New York New York Restaurant at Kovan Heartland Mall

Most of the time on my blog I try not to un-recommend a restaurant, because food is subjective, my taste may be different to yours. But this time I really have to voice out my opinion because I felt so unsatisfied.

We were initially going to eat at Double Spout Cafe on the ground floor in front of Cold Storage, but it was closed, so we ventured to New York New York Restaurant on the second floor. This is what I had. I think it was called Jiggy Piggy (or something like that), price was $15.90++. So it was 3 small pieces of pork chops with salsa, some salad leaves which went limp after a while because the hot pork chops were sitting on top of them (why couldn't they have just put it on the side), a smear of pretty tasty mashed potatoes...and in the second picture we have 5 pieces of tortilla chips, which they forgot to give me till I pointed out to them that it was stated in the menu. Actually the menu said Spinach tortilla chips...but I got just the normal ones. And only 5 pieces can you believe it? Really it's not that it wasn't tasty, the pork had flavour, but was a little tough, the mashed potatoes were very nice and creamy and salad leaves were salad leaves, but I really felt that the amount of food didn't justify the price. It was just a smear of mashed potatoes......

The corn chips on the side looked so sad.

What bothered me also was the Lunch special menu. See below:

You'll notice that apart from the burger and the spaghetti, none of the other mains has any sides to it except for bits of chopped up vegetables. For $8.90++ my friend had the Pork Cutlet with BBQ Sauce and Sauteed Vegetables which was what the waiter recommended I ordered since what I was ordering was pretty much the same. I pointed out to him that it didn't have any starch, like potatoes or rice or even bread, so it would be unlikely I would feel satisfied. This Lunch Special in my opinion is not special at all, nor is it value for money! For $8.90 you get 2 pieces of pork chops and a few slivers of sauteed capsicum,....after tax and service charge that's like over $10! So I basically almost paid double the price just for my smear of mash and salad leaves and 5 pieces of corn chips....hmmmm......Really it's such a surprise that they don't offer a complete meal for that price, with a starchy side or even a more substantial amounts of vegetables. The Roasted chicken leg you can see is probably only a quarter of a chicken and the Golden Fish Fritters....2 pieces of fried fish....If you're gonna go for the Lunch Special, go for the spaghetti or burger, they look the most substantial. Unless you're on a low carb diet of course, then hey this menu is perfect for you. 

The restaurant at lunch time was pretty empty, maybe I'm late to discover what other patrons have already known for a long time, there are other better places to eat at Heartland Mall. It looks like they have difficulty drawing a crowd. Mind you this isn't the first time I ate there, long ago I ate there with my family and I thought it wasn't so bad, but the menu has been revamped I think and everything has increased in price.