Restaurant Review: BBQ Box @ Geylang/ Kalang MRT

Restaurant Review: BBQ Box @ Geylang/ Kalang MRT

103 Geylang Road
Singapore 389212

BBQ Box is a very simplistic, Chinese-style barbeque place located in Geylang, about 3 minutes walk from Kallang MRT on Geylang Road. Looking in from the outside, you might not be too impressed, as the interior is nothing to write home about, especially the tables/benches remind me of old railway cars with wooden seats and dividers.

For a Geylang eatery, BBQ Box is not cheap and you can get lower priced meals around the corner. However, even on a weekday, this place is abuzz with activity and people are often seen queuing outside to get one of the much-coveted tables. So, if the price is just ok, and the ambiance is not great either, the food they serve has to make up for all this, and it does.

The staff, albeit friendly, only has very limited English skills, and sometimes they get one of their colleagues to answer any questions you might have regarding the menu. The order procedure is very simple and straightforward. Once you are seated, you get a sheet of paper with the 50 or so different BBQ food choices they have and you just put down how many of each item you want. The Chinese-style BBQ food is mostly served on long skewers, but other things, such as steamed dumplings, BBQ eggplant (must try!) and the minced meat noodles (delicious!) they offer come on plates or in bowls. If you are not sure what to order or if your mandarin is as bad as mine, you can ask them for a proper menu, where big pictures give you a relatively good idea what the food is/looks like. However, be aware not to order too much, some portions are quite big (such as the dumplings or the noodles) and are very filling, even at a low price, whereas other, pricier items like the roasted quail (also delicious) are not very big. If you are unsure, whether you ordered enough, you can always ask the staff. In the event you still ordered too much, the staff will be happy to doggy-bag your food.

For more adventurous gourmets, BBQ Box also offers some more exotic items (at least for a Western palate) such as Wasabi-Agaric, which has a very strange texture and is color of algae or seaweed, but is actually a fungus. The Wasabi sauce is very nice and hot and will clear any sinus troubles you might have that night. On that note, I should point out that almost all the food at BBQ Box is spicy, as they use a special spice-mixture on the majority of their dishes, if you do not like spicy food, better stick with the noodles, dumplings or some of the veggies.

The drink menu is very limited, but fits nicely with the BBQ food and the beer and wine are ok.Personally, I prefer some water and the fresh Chinese tea they make. For a fully satisfying Chinese-BBQ experience for four people we paid S$100, which is pretty consistent with my other visits at BBQ Box. However, if you drink more alcohol, the price will go up.

Lastly, please note that you cannot make any reservations for a table at BBQ Box, as they treat their customers strictly on a first-come-first-serve basis, and even on a weekday evening the place will be full. However, the restaurant is pretty big and the waiting time is usually short...and totally worth it.

5/5 Alien Stars