Nan Yang Dao 南洋岛 (Hougang)

was q disappointed with this despite seeing a lot of rave reviews about it :( pastry was really soggy

The previous occupant, Xing Hua Lou, actually served a really good sweet and sour pork which we were going to miss now that they have moved out.

Nan Yang Dao thankfully serves a sweet and sour pork that was just as good. We like that they use a tender and juicy cut of pork and the sauce was well balanced.

Nan Yang Dao's Penang Assam Laksa was my personal favourite dish.

At $7 a bowl, the portion was really large and came topped with ikan kembung (chub mackerel), sliced cucumber, onions, pineapple, mint leaves and chilli.

The Assam broth is without a doubt the component that makes or breaks this dish, and Nan Yang Dao passes with flying colours. We love that the broth is piquant, tangy, rich and complex with a nice briny and earthy flavour from the melodic combination of mackerel and tamarind.

This is definitely a bowl of Assam Laksa we will be back for!

Nan Yang Dao has taken over the spot previously occupied by Xing Hua Lou on the ground floor of Heartland Mall.

The diner has fast gained popularity, attracting hour long queues during peak dining hours for their good and unpretentious Malaysian cuisine.

I am personally not a fan of their elbow to elbow room sitting arrangements. The wait for the food itself was also rather long (which kinda explains the long wait for a table too). I hope though that these are teething issues in a new location with unexpected crowds.

The food though was good. We liked that the penang fried kway teow was savoury and packed a decent amount of wokhey. It also came topped with prawns, beansprouts and lapcheong. It was however a little too spicy and I wished that they stated on the menu that the dish comes spicy unless otherwise indicated.

The folks behind Nan Yang Dao 南洋岛 do seem like they are pretty much on a roll — the expansion of their operations seem to have been pretty aggressive thus far, with outlets in various locations spread all around Singapore ever since they had first started operations from their very first location at Serangoon Central. While the outlet at Hillion Mall had only been in operations. For a couple of months, the folks at Nan Yang Dao have already opened yet another new outlet at Heartland Mall which is just walking distance away from Kovan MRT Station. Their Heartland Mall outlet takes over the former premises of the now-defunct Xing Hua; a rather tightly-packed space where there are clear attempts to maximise the seating capacity of the space. Despite so, the interior of the space still largely sticks to theme that Nan Yang Dao locations are generally based on; one that features more Southeast Asian-style flavours with white tables and rattan-esque dining chairs that is mixed with cushioned seating — the use of royal green as for the colour theme is also largely consistent to what is known to the brand name. Nan Yang Dao has been consistently adding new dishes to its menu all these while — the menu having been expanded to include categories such as Appetisers / Side Dish, Signature Dishes, Noodles, Main Course, Rice, Ricebowl Series (think offerings similar to the scrambled egg rice bowls offered by Dan Lao 蛋佬), Fried Rice Series, Nanyang Nasi Lemak and Desserts. Newly-introduced to the menu of Nan Yang Dao ever since the opening of their Heartland Mall outlet includes their Signature-Nanyang Sam Hei series — this comprises of items like their Butter Polo Bun and Puff Pastry Egg Tarts. For beverages, Nan Yang Dao offers drinks like Nanyang-style Kopi and Teh, as well as a Tea Series, special concoctions like the Bear Iced Coffee and Special Milo Dinosaur, hot beverages such as Chrysanthemum Tea and Warm Barley and a selection of soft drinks as well.

We had been eyeing on giving Nan Yang Dao’s Puff Pastry Egg Tarts from their Signature-Nanyang Sam Hei series a go for quite a while. These were initially unavailable at Heartland Mall when they had first started their operations there; that being said, they are still pretty elusive items to go for considering how there is a limited production of the Puff Pastry Egg Tarts at 500 pieces daily — these while have been usually sold out for the day if one were to drop by Nan Yang Dao during the evening. Since we are pretty much into egg tarts and that the Signature-Nanyang Sam Hei series marks Nan Yang Dao’s very first venture into serving bakes and pastries, we were very much excited to give these a try when we had noticed them to be in-stock. Truth to be told, we found the Puff Pastry Egg Tarts to be decent; good enough to be paired up with the Iced Kopi for a leisurely snack but wasn’t something which we found to be spectacular. Served to the table after being warmed up, we did feel that the Puff Pastry Egg Tarts delivered in terms of texture — the puff pastry holding up the egg curd seems to be crisp, buttery and flaky; almost akin to that of a Danish pastry. That being said, this also meant that the pastry did feel a little greasy — the sheer size of the Puff Pastry Egg Tarts at Nan Yang Dao also meant that it came a little jelat after a while as a result. The egg curd does carry a rather balanced sweetness; probably more suited for those whom prefer things to be less sweet, though we did wish that the eggy notes could pull off a little more here just to give it that “oomph” it requires. The Butter Polo Bun was also decent in terms of texture — if anything, we did enjoy the light and fluffy texture of the bun with a light and crusted top which made it a fairly easy eat. That aside though, the buttery, milky sweetness for the crust typical of Polo Buns isn’t particularly prominent here, though this is easily if one goes for a little bit of the condensed milk that attempts to bring out those notes from the bun as well. The main stars of the show at Nan Yang Dao do seem to be their Malaysian-style noodles and appetisers still, though it is interesting to see the variety which they are providing to their patrons to get them come back for something new every time.