Mirana Signatures (Shenton)

The eateries associated with the “Mirana” namesake might perhaps strike a rather familiar chord for those whom have been working in the Central Business District District for quite a while; these folks have all along maintained a presence in the Central Business District, considering how they have had a number of outlets as well as several concepts running under different names in locations like the former OUB Centre, Chevron House and PLUS — they also do have stores specialising in bakery operations (think local neighbourhood-style bakeries) at both Chinatown Point and Blk 248 Simei Street 3 as well. Up to fairly recently, Mirana does operate two establishments serving up hot food in the Central Business District; one with the Iniga Cafe branding at International Plaza, while another being the Mirana Cafe that is best known for serving up Chinese-style and Thai-style economy rice at the basement of CIMB Plaza. Mirana had recently seen the addition of one more new location within the Central Business District; the new outlet being situated within OUE Downtown and takes over the former location of the Ya Kun Kaya Toast outlet that once operated there — this new Mirana location is also named Mirana Signatures and is seemingly poised to be a flagship outlet of Mirana, and also boasts of a view overlooking Shenton Way. Mirana Signatures hadn’t done too much work to the interior of the shop space after it has taken over the tenancy of the unit — much of Ya Kun Kaya Toast’s furniture and fittings remain intact; the only changes made would be where the display case for the various dishes offered for their economic rice is at, as well as the boards being put up on the wall narrating the history of Mirana’s brand name. Being an establishment that primarily serves up Economy Rice, all the dishes available are laid out in front of the glass display for patron’s to have a good view of what they have to offer for the day; patrons also can get to pick their choice of carbs ranging from white rice, fried rice and noodles / bee hoon. Beverages mostly revolve around that of canned drinks and Nanyang-style Kopi & Teh — just to name a few.

We aren’t necessarily ones that are that drawn to having Economy Rice since there is usually a diverse variety of dishes to choose from and they come without an exact description of what they actually are — that being said, we were found ourselves fascinated to give the Economy Rice at Mirana Signatures a try after hearing of a friend’s raving about their Thai-style dishes that they have to offer at their CIMB Plaza location. Despite the smaller size of the counter displaying the dishes at their OUE Downtown outlet as compared to that of their CIMB Plaza outlet, there is still quite a decent variety of dishes as well as some Thai-style dishes which the OUE Downtown outlet carries. We went for the white rice option, and opted for brinjal, Thai basil minced pork, long beans with mixed pork, and sunny side-up for our order — we also requested for our rice to be doused in a curry sauce as well. The dishes that we had can be said as pretty hearty but we would say that the Thai basil minced pork is perhaps the highlight for us — a dish that usually would not really find its way into the menu of an economy rice stall unless the stall is serving up Thai-style Cai Png (think Thai Cai Png in the FoodGarden food court at Asia Square), the Thai basil minced pork was surprisingly well-executed; even more so than that of some Thai-centric eateries out there. The Thai basil minced pork came in the way we liked it to be; not too wet with sauce, but exudes a savoury note of fish sauce that compliments the flavours of the pork — this is of course not forgetting the aromatic note of basil, some chili padi just to give it a tiny hint of heat, and the inclusion of long beans to give it a slight crunch. Definitely satiated our cravings for Thai basil minced pork rice. Brinjal was a good choice as well, considering how these were cooked to a soft texture; mostly tasting neutral, though carried a lightly sweet and savoury note that provided a good contrast of flavours against the long beans with savoury minced pork that we had also went for.

The sunny side-up itself would probably not do that well for those whom are insistent on having a flowy egg yolk; these were prepared way beforehand, considering the stack of sunny side-ups that they have stocked up in the display case — they also seemed to be prepared in moulds considering how perfectly round the egg white surrounding the egg yolk was, but this also meant thus they do not have the crisp, browned edges that some would be looking for when having a sunny side-up. The sunny side-up also came with a fully-cooked yolk, and one could definitely tell that it had been sitting around in the display case for a while before it was being served considering the temperature of the sunny side-up. The curry which they had drizzled over our portion of rice very carefully was rather pedestrian; didn’t really carry a punchy note of curry spices though helps to provide some moisture to the rice especially for those whom just generally do not enjoy white rice as-is. We found the Kopi to be generally of a decent quality, though the Kopi does come with somewhat of a sour tang in its finish; liked that it wasn’t unnecessarily sweet however. If Isle Eating House is seen as of the most convenient and accessible eateries serving up fuss-free economy rice in the areas of Orchard and Bugis, Mirana Cafe in CIMB Plaza, Iniga Cafe at International Plaza and Mirana Signatures at OUE Downtown might quite be the equivalent of Isle Eating House in the Central Business District. We paid $9 for our order, which is inclusive of the Kopi — not the cheapest around (especially considering how it is within close proximity to Shenton House, where the most affordable meals are at in the Central Business District), but definitely still considered more than just reasonably priced considering the higher price points of most dining establishments around the area closer to Marina.