CALL me old-school – or old – but I have never quite liked the usual coffee-shop business of eating off plastic ware.

To me, mee pok that comes in an old-fashioned rooster bowl is somehow more comforting and tastier.

And it is simply less stressful carving meat on a sturdy porcelain plate than on a light, slithery plastic dish.

So I felt an incredible sense of relief when at the four-month-new Western Chow stall in Ghim Moh the other day, my friends and I got our food on china.

The porcelain crockery provided a welcome touch of the old world, and on top of that, the Western fare was quite decent.

I started with mashed potato salad with ham ($2.50), and was won over as soon as it arrived in a cute ice-cream cup. That the salad was somewhat chunky made it all the more homemade and charming.

Two friends liked their mushroom soup ($2.50), though it tasted more of salt and flour than fungus.

For our main courses, we tried chicken, dory and pork.

Both the chicken chops ($5.80) we had were juicy, although the one dressed in black pepper sauce was more spunkily delicious than the one in mushroom sauce.

The dory fish with herbs ($6) we tried was so-so. The dish smelled more of the herb garden than the ocean, and the fish did not taste as fresh and sweet as we would have liked.

We loved the grilled pork chop ($6) though. It was pink in the middle, tender and easily one of the most impressive items.

The mains came with well-prepared sides too, such as fries (crispy), garlic bread (crispy but thankfully not gum-cuttingly so) and coleslaw (crunchy).

Western Chow is a chain hopeful. The first shop was set up in Lorong Ah Soo last year, and the second one in Ghim Moh in January. Managing director Fabian Chiow hopes to get more outlets going (“two per year”).

Well, if our dinner outing was anything to go by, his dream might just come true.
 
WESTERN CHOW
Block 19 Ghim Moh, 01-229
Open: 11.30am to 10.30pm, closed on Tuesdays
Block 134 Lorong Ah Soo, 01-454
Open: 11.30am to 10.30pm daily
Rating: ***

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on May 11, 2008.