Just Acia (Pasir Ris)

Just Acia or rather "Just Asia" is a new set up featuring Asia's staples of noodles and rice as its main menu items. With a tag line that says "free flow of drinks and ice cream" at a starting price as low as $2.80, this is a place that is light on the wallet at first glance. There are currently 3 outlets for this franchise, Downtown East, Dhouby Ghaut MRT station and Suntec City fountain terrace. It was on a day of celebration that we visited Just Acia and i can't deny that the price was what drew me in at first. The following is what we had and my thoughts on the food.

The interior of the restaurant is simple and sat about 20-30 patrons. There was a payment counter right smack in the centre and your bill is presented to you upon completing your orders. The free flow of drinks and ice cream are also located right behind the payment counter so thats where the majority of the action will happen. Overall, the interior is serviceable and nothing impressive.

Herbal Chicken Soup Set ($11.90) - After some contemplation on the menu, we decided to have something more mid range as compared to the usual $5.90 meals. My order was the herbal chicken soup and it looked pretty substantial actually. There was half a chicken in the soup and it came with rice and some beans. The thing about herbal chicken is that the soup it comes in must be good, otherwise the whole dish amounts to naught. And unfortunately, the soup is salty and lacking much herbal taste in their version. My verdict, don't order this.

Stir Fried Greens ($4.80) - This wasn't too bad actually. At the least, it tasted crunchy and tasty enough to praise but nothing more to recommend.

Tom Yum Seafood Set ($10.90) - My gf ordered this and it was definitely much better then my herbal chicken set. The soup is still salty as though made of seawater but there's enough spice inside to give it a tinge of hope. Add to that generous ingredients and you have something tolerable but still too salty.

Spinach Tofu ($2.80) - On the menu, this was touted as the must order dish and chef's specialty. I'm sad to report its nothing special. In fact, it was rather bad because there's a very obvious layer of thick oil over it. The interesting thing is the texture which is similar to steamed eggs except that in this, the "eggs" are rubbery. Not recommended as well.

Free Ice Cream - The ice cream ain't half bad. I'm betting on Wall's or some simple NTUC brand but it works for me. The chocolate is thick and rich and so was the vanilla. I could have this for a long time. The free flow drinks were also a surprise for me since they weren't diluted by too much. Impressive. The total bill for this rather disappointing dinner amounted to $32.53. Is it too expensive? Not really. Is it worth the money? Difficult to say yes to that too...

Overall Score: 5.5/10 (6.5 for drinks and ice cream)

Last word: It wasn't all bad. There's decent stuff here i'm sure. In fact, i saw it packed in the Dhouby Ghaut outlet but i can't say the same from my visit to this outlet. As it stands, i do not think i will return for another try here but might consider trying the other outlet.