Restaurant Review: Bowler by elia Doles Out Rice Bowls and Casual Bistro Fare on Jiak Chuan Road, Singapore
PUBLISHED November 24th, 2017 04:04 pm | UPDATED March 15th, 2018 09:19 am
It’s no secret that the Keong Saik district, which include its sister lanes Jiak Chuan Road and Bukit Pasoh Road, is the place to be for your fill of the best grub. How does one then pick where to go and eat? New restaurants would do well to stand out from the rest – which is what Bowler by elia has wont to do with an all-new concept, just three months since it opened in August.
They initially opened with dual concepts: a bistro by day and a casual dining establishment by night. A revamp saw the different menus slotted into a neat all-day clipboard and the food packed neatly into bowls, with the focus on rice dons and all-day breakfast – hence the name “Bowler”.
Settling into the cosy first floor of a shophouse, the space featured a window from the roof for natural light along with white lights for a clean, crisp ambience. It makes for a fuss-free setting, which draws the office crowds during the day looking for a clean, one-dish meal.
Each bowl is a meld of flavours combined and presented for a quick and ready lunch or dinner. We particularly enjoyed the vegetarian option of The Softie ($12.90) – fried garlic tofu and sauteed mushrooms atop a bed of fried rice. The breaded tofu was texturally beautiful and the generous portion of minced garlic afforded a savoury tang. The lettuce leaf didn’t add much to the bowl though.
For meat lovers, the Three Little Pigs ($15.90) is their best-selling tonkatsu rice bowl with signature curry sauce. Utilising a secret champagne marinade, the pork collar was juicy and flavourful. The complementing curry sauce dolloped over the meat was sweet and spicy (in a bid to cater to local tastes) – though the portion was a tad too little for the bowl.
On to the homemade pastas, The Italian Job ($16.90) remained from the original menu, featuring panchetta in brown butter, egg yolk and tagliatelle and served in a bowl. Creamy with Italian bacon in the mix, the noodles had an al dente spring and a curl to the stands that somehow reminded us of the local mee pok dish – not an entirely peculiar or bad comparison. Spice Girls ($16.90) was a curried delight for the tastebuds; using the same sauce from the curry rice bowl but in larger quantity, it complemented the linguine and grilled chicken thigh.
And all-day breakfast is not to be missed either – the Wholesome Threesome ($7.90) of homemade yoghurt, honey granola and apple cinnamon compote was not as sweet as originally imagined, with the apple cinnamon compote balancing the lightly sour yoghurt. The granola and dark chocolate crunch toppings, both made in-house, melded well with the cream to give it the necessary crisp for this dessert-like dish.
For the actual desserts to end off the meal, we were served two very different cakes. First up, Death by Chocolate ($11.90), a neat lava cake with vanilla gelato ice cream and nuts for some crunch. The cake was served atop an interesting basil chocolate sauce, and the moist dessert came infused with some soft floral notes that had us warm to our toes. The second was a homemade banana cake slice with the same vanilla gelato, aptly named Bananananana ($6.90). Our slice was accompanied by a garnish of edible flowers and a drizzle of salted gula Melaka.
They might have started on the wrong foot as the changes to the restaurant happened soon after we visited the first time, but Bowler by elia’s offerings make good on their promise of casual bistro fare.
Bowler by elia is located at 10 Jiak Chuan Road, Singapore 089264, p. +65 9642 2361. Tue-Sat 9am – 10pm, Sun 9am – 5pm. Closed Mon.
Cover image: Bananananana
