The Halal Corner – Can’t Get Enough of the Carbonara Beef Steak Roti John!

I’m always on the lookout for interesting (and delicious-looking) finds on Facebook – half the images in my gallery are screen-shots of places I intend to visit in the near future. There are so many places on my list that I have a hard time pacing myself. In fact, I’ve had my eye on The Halal Corner, previously known as Asyraf’s Halal Corner (see, that’s how long I’ve been sitting on it) for quite some time now. 

I recently saw that they opened a second outlet in Yishun, which reminded me about my almost-forgotten mission. Since I still haven’t been to their OG stall (whoops), I decided to take an adventure east and visit their first Bedok outlet. 

The Halal Corner is tucked away in a fairly quiet coffee-shop in Bedok North, and there was never a time the workers here were idle. There was always a new customer whenever I looked over. The menu sports a variety of Western-fusion dishes such as Cheesy Balado Beef Steak Pasta ($6.50), Korean Fried Chicken Burger ($5.50) and Creamy Seafood Tom Yum Pasta ($6.20). 

There was even something called Pink Truffle Chicken and Fries ($4.50) which had me scratching my head. Of course I had to ask because I’ve never seen it before in my entire life. Turns out it was just your regular ol’ truffle sauce that they dyed pink with food colouring to commemorate National Day last year. They decided to make it a permanent fixture after it became a surprising hit, especially with the ladies. Kind of odd, but hey if it works, it works.

This sinful-looking Carbonara Beef Steak Mr John ($6.50) was what first beckoned me to the stall. The soft roti had a foundation of fried egg and was piled with bite-sized chunks of beef before being doused with a mega-serving of homemade carbonara sauce and dashes of nacho cheese and sweet chilli sauce. 

While the beef wasn’t the melt-in-your-mouth type, it was still plenty tender on its own. Each bite was juicy and packed a huge punch of beefy flavours. If you’re someone with sensitive taste buds to beef, you might not enjoy it but for me, I thought it was pretty good. And don’t even get me started on the sauce because I loved it. It was creamy and rich without being too cloying. Let that eggy roti soak it up and chow it down with the beef. 

Moving on to the Mac n Cheese Shilin Chicken ($6) that came with a side of fries. I was initially excited for this because I adore shilin chicken and mac and cheese on their own, so I figured if done well, this could be a match made in unhealthy-but-yummy heaven. Sadly, it didn’t quite meet the mark for me. 

First off, the chicken was just your regular chicken cutlet that was nothing like the crispy Taiwanese ones we all know and love. There was a sprinkling of some sort of spice on top that my companion said vaguely reminded her of the Lao Gan Ma chilli. While it’s not a terrible piece of chicken, I was just disappointed that it didn’t meet my expectations. 

As for the mac and cheese, it was lacklustre. The macaroni was a tad too soft and the cheese was runny and fairly tasteless. For some reason, it reminded me of the kind I would cook up when I was younger when I barely have any ingredients in the house. To put it in a nicer way, I guess you could say it tastes like home? 

I absolutely love samyang instant noodles so of course I was going to get the Samyang Cheesy Chicken Pasta ($6.90). As expected, it tasted exactly like the instant noodles since there’s almost no way you could screw the flavouring up. 

Some might argue whether it’s worth the money but I’d say the chicken more or less makes up for it. The thick pieces of cutlet drizzled with nacho cheese sauce mellowed out the spiciness of the pasta. It also came with fries and a fried bun to feed those with monster appetites. 

One thing I have to say is, the portions are pretty big so it’s pretty good value for money. Some of the dishes might be a little gimmicky, but you can’t deny a plate of yummy food its praise. That said, I’d love to check out the Yishun branch because I heard the menu is different and more pasta-centric. And as a pasta lover, I definitely have to check it out!