Irvins' Messy Rice & Noodle Bowls Taste Test: Nice Or Not?

You get a choice of three bases: Salted Egg Rice ($11), Truffle Rice ($10), and Truffle Noodles ($10). These come with your pick of protein, either salt and pepper chicken, or calamari for the Salted Egg Rice bowls; Prawn, or Clam for the Truffle bowls. The Truffle bowls also come in Original and Spicy variants. Swap the rice for brown rice ($2) if you’re feeling particularly virtuous on the day or upgrade your bowl with added rice ($1), protein ($2), or a sous vide or hard-boiled egg ($1). Or, you could realise that we are basically star dust in skin suits, animated by desire, and get an extra serve of salted egg sauce for $4.

If you’d rather skip foreplay and head straight for the fried stuff, the sides are Salt and Pepper Chicken ($7), Salt and Pepper Calamari ($7), and Truffle Fries ($6). Drinks are lime juice and green tea ($3 each) and dessert is a mango coconut pudding ($5). Why Messy? Well CEO and Co-Founder Irvin Gunawan says, “We’ve called it Irvins Messy Kitchen because we love a beautiful mess, a life that is full of colours.” We reckon the Messy moniker works really well for the bowls too as you’re meant to give them a good shake before eating — so that all the goodness inside becomes a mess of evenly distributed deliciousness.

Unlidded, the Salted Egg Messy Rice Bowls look anything but messy. Chunks of chicken (or calamari), potato batons, kailan stems sliced into thin rounds, and deep-fried shredded kailan leaves are arranged in neat mounds around a gooey onsen egg nestled in the centre. The bowls come with a generous serve of the salted egg sauce, thick and grainy, with a good number of curry leaves submerged in its golden depths. The sauce is adequately moreish, its rich, salted eggy-ness cut through with the musky pungency of the curry leaves. We pour the sauce in, close the lid tightly, and proceed to shake the bowl like a polaroid picture. Post shaking, the contents finally look messy (yay!) but still appetising. Unfortunately, the bowl looks better than it tastes. The salt and pepper chicken is dry and bland, its outer crust soggy. The potato shreds add welcome texture and we appreciate the umami-ness and faint bitter edge of the fried leaves, but overall, the veg sides don’t do quite enough for the dish. Worse still, the onsen egg has the unfortunate effect of watering down the flavour and intensity of the salted egg sauce. The net effect ends up being a jumbled-up mush that’s not very exciting.

The Calamari bowl fares better in terms of flavour. Yes, the calamari rings were leathery, with gloopy bits of batter falling off in chunks but they were still tastier than the chicken. The bowl arrived bereft of egg as it was left out by mistake. This turned out to be a happy accident. Sans onsen egg, the sauce was allowed to shine in its unadulterated glory, and was made even better when paired with the calamari’s briny sweetness. Also, the rice is nicely fluffy with pearls of separated grains. Our tip: get the calamari bowl and ditch the egg (or have it on the side). Or get the calamari a la carte and pair them with the salted egg sauce dip.

The whiff of truffle that emanates when we first lift the lid is chemical but its resulting flavour is overly mild and therefore, inoffensive. The noodles comes with an assortment of crunchy fried things (ans no salted egg sauce): tiny ikan bilis, fried shallots, and what looks like tempura crumbs, alongside tobiko, white clams and an onsen egg. Flecked with bits of black truffle, the pale wheat noodles are soft and pliant, but not mushy. With each bite you get chewy clams, fragrant fried shallots, the salty crunch of the ikan bilis, and delightful little bursts of the sea when the tobiko pops in your mouth. Surprisingly quite good.

The prawns used here are a cut above the usual ones you get at food courts that somehow manage to taste of absolutely nothing at all — like the antithesis of flavour encased in a rubbery prawn membrane. For the price here you get four medium-sized prawns, sufficiently plump, but quite salty, with the usual truffle bowl toppings: ikan bilis, fried shallots, tempura crumbs, tobiko, and onsen egg. The added spiciness comes in the form of little flakes of what looks to be hae bee hiam, dark red and spicy. What it also adds unfortunately, is a yet another layer of saltiness to an already salty mix, making this quite the one-dimensional sodium bomb.

Some people might think that a rich coconut pudding would be too jelak an end to a meal that essentially comprises salted egg yolk sauce and fried stuff, but we refuse to subscribe to such schools of negativity. The pudding is rich and creamy, with a velvety mouthfeel and a pleasant, not overly artificial, coconut flavour. It’s a pity the mango filling is a let-down, its cordial-like sweetness overpowering the pudding’s delicate coconut flavour. Perhaps mango puree, or chunks, could work better. Still, this was quite lovely, and we finished the pot and licked our spoon clean.

Not as dangerously addictive as we expected. Perhaps partly because they weren’t consumed at their best (there was a delay in our delivery due to traffic). This is most obvious with the soggy batter on the calamari. However that still doesn’t account for the over-salting of the Spicy Truffle Prawn Rice or the dry chicken. Teething problems which will be corrected in due course, we'd like to think. Meanwhile, if you’re picking up one of these bowls — get the fairly yummy Truffle Noodles with clams or the Salted Egg Messy Bowl (Calamari), and make sure to have them hot.

Irvins Messy Kitchen (takeaway only) is located at #B1-59 Wisma Atria. Open daily 10am – 10pm. Also available via delivery by Deliveroo. https://www.irvinsaltedegg.com/page/messykitchen