CHARLES GRILL

14 December 2007

Urban legend has it that Block 445 coffee shop was sold 2 weeks ago and the new owner is asking for an incredible high rent from the current stallholders. Withhold by the steep rent, the chicken rice stall has to relocate and my favourite western food stall decided to retire from business...


CHARLES GRILL current stall

CHARLES GRILL Menu
CHARLES GRILL serves delicious and of consistent high quality hainanese western food at affordable price.

The menu of CHARLES GRILL consists of Sirloin Steak, Lamb Chop, Half Spring Chicken, Chicken Cutlet, Chicken Chop, Pork Chop, Pork Cutlet, Fish Cutlet, Sausage & Eggs and Chicken Wings... Fish Cutlet is the signature dish of CHARLES GRILL, attracting customers from all parts of Tampines who came specially for the 2 large pieces of crispy breaded dory...

All sets consists of the main course that is accompanied with french fries, baked beans, cucumber and tomato slices. Initially, Chicken Wings were sold as a 3 pieces ala carte, but evolved into a full Chicken Wings Set in recent years. Baked beans of the Fish Cutlet set were also replaced by tartar sauces in the late 1990s...

For diners eating at the coffee shop, the food are serve on a large white ceramic plate with fork and knife wrap in paper napkin and bottles of chilli and ketchup...


CHARLES GRILL menu

CHARLES GRILL History
Starting business in the late 1980s by an uncle and 2 aunties, CHARLES GRILL is the 2nd generation western food stallholder of Tampines Block 445 coffee shop. CHARLES GRILL is also the longest-standing stall of Blk 445 coffee shop that withstood the test of time, as the remaining stalls have undergone numerous change of ownership...

CHARLES GRILL was initially located at the 1st stall along the corridor. With an open kitchen, customers get to see how their order was being prepared and cooked. The viewing provides customers with a rare insight into the cooking process. It is extremely interesting to view steaks and chops being grill; cutlets, spring chicken, chicken wings and fries being fried; baked beans and sausages being steam, before being place onto plates or take away packs...

Following a change of ownership of the coffee shop in 2004, CHARLES GRILL shifted into an inner stall due to steep increase in rent for their original stall. With this shift, customers no longer have the privilege of viewing the cooking process. Visibility of the stall from Street 42 was also greatly reduced...


CHARLES GRILL kitchen

My memories of CHARLES GRILL
My family have been patronising CHARLES GRILL since its establishment. I have been eating its western food since my childhood days, way before I attended kindergarten... Back then, I remembered Papa would always order Fish Cutlet while Mumy would always order Pork Chop...

At that time, whenever my family order take-away from CHARLES GRILL or the tze char stall, my brother and I would always play at the gentle sloping lawn in front of the open kitchen. It is common for the two of us to jump up and down the rectangular granite manhole or run around the numerous jackfruit trees...

It has also been a traditional for my family to take-away CHARLES GRILL on National Day, when our family would eat Fish Cutlet, Pork Chop and other food from the tze cha stall while watching the National Day Parade live telecast...

After I started attending primary school, I became even more interested in watching the cooking process from the open kitchen... With more pocket money during my secondary school days, I started to patronize CHARLES GRILL more frequently... From 2003, I would take-away CHARLES GRILL after finishing my weekly run along Tampines Park Connector...

It is very sweet that the aunties remembered my order and my preferences for more chilli or ketchup whenever I buy take away...

My review of CHARLES GRILL
Through the years, I have tasted almost every dish on the menu. It is my greatest pity that I have not tasted Sirloin Steak, Lamb Chop and Half Spring Chicken... Although all taste good, my favourite is Fish Cutlet and it is what I usually ordered. I love the large breaded Fish Cutlet.

The large breaded Chicken Cutlet is crispy and yet not oily. It is rare for western food stall to serve breaded Pork Cutlet. The grilled Chicken Chop and Pork Chop is lean and not over or under cook, making it extremely delicious. The Chicken Wings are seasoned with hua diao jiu and several seasoning before being deep fried into a beautiful golden brown. This gives the crispy Chicken Wings its unique fragrance and taste. For a light meal, Sausage & Eggs would be just perfect.

CHARLES GRILL uses the large cut french fries that is seldom served in the standard western food stall. I personally prefer this type of fries as it has more potato and not too salty, providing a richer and more obvious taste of potato. Sometimes if you are lucky, you might get freshly fried french fries for your meal...

Over the years, CHARLES GRILL has undisputedly being certified as my favourite western food stall. Till now I have not find any western food stall with standard that is on par with CHARLES GRILL. It is really a great pity that the trio of CHARLES GRILL decides to retire as they do not have any successor to take over the business... It is a shame that another good food stall in Tampines has walked into history... On the other hand, I am happy that the trio can finally retire and enjoy life after being in the greasy kitchen for the past 20 over years...

Farewell CHARLES GRILL
As the last day business is on 14.12.07, it is a bittersweet scenario during the final moments of operation. I'm personally there at around 8pm, when on a typical day, orders would be at its peak.

Many regular customers patronized CHARLES GRILL for the last time, resulting in all the main courses running out of stock. Uncle and aunties had reserved very minimal of their last stock for their children, who are coming later to commemorate their retirement.

Sausage & Eggs is the only sets left on the menu, so customers are making do with it. After all, it is far much better leaving empty handed and in regret. For me, this is the first time I'm eating Sausage & Eggs, and sadly it is also the last time I could taste it. Being one of the last customers, uncle and aunties agreed to let me took a photo of them as memorial...


CHARLES GRILL trio

Thank you CHARLES GRILL for giving me such wonderful memories. Lastly, I would like to say to the trio of CHARLES GRILL "All the best and enjoy your retirement", a sentence that I did not managed to put in words on the last day. Bye bye, CHARLES GRILL...

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