, Mini Mee Siam, Mini Nasi Lemak
2. Nasi Lemak with Prawn Paste Chicken ($11.90)
3. Ah Gong Noodle with Prawn & Meatball ($15.50)
– A flavourful yet comforting bowl of goodness specially brought together to bring you down the memory lane with us.
4. Tauhu Goreng ($8.30)
5. Chendol Ice Cream ($4.50)
Local Trio – Mini Laksa, Mini Mee Siam, Mini Nasi Lemak
The Local Trio ($16.90) comprises of laksa, mee siam and nasi lemak, all favourites at The White Tiffin. We tried all three and thought that the mee siam was really excellent. Appetising and savoury, making you wanting for more. The laksa and nasi lemak were good as well. Perfect for those who can’t really make up their minds on what to have – why not have a little bit of everything?
Nasi Lemak with Prawn Paste Chicken
The Nasi Lemak with Prawn Paste Chicken surprised us with how tasty the prawn paste chicken was. Of the nasi lemak options, the nasi lemak with prawn paste chicken is one of the more affordable options at $11.90. At this price, not only will you get the usual blue-pea rice nasi lemak with all its condiments (think achar, ikan bilis, belachan, egg, peanut and papadum), you’ll get an unbelievably juicy chicken thigh, coated with a crisp flavourful prawn paste chicken. Perfect for those working lunches or something to have at a more affordable price.
Ah Gong Noodle with Prawn & Meatball
Probably our least favourite of all the offerings we’ve had at The White Tiffin so far. The Ah Gong Noodle with Prawn & Meatball at $15.50 didn’t really live up to the hype. Perhaps it was our expectations of having a pricey bowl of “handmade noodles” but neither the soup nor ingredients met the mark this time. Compared to a plate of “premium hokkien mee” from The Canteen by Enjoy at $15.90, the difference in quality and CP value was stark. Avoid this option where possible.
Tauhu Goreng
One of our favourite sideds. The White Tiffin Tauhu Goreng at $8.30 does fulfill the cravings for this dish of Indonesian origins. The ingredients are freshly prepared and the sauce drizzled checks all the boxes. Good option for sharing when dining with friends.
Chendol Ice Cream
A nice recreation of this local delight. The Chendol Ice Cream at The White Tiffin ($4.5) is refreshingly delicious and chock full of the important ingredients in this dish such as red beans, pandan-flavoured worm jellies and even crisp coconut shavings. An excellent option to end of the meal.
Upgrades
Don’t forget the upgrades for a full meal as well. This time, we had the drinks and kueh upgrade at $3.2. You can also consider having a refreshing Lemongrass Pandan drink at The White Tiffin!
