Nasi Padang River Valley or What I Call Zion Road Nasi Padang

I have been going on a Nasi Padang blitz as of late.  A full on attack.  I don’t know why, but I suddenly have an intense craving for this wonderful Indonesian-Malay cuisine, which is rice and all kinds of flavourful curry.

One of my recent visits was to the famous Zion Road coffee shop which is B’s favourite place for Nasi Padang and he especially likes the Beef Rendang. Since I don’t eat beef, I’ll take his word for it. I found the rest of the curries a bit too dilute for my taste, but I do appreciate that they are super generous with the curries unlike my favourite place in terms of taste – Minang at Kandahar Street, where it’s hard to get a separate bowl of just the chicken curry.

Also the whole system is a bit chaotic as my photos may show. You order your food and then you have to go backwards in the queue to pick up your food. That way the orders kinda get mixed up. Anyway this is what B tells me as he does the queuing and ordering.

From my photos you can see how very popular this Nasi Padang stall is.

photo by bookjunkie

This restaurant is officially known as River Valley Nasi Padang, although we refer to it as Zion Road Nasi Padang. It’s been annointed by Singapore’s Food experts at Makansutra with 6 out of 6 chopsticks which is full marks. Just note as the sign says that they close on Mondays.

photo by bookjunkie

A bit of the chaotic queue. You can’t really see the full effect here as it looks quite orderly from the photos.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

The food may not look appealing, but usually, for me at least, the messiest looking food is usually the yummiest. I think this only applies to Asian curry based meals.

photo by bookjunkie

This is the chilli padi smbal which you add to your rice to make it deliciously spicy. Somehow I feel the spice in the main dishes have been much reduced to cater to the tastes of the clientelle. Maybe that’s why I prefer Minang – richer and spicer for sure.

photo by bookjunkie

I have been having mostly water lately with my meals, but Nasi Padang is just not the same without Sarsi which I’ve loved since I was 4. If you’re not familiar with this, it’s our local version of Root Beer but has a completely different taste.

photo by bookjunkie

The whole meal came up to less than S$20 which B thinks is a good price. This coffeeshop restaurant is just opposite the Great World City mall, but there’s a public carpark just nearby as well. Read about my last visit here and I am tickled that I had Sarsi then too. I am so predictable.

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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4 Responses to Nasi Padang River Valley or What I Call Zion Road Nasi Padang

  1. Adrianna Tan says:

    If you ever come up to KL, I’ll take you for great Malay food — $20 can feed you for a week — and awesome satay padang, which we don’t get in Singapore.

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