Szechuan Kitchen, Raffles the Plaza

Whoa - this place's food quality has gone down the tubes. It's a casual offshoot of the more formal Szechuan Kitchen (Raffles the Plaza Level 3, 6431-5923), and I used to come here a lot over the past 3-4 years as it was the only place in Singapore that I could find with decently good "red oil wontons," a favorite of mine from Taipei. Given the letdown I had yesterday at Silk Road Noodle Bar, I was hoping for a nice recovery here. Instead, I was totally disappointed. The wontons lacked spiciness and instead have become mildly sweet like Silk Road. Ugh!! The dan dan mien, although in a much smaller bowl than yesterday, also lacked punch.

The only thing worth my while here was the hot and sour soup, which, was not on the "kitchen" menu, but featured some long cuts of chives, which added a nice touch of flavor. But it still wasn't the best hot & sour soup that I've ever had. And they messed up my order twice. What the heck happened to this place?

Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'll be in Taipei in a few days anyway, where I'll be able to hit up some of my favorite spots then. I guess I'm just a bit bummed that this place suddenly took a turn for the worse as it used to be my standby when I couldn't go to Taiwan. Maybe they switched chefs or something.