Colonial Club in Changi Airport

The other day, I was passive-aggressively grumbling about the lack of new restaurants at Singapore Changi Airport T3 in its short, 10 years of existence.

In mid-2018, though, things seemed to have changed. Like how AOne found a place at level 4 and Chee Kei Wanton ventured out from Hong Kong.

Just beside AOne, one can find Colonial Club, which was touted to serve Singaporean dishes, even though I couldn’t understand how our Singaporean dishes could be “colonial”. Do we forcefully eat our way through the dishes?

In a time when “colonial” is being associated with the negativity of the times when European supremacy ruled the earth (literally), I think the owners might have made an honest mistake.

To be frank, their decor harked back to pre-independent days, before Singapore’s cityscape became replaced by boxed buildings (you think I’d say gleaming skyscrapers eh? We have more HDB flats than office buildings, mind you). That meant marble-topped wooden tables with matching wooden chairs that seemed like sworn enemies with your butt.

Food wise, there was a wiiiide selection of local goodies at Colonial Club. The choices weren’t restricted to Peranakan food like Kueh Pie Tee, Malay food like Satay, or Indian food like Chicken Curry. There was also Hainanese Milk Tea (which, even a Hainanese like N could not tell me what was so special about it) and Teochew style Yong Tau Foo.

Actually, having grown up blind to ethnic divides, these food are just “Singaporean food” to me, regardless of their origins or association to the ethnic groups in Singapore. Taste-wise, they can’t compare to Kim Choo or Kay Lee, but well, they’re decent enough, especially if you are just looking to fill your tummy before you embark on a long flight out. Or perhaps you have just returned and want to gratify your Singaporean-food-deprived guts with decent Singaporean comfort food). Or perhaps you are a tourist with low expectations looking for “authentic” Singapore food (trust me, nothing is authentic in Singapore…).

I won’t say this is something one should come all the way to Changi just to try. But if you are craving for something Singaporean and do not have a specific idea (or perhaps your group could not settle on what to eat), then this is the place to go.

If you enjoyed reading this blissfully local food review, please like and share my post to your friends! Or you can read my other reviews on Peranakan buffet at Claymore Connect, high tea style at Merchant Court hotel, or just good old Cantonese food at Xin Restaurant.

Till then, eat happy!

All photos and videos were taken using Olympus TG870 and Google Pixel XL, and edited with Snapseed.