Merlion Restaurant & Bar

I always order chicken green curry for to-go! Great service! Price is worth it.
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Very slow service. We didn't get menus or plates or utensils. So my dad went to get menus. The samosas were yummy. The roti prata was very good but cold. The okra dish was ok. The lamb and beans dish was tender and good. The fried fish and fried shrimp are really good.

How could one mess up the order 3 times?

We ordered 4 Thai iced tea with other entrees and appetizers.
1. None of the ice tea came even when all the food came.
2. Asked the waitress for our Thai tea, nothing happened.
3. Asked another waitress for our 4 Thai tea, one came.

Asked again, then they served the other 3.

The food is nothing special. There are plenty other better restaurants around. Most likely I won't be back.

Our favorite restaurant in the area. The recurring theme for us has been that they execute their wide variety of dishes really well. Open kitchen and the food comes out fresh and hot. Importantly they are low on grease especially compared to virtually all Chinese restaurants.

Love their hainan chicken and rice (classic) with garlic and hot dipping sauces; their crispy fried chili shrimp, fish and tofu dishes are incredibly light piping hot and fresh; sizzling beef or tofu on a hot iron plate are truly a spectacle. Large portions too. Very happy with this place!

Wow, this place is huge, and there are monstrous statues of white merlions out front and right after you enter the restaurant. What pray tell is a merlion, you may ask? OK, you probably don't say "pray tell", but you get the gist, right? Anyhow, a quick look in Wikipedia educated me to the fact that the merlion is the mascot of Singapore, a fish with a lion's head, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know this is a Singaporean restaurant. This was a significant revelation to me though because that must mean they serve Hainan chicken rice, which sure enough, they do, and it's near where my dad lives which was a big geographic plus for me since finding lunchtime options for him can become challenging.

Sure enough, I ordered the $11.95 Hainan Chicken Rice, which was a generous portion of dark meat with the skin left on and poached liberally in a warm soy sauce broth (photo: http://bit.ly/2m8Hkm5). What bothered me a bit was the nickel and diming approach they took with special requests. If you want it boneless, they charge you an extra dollar even though I think boneless should be the default state for such a specialized dish. If you want all white or in my case, all dark meat, that costs you an extra $2, so the price is really $14.95, which is still in the acceptable price range but barely. The accompanying bowl of rice was tasty as it was completely infused in chicken broth where it was almost like a fried rice (photo: http://bit.ly/2hXU62k).

It also came with the standard ginger and garlic sauce plus the red chili sauce. Just wish the sauce collection offered at Savoy Kitchen down in Monterey Park was more of the norm at places like this where they ladle out from buckets (review: http://bit.ly/2uWbMTL). For my dad, I ordered the Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice, which was quite an abundant serving with plenty of prawns and pineapple chunks (photo: http://bit.ly/2jeUexE). I just had a bite of it, but it was definitely the comfort food he enjoys without any fuss even though the rise was a tad oily for my taste. Regardless, he had leftovers for dinner which I think pleased me more than him. And hey, I've got another option for Hainan chicken rice along my regular weekend route, and that can't be a bad thing.

FOOD - 4 stars...definitely decent Hainan chicken but stop nickel and diming me!
AMBIANCE - 3.5 stars...whole lotta space in here and kinda dark
SERVICE - 3.5 stars...pretty attentive though I tend to get pickier around my dad
TOTAL - 4 stars...I think that merlion winked at me

This time we took my in laws. (Old indian people)
They totally loved the food!!
My hubby loved the huge chunks of tofu in the sizzler!
Roti prata is our all time favorite

The garlic fries cud have had more garlic!

Two things I should have done: 1. Checked Yelp for reviews; 2. Left when we were the only table being served on a Saturday night at 8:30pm.

Our waitress was fairly nice, accomadating our needs with quick service.

We ordered Calamari, Seafood Laksa, Red Curry, and a couple drinks.

The calamari was fried in what tasted like old, unchanged canola oil. The taste was very weird. I ended up peeling all the fried skin off just to eat the squid. I took a bite of one calamari skin and it exploded in an excessive amount of salt. It literally tasted like I just opened my mouth in the ocean. Even after sipping my beer, the salty taste was still there.

The Laksa looked promising. The shrimp was slimy, but the fish balls were okay. The Laksa soup lacked any kind of seasoning. There was so much oil floating around in the soup as well. It tasted like a thick, creamy oil. No salt, no seasoning, no seafood flavor. The noodles were just as bland. I left the bowl unfinished.

The red curry was peculiar. It was decent compared to our other dishes, but still severely lacking in comparison to other dishes I've had before tonight's experience.

After finishing our meal, I tried to sip on my beer and I kept feeling food coming back up. I didnt eat much, but I thought that I just must have been full. I left my beer unfinished as well.

When I came home, the food still kept coming back up until I ran to my toilet from steadily increasing nausea. I came back a second time after already puking, because the food was still fighting with my stomach.

Now I'm in bed with a twisting stomach writing this review. I still feel nauseas and the food continues to fight with me.

I was optimistic about this restaurant, but this was the worst dining experience I've had in a long time.

If you are thinking about taking your chances, I highly recommend that you take your business elsewhere.

This place is now completely gone. After I don't know how many years this place has been in Cupertino, it's completely empty. This place has been hit hard during the pandemic and the owners decided not to stay. Back then there was a Chinese coffee shop nearby which closed in 2018 due to poor business and service The fountain still remains. I came here once and didn't like it because it is overpriced and you are paying for less than intended. I tried a traditional char Kway teow and it didn't taste authentic at all. I am part Singaporean and the real thing overseas is a lot better. When I was in the restaurant it was only my mum and I plus this young couple. This place is so bad that even the wealthy people of Cupertino never come here. It has partial responsibility in why 95014 is on a demise.

Awesome Singaporean classy restaurant. The Merlion statue in front is exactly like the statue in Singapore harbor.

Brass tax:
Best fried food! Every fried food was perfectly crunch. Quality large 30ct shrimp.
Great egg rolls
Great sauces

Laksa: not very good... no tumeric, bland and tasteless
Disappointing as this is Singapore traditional fish

Roti and bread perfect
Satee perfect

Singapore sling powerfully potent

The symbol of Singapore has been transformed into the mascot and name of this Southeast Asian restaurant in Cupertino. It has a full bar and is surprisingly large inside, but the decor is a little dated and drab. Coming in for dinner, I wasn't particularly impressed by the inauthentic flavors of the food, and though the prices of the dishes themselves aren't high, I didn't feel that I got much value from what I did pay.

To start, I had the roti prata, a flaky, crispy flatbread served with a completely flavorless, generic curry sauce. The bread itself was fine, but the pool of yellow, greasy curry was a big disappointment. I also had the nasi lemak as my entree, a classic dish of coconut rice with beef rendang, peanuts, anchovies, and pickled vegetables. The beef in the rendang was surprisingly tender, but nothing else about the dish was particularly authentic or flavorful. Finally, for dessert, I had the bubor cha cha, a warm coconut milk-based soup with boiled yam, taro, and black-eyed peas. While tasty, the tiny bowl was not worth the $6 price tag. I probably won't be back anytime soon.

Decided to re-visit after 10 years since that 1st time was a good experience.....things have changed. It was a Friday night and we had 5:30 reses and definitely not a problem as there were only 10 other diners in this well spaced area. The meal was as follows:

Roti Pratha- The roti itself was a little dense and not as flaky as in the past but the curry dipping sauce was spot on.

Satay Sampler- Decent flavor but lacking tenderness and the peanut sauce that accompanied it was too thick and bland.

Veggie Stir Fry- Simple dish with no seasoning and lack of variety, not very Singaporean or Asian for that matter.

Singaporean Prawns- Wet, and nothing close to what I experienced before. Definitely more of a bottled sweet & sour sauce that drowned the small prawns and large pieces of onions.

With the lack of patrons there, the service was a little slow and after 10 years I may wait another 10 to return.