Ivins (Binjai Park)

This isn't the best Peranakan food selection in town but it certainly is one of the most affordable. At average 5 SGD per plate of viand, you can easily try a number of dishes without breaking your budget. Of course, the serving reflects the price, which is that it's not a lot.

Ayam Buah Keluak
Definitely so so only. The sauce is not thick enough and doesn't have that memorable flavor.

Honey Pork
One of my favorite things to order there. It's slightly burnt but that adds to the character of the dish. This is like char siew done on thin slices of pork.

Asam (red snapper)
Forgot the name of this dish but this is one of my favorites. I like sour stuff so the sauce was wonderful according to my taste buds. It had the right amount of sour and the fish was done well.

Itek Tim
Not a big fan of this soup. Tasted weird to me.

Definitely a place to go back to if you want affordable nyonya food. Maybe better to make reservations during weekend dinner as they tend to be quite packed.

Arriving at Binja park, my family walk from the bus stop to Ivin’s, which took around 5min or thereabouts. Ivins is a Peranakan/Nonya restaurant, and although it is located in Binja park off the main Bukit timah road, it was packed to the house when i arrived on a Sat evening.

The dishes Ivins offers are small in servings, but similarly they are cheaper in price. You can normal dishes for vegies, meats, and some other sides at around $4.50 to $6. For fishs, they come in $6.90 to $8, and there are also curry fish heads at $12. Because the servings are all very small, we committed the sin of ordering too many dishes, between the three of us, we ordered 7 dishes, some are good, while some are not. Mayb we are not too familiar with Peranakan food, so we ended up having some dishes which really aren’t to our liking.

Chilly Pomfret ($7.80)

The fish was rather good, it was deep fried, then spread with Ivins special-made chilli. The fish was kind of small though.

Ayam Buah Keluak ($5.90)

Signature dish of Peranakan cuisine. Chicken braised in thick spicy gravy with Buah kuluah nuts. We felt this dish was so-so only, chicken curry with the curry gravy different from our normal curry.

Sambal Kankong ($4.50)

Ahh.. All Kankong are well done when they are fried with Sambal, and when the kankong are not too over-cooked.

Duan Keledek ($4.80)

Sweet potato leaves and sweet potato slices in coconut gravy. This was our fatal mistake, we wanted to have Sweet potato leaves, but when we order this dish, we missed on out the “.. in coconut gravy” We thought the vegies was stir-fried, but in the end it came in the form of a soup? Anyway, the dish wasn’t to our taste.

Honey Pork ($4.60)

This should be the toast of the crown. By far the best dish we ordered, lean pork strips stir-fried in special honey sauce. The meat no doubt look over-burned, but it taste nice with the honey sauce absorbed into the meat.

Udang Sambal ($5)

This was a disappointment really, after we had the Chilly Pomfret, we thought Ivins chilli are good stuff, so we made this additional order for sambal prawn. The prawn is like cooked in water, then with the chilli over it only.

Babi Tauyu ($4.60)

Pork in sweet pepperish sauce. Again, this was a last-min-order. We never expected this to be our commonly known “ru-rou”.

Then mayb you will say, if you don’t know about Perankan cuisine its not the restaurant fault if you never ask right? Oh yea, we did ask the waitress, but many a times, they can’t really speak good english, and also cannot explain to us what are the dishes.

In addition, you will commit the same mistake of ordering too much dishes since the servings are small, and the dishes seem relatively cheap. Nevertheless, i believe Ivins are still a good place for Peranakan cuisine if you know your stuff well, judging from the crowd on a weekend evening. But i am not going back for now. Total bill was $43.70 for 3 person

You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to distortion or bias. Please click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived : )

” My opinion, my views. If you don’t agree, thats not really a issue “

I fell in love with this restaurant the first time i ate there. I always frequent this place as it is near where I stay as well. But even if I moved, I would travel back to eat!

There is so many to choose from and the price is so reasonable. The portions are small for some, but it gives you the choice of ordering and trying other dishes as well. I would recommend the honey pork, ayam buah kelauk, otak otak, chilli pomfret, chye poh omelette, sambal kang kong...oh and the duck soup (forgot the name) and the meat ball soup (forgot the name as well).

These is the set meal, nasi lemak style, which is value for money and it comes with a free dessert as well. There also local delights like mee siam (which i love), laksa, mee goreng etc etc.

The desserts are absolutely great! ALL are worth a try!

There isn't a shortage of good restaurants serving Peranakan cuisine. The long and short is that Ivins is amongst the decent lot.

If you're scrimping you can always go for the lunch special. It's really Nasi Lemak served with fish cake, ikan bilis and peanut, chicken, and an omlette - plus a dessert of your choice (very erratic quality) to round off. At $5.50, it gives you flexibility to order a couple other a la carte items to share if you're in a group.

But if you're adventurous, the a la carte items are usually between $3 to $6, and each serving is usually enough for groups of 3-4. Crowd pleasers include the ayam buah keluak, babi pongteh, beef rendang, otak otak pangang, lady fingers' sambal and petai sambal. But there's really a huge bunch of items to choose from (seafood, omlettes, vegs), and most patrons would tell you everything on the menu is good. That's largely true. By my calculations, to determine how many dishes you should try, simply add one to the number of people in your group dining. It won't be disappointing.

By the way, go for Kuning rice to give a little more fragrance.