Shiok is in the middle of their soft opening serving up Singaporean Cuisine in Vancouver. I’ve heard lots about Shiok, so I decided to come for a visit with friends.
It was pretty busy on a weekend in the evening. We came at 5:30pm and it filled up very quickly.
Ordering
You have to order up at the counter before sitting down. If you’re lucky, there wont be a wait for a table. They will give you a number and keep that to put on your table.
After you put in your order, grab water, napkins and utensils to your table. It’s pretty much self-serve.
when your order is ready, they will deliver it to your table.
Interior
You order at the counter and then find a seat in the dining area. If it’s your first time visiting, it’s pretty confusing at first. We came with a baby and 4 adults, the seating was a sit cramped but we could have easily left the stroller in the car.
Menu
*Menu as of the writing of this article, subject to change.
Drinks
Kopi-C and Teh-C was what we ordered. The one on the left is the coffee with condensed milk and the other is Singaporean tea with condensed milk.
Both were good and paired well with the meal.
Chicken Wings
Crispy deep fried prawn-spiced chicken wings were pretty good. Nice and crisp. A good item to share among the table. There were 6 pieces.
Satay
An order has 4 sticks of beef or chicken skewers served with their peanut sauce. We got half beef and half chicken in our order. The satay skewers were thin and not very appealing. I would have paid more to get larger skewers.
Tau Pok
There are 6 tofu puffs stuffed with beansprouts and cucumbers, served with sweet and spicy rojak sauce. It’s a one bite appetizer and we thought it was ok.
Roti Prata
The Roti Prata is served with chicken curry gravy for dipping. I really enjoyed this dish. Very well done and the chicken curry gravy is delicious.
Laksa
This is Singapore’s version of Laksa. You can get these with white or yellow noodles. We went with yellow, but mix is an option too. I thought this dish was so-so.
Boneless Chicken Rice
The traditional Singaporean take on Hainanese chicken rice. The portion was small and the chicken wasn’t very flavourful and was bland.
Mee Siam
This has sweet, sour, and mildly spicy rice vermicelli topped with shrimp, tofu puffs, and egg served in a tamarind-base gravy. The was an interesting dish but it was a miss as we didn’t like the tamarind gravy as it tasted like fermented bean paste.
Nyonya Chicken Curry
Delicately fragrant Peranakan coconut chicken curry. It was a bit hard to eat it with the bones. It has 2 pieces of chicken and a potato in the curry.
It’s a good size for one person but definitely too hard to split among the table.
Beef Rendang
This dish has slow-cooked spicy curried coconut beef served with rice. This dish was really delicious and we enjoyed it.
Clean Up
Once you’re done with your meal, you have to clear and sort all your dishes, cups and utensils. We had a lot so we made multiple trips to the bins.
Final Thoughts
The prices on the menu are really good until you actually see the portion size. I could easily eat two entrees and an appetizer on my own. My friends ended up sharing everything family style. Dishes were very hit and miss for our personal tastes.
They definitely have a few things to work out as they are still in their soft opening phase. I love how its family run and operated, a lot of people seem to love this place, but sadly it didn’t work out for us.
Address:
1716 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC V5N 2S4
Website:
https://shiok.ca/
