My friends and I were looking forward to this Ossington restaurant because one of them is from Singapore, the cuisine that inspired Hawker Bar to open. She was regaling us with mouthwatering description of her native dishes and we were all very excited to try.
Upon stepping in the restaurant, we really like the hip vibes and quaint atmosphere which seemed like a great place to grab drinks and dinner with friends.
We ordered the son in law eggs and since I've never tried it I really like the flavour profile of sweet and sour spiciness; I think it'll make a good snack! Another dish I tried is laksa which is also a spicy sour dish but I found it quite similar to Tom Yum Gong a Thai soup which was somewhat disappointing. A staple of Singaporean cuisine and a must try is the Hainanese chicken rice which was poorly prepared - with overcooked chicken rendering its texture dry and stringy, and the rice was bland without the hallmark flavour of rich chicken fat cooked with it.
To accompany our dishes, we ordered satay which as grilled meat skewers in the Southeast Asian region. For four skewers that were overcooked, dry, almost tasteless and drenched in superfluous and unnecessary sauce, it was quite a sad platter for price. Overall, we felt Hawker Bar didn't live up to its expectations of serving authentic food and found it extremely diluted and lacking in body and richness.