Astons Specialties. Does that ring a bell? You might have read about this popular restaurant at East Coast Road from local food blogs. A place that serves good western food at a very reasonable price. You may think that it’s just like any other western food stalls at the foodcourt or hawker centre, but Astons offers a lot more choices, with more sides to choose from as well.. A new outlet was opened at Serangoon Gardens and I’ve been wanting to try their food for the longest time. Every time I am there, I see a long queue. In fact, all the tables at the coffeeshop are occupied by their customers in the evening. I get turned off by the queue of course and that is why I didn’t had a chance to taste their food till recently.

You have to get there early if you’re going on weekends. Be prepared to wait for your food. If you are not going to spend about 15 minutes queuing to order your food and another 20 to 25 minutes before your food is served to you, then forget it.

We ordered a soup and 2 mains. The mushroom soup was served hot with very nice crusty garlic bread (although they’re a bit charred). I like the soup, neither too bland or too salty, just nice. B finds it ok only. Well, perhaps I was too hungry?

B had his Pork Chop and it didn’t pass the test. The meat was kind of tough. Not many places have nice tender pork chops. But a new stall near our place has their pork chop nice and tender. Most importantly, it’s cheap. So, too bad for Astons.

I had the Hickory BBQ Chicken. It’s basically chicken chop with bbq sauce. The chicken was tender and juicy but the bbq sauce is too sweet for my liking. The sides we chose were not too bad, coleslaw, onion rings and pasta salad. I like the pasta salad. You can choose 2 sides of your choice such as baked potatoes, potato salad, fries, mashed potatoes, salad. There are a few more to choose from, but I can’t remember all of them. Other than the chops, they have other standard mains like pasta, burgers and steaks.

So is it worth the time queuing? B says no. He doesn’t like to queue. Oh well.. I was hoping to try their lamb chops.

Astons Specialties Huat Hin Coffee Shop 56 Serangoon Garden Road