Hey Hive!
We're back with more restaurantours! This was from back in May 2025, when Sean and I decided to try out a new restaurant in a nearby shopping mall after work.
The restaurant is called The White Tiffin and is named after a type of lunchbox that is common here in South Asia, that looks like this:
Source: DTC World
I've personally never used this before but it used to be quite commonplace before plastic or paper containers took over. They look really pretty and can be store different dishes which is useful for Asian cuisine since we typically eat different dishes with rice.
Anyway, the restaurant itself is located in the basement floor of the shopping mall and has an alfresco dining area that connects it to the outdoor walkway. It's nice to dine outdoors when there's a nice cooling breeze in the air.
The restaurant has a nice aesthetic, with pleasant colours blending into the retro and traditional design style. Sean and I really like traditional designs a lot, and I'm actually thinking of ways I can incorporate this kind of design into our future home!
The counter was very nicely designed as well, with many retro decorative items on top that older people would recognise.
At the entrance they also had various kueh (or bite-sized snack or desserts commonly made from glutinous rice) for sale. They're normally very colourful and pretty-looking so they also make a good display.
We took a seat at the back so we could admire the overall design of the restaurant while enjoying our meal.
Even the ceiling had colourful plates stuck to it. It looked a bit precarious but was quite nice, especially since they used the bowls like a lamp shade.
We took some time to peruse the menu at our table. They seem to specialise in Peranakan food, just like Grandma used to make. I guess that ties into the retro decor. It's not exactly a novel idea, but I've seen quite a lot of restaurants specialising in home-style cooking. After all it's quite common to say your mother or grandmother's cooking is the best.
Here's a look at the menu:
They seem to specialise in dishes lie Nasi Lemak, Longtong, Mee Siam, Laksa and Lu Rou Fan (which is actually Taiwanese braised pork rice). The last one is quite surprising since it's not exactly Peranakan, but I guess since Peranakan is half-Chinese there is some overlap.
The Nasi Lemak looked quite fancy but seemed good, with a variety of side dishes.
The curry chicken with rice also looked quite nice. I like that they also used the floral patterned china, tying into the retro style as well.
They also have small bites like all-day breakfast with common Asian breakfast items.
There was a whole slew of different drink varieties as well.
We decided on two different dishes and while waiting, Sean decided to get some extra snacks as well.
We ordered a Gula Jawa Oat Milk Tea, since we didn't know what it was and was curious. It tasted pretty much like a sweet milk tea. Gula Jawa is just another name for Gula Melaka which is a palm sugar sweetener. It was pretty nice. The kueh was soft and just mildy sweet too, which was good.
Within 10 minutes, our dishes were ready!
Sean decided to order their Nasi Lemak and it looked pretty good.
Just like a traditional Nasi Lemak, it comes with coconut rice, a fried chicken, ikan bilis (fried anchovies), peanuts, chili sauce and hard boiled eggs. But this one also came with achar (Nonya pickled vegetables) and I think Sean added on a papadam. They also added butterfly pea to the rice to make it blue and fancy, but it's mainly just a aesthetic change and it pretty much taste the same as white coconut rice.
If I recall the taste was quite good, the chicken was crispy and the chili was just mildy spicy. The only real gripe we had with this was that there was too little rice. Typical Nasi Lemak would have at least twice this amount of rice, and with the number of side dishes you'd think they'd give even more.
I couldn't decide on just 1 dish so I decided to try the Tiffin's Rice Trio, which includes a mini sampler set of the Nasi Lemak, Longtong and Lu Rou Fan. I wish they'd let you pick and choose which of their samples you wanted to try, but they had fixed sets in the menu.
Initially I would've wanted to swap out the Nasi Lemak for something else but seeing as Sean's Nasi Lemak set was a bit lacking I guess it was fine.
In the mini sampler set, I also got a piece of fried chicken, half a hard-boiled egg and some of the sides like chili sauce, peanuts, achar. It was a good sample of the bigger version for sure.
The other two dishes were also quite nice. The Longtong wasn't spicy but quite savoury, and the Lu Rou Fan (braised pork rice) was tender and saucy. Honestly they were all very tasty and I couldn't decide which one I liked best.
Overall, it was a truly delicious meal and although mine were just the sampler sets I was very satisfied. The price may have been a bit steep for a neighbourhood mall but we deserve a treat every now and then.
If you're looking for nice hearty home cooking, I'd recommend The White Tiffin. It's quite a nice place to hangout as well.
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
