After hearing all the fantastic reviews about Astons, I was elated when I found out that Astons had a branch in the west! So arming myself with an empty stomach, I skipped and hopped to Prince George’s Park on 26 Mar 2008 for lunch.

 

I didn’t have a hard time looking for this place as I am quite familiar with the venue (if you want to visit there, I would advise taking the free internal shuttle bus from NUS – either Service A1 or A2. The bus will drop you off in front of the PGP residences. Just go down the flight of stairs and keep right. You will see Red Dot Café. Besides this café, there’s another short flight of steps. At the end of the steps to your right, you will see a glass door. Go inside and you’ll end up in the Foodgle Food Court. Keep walking along the rows of stalls – Astons is somewhere in the middle.)

 

Looking at the menu was a difficult thing coz there were so many food I wanted to try. I did balk at the high prices especially for the beef steak (almost S$10!) so I finally settled on char-grilled chicken. I didn’t know that the meal came with 2 sides and the person taking my order wasn’t that helpful either. He simply asked: “What sides do you want?” and waited while I pondered. He should have offered suggestions as to what sides they have instead of waiting. This poor service left me a bit peeved! Anyway, I ordered the side of fries & coleslaw and he gave me a receipt and told me my queue number was XXX.  This is an excellent idea as I can go search for a seat and get my order only when it is ready; sort of like waiting for the doctor.

 

My 2^nd disappointment came when I saw my order. I did order char-grilled chicken but what was served to me looked like an ordinary chicken chop with some sort of brown sauce on top of it. And to think that I paid S$5.30 for that when I could easily get a similar meal at half the price elsewhere in NUS. This char-grilled chicken didn’t have the tell-tale signs of being char-grilled at all. By this, I meant you should be able to see the criss-cross black marks on the chicken that says it had been char-grilled. The one I had looked like simply grilled. This is a great difference to me as the taste of char-grilled and grilled chicken is simply opposite side of the poles. 

 

The only saving grace of this dish was the generous amount of coleslaw and the great tasting fries. The fries were fried to the crisp and they probably put some red chilli powder on it. These are the skinny fries (not the chunky ones). Think of Long John Silver’s fries but the skinnier version of it. It’s not too spicy at all; the chilli powder gave it the reddish look and just a touch of spiciness on your tongue.

 

Perhaps I will come again to try the beef steak or maybe I should somehow make a trip to Astons @ East Coast. But never again will I try the char-grilled chicken at PGP. Save your $$ for elsewhere.

 

They have 3 other outlets mostly in the East. Check their website for more details.