Jia Yuen Eating House (Tanjong Pagar MRT)

Jia Yuen Eating House in the Joo Chiat is apparently popular amongst NS-man because they use to cater for bulk deliveries till 2 am!

They have since relocated to Tanjong Pagar Xchange above the MRT station, and attracts a huge lunchtime crowd for their signature creamy salted egg chicken rice.

Each plate costs $8 and true to their NS-man roots, you get a huge serving of rice, a fried egg and a very generous portion of bite sized boneless fried chicken slathered in a creamy and rich salted egg sauce. The portion is big enough to feed 2 tbh and definitely a hungry army boy.

We love that the fried chicken is freshly cooked to order, and juicy and tender. Their creamy egg sauce is rich, creamy and savoury, and unlike other eateries, not too surfeit or cloy. For those who still find it a little too jelak, we recommend that you grab a dining companion and order their sweet and sour chicken rice as well. The sweet and tangy sauce for the later pairs really well with the rich and creamy salted egg sauce!

Finally checking out @jiayueneatinghse ! Have bookmarked this place for a few years now but always lazy to head to joochiat road area to have this! They have now moved to tanjong pagar mrt level b1 area! Much more convenient and more accessible to more people now!

We visited this place on a friday evening at almost 7pm timing, and the place was quiet with less than 5 ppl dining in. But i reckon that the crowd and queue will be larger during weekday lunch time hour since prices are quire affordable!

Ordered the creamy salted egg chicken rice ($8) which comes with an egg. I like that the egg was runny! There was quite a substantial portion of chicken meat given! The creamy salted egg sauce was also 👍🏻! I slurped up every bit of it! The chicken also seems to be fried prawn paste marinate chicken before it is coated with the creamy salted egg sauce!

The chicken is tough and dry. I dont really like the batter they use. The sauce is quite nice. I wont recommend to come here specially to try this.

Jia Yuen Eating House is pretty much a familiar name to the residents in the East — perhaps also especially so for those whom have served their National Service in the same area as well — previously located at Crane Road, Jia Yuen Eating House is perhaps best known for the Creamy Salted Egg Yolk dishes. They have since been re-located; now taking over the former premises of The Hainan Street at Tanjong Pagar Xchange within Tanjong Pagar MRT Station, Jia Yuen Eating House had yet to retrofit their own signages to the signboards — does create somewhat of an identity crisis that makes them a little non-descript until they come up. With a dine-in space that is located across the counter and kitchen from the shopping aisle, Jia Yuen Eating House does not only serve up their mini wok-esque sort of dishes here — they do also have Yong Tau Foo on the menu where patrons get to pick and choose their preferred items as well.

Found it a little hard to resist giving their Creamy Butter Chicken Rice a go — was also recommended to add cereal at $2 extra since the staff at the counter was saying that it would most certainly complement the dish. We were actually impressed that the item did come with a sunny side-up by default — though there again, the base price of the Creamy Butter Chicken Rice is $8.00; not quite the most affordable eat in the Central Business District though the portion sizes are considered a little more generous than what some other places may serve up. First few mouthfuls on the dish and it felt decent — the creamy butter sauce does feel a tad bit on the savoury side, which somewhat differs from the more sweet-ish sort of buttermilk sauce that we are used to having from Three Meals a Day at Sim Lim Square. That aside, the light hint of flavour from the curry leaves and chili padi creates somewhat of a flavour contrast, though the flavours of the sauce does turn a little flat and jelak as it cools down. Best to be had when still warm, the chicken does feel tender and considerably juicy when we first started the meal, though it does turn a little tough as we took some time to polish it up. If anything, the cereal does add a little to the experience here — that being said, we felt that the fragrance of buttery cereal wasn’t quite unleashed to its fullest potential here; possibly so in order to not make the item too heavy as it already was. We were pretty glad that the sunny side-up turned out fine however — runny yolk without any undesirable notes of overused oil.

Considering how big the portions are for us, and how the item does generally feel jelak as it turns cold while we attempted to finish it — the Creamy Butter Chicken Rice from Jia Yuen Eating House is something that didn’t seem to really go together with our tastebuds that well. That being said, we would guess that there is a reason why it is so popular with the army boys whilst they were at Crane Road — its that craving for a sinful meal after a long day of training that makes it an especially attractive option to have. With prices being this steep especially at this end of the Central Business District for local cuisine, it would remain to be seen if Jia Yuen Eating House is an option that would be popular with office workers in time to come …

@jiayueneatinghse is more well known for their creamy salted egg zichar dishes, but their stellar sweet & sour pork deserves just as much acclaim. While it’s exorbitantly expensive for a single portion of a zichar staple at $12 a plate, the quantity & quality justify the precious price tag.
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First, let’s talk quality. The cut of pork used is lusciously layered with fat, and some pieces did get overwhelming fatty. As we all know very well by now, fat equals flavour, and this was no exception. The pork was seasoned simply, but it was enough, and it was coated in an immensely light batter that gave this sweet & sour pork its cracking crunchiness.⠀
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The sweet & sour sauce does get cloyingly saccharine after the halfway mark, but mix it up with that perfectly piquant pork and the plain rice and you’ll be fine. The tastefully thick sweet & sour sauce doesn’t look like it’s out in force, but a little goes a real long way here, as the overpowering sweetness of the sauce gets moderated by the rice. The egg, while perfectly fried with an egg-splosively liquid yolk, felt unnecessary with an unneeded creaminess. I would’ve far preferred a small serving of plain fried vegetables, or even spicy sambal kangkong, to combat the hedonistic richness of this dish.⠀
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At Jia Yuen, you do get what you pay for. Top dollar gets you top quality zichar, and I could foresee myself dropping in every now and then for a serving of zichar zingers.

I was pretty excited to discover that there’s a coffeeshop stall named Kushibuta selling yakitori, but after sampling their food, that excitement turned into disappointment.⠀
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The grilled pork bowl turned out to be more deep fried than grilled, and they were very simply seasoned with nothing but salt. The rice is absolutely plain, and neither meat, nor mushroom, nor rice, were drizzled with the customary teriyaki sauce that everyone expects from yakitori. Worst of all, the bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms had an awful, alkaline & acrid taste to it.
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I love it when enterprising hawkers put their own spins on different cuisines from all over the world, but this ain’t it chief.⠀