The Salted Plum has become something of a cult hit within the grossly overpopulated Raffles Place/Boat Quay District. The (not necessarily 13) reasons why are easily evident, as their famous Lu Rou Fan 2.0 comes at $12 a bowl before the ten percent service charge kicks in, and adding on an appetizer and a bottomless house drink only extracts another $3.80 out of your wallet.

It may not be cheap, but it’s certainly good. A sizable slab of pork belly that’s been slowly braised in a thick, savory sauce gets comfy atop a bed of freshly steamed Japanese rice alongside its bedfellows, which consists of some boiled bok choy and a runny half boiled egg.

The whole hunk of pork belly is a definite upgrade from the humble slices of pork belly usually found on an un-pimped lu rou fan. The sauce was heartily herbaceous and sufficiently savory. Said sauce permeated deeply into the tremendously tender belly, which really only needed a spot of firm persuasion from a soup spoon and a pair of chopsticks to part like the Red Sea.

The Salted Plum were being kind of miserly with the sauce, as there wasn’t nearly enough of it to properly flavor and lubricate the fluffy rice and bland bok choy. A little more sauce would’ve resulted in much more magic happening within the confines of the bowl, and that’s one thing that The Salted Plum should definitely improve upon. In fact, it’s probably the only thing that needs improvement with this pimped up sequel to the lu rou fan.