Hawker Gems

Pretty good lor mee with every ingredient done well. My favourite would undeniably be the fried meatballs. Wish I had added an extra dollar for additional meatballs! This is a family business and I saw each family member in charge of one ingredient while queuing. Actually it’s quite laborious just to make this one bowl cos of the many ingredients involved so $4 is honestly very worth. Do support them!!

Not a connoisseur in satay beehoon as I haven’t tried many and it’s honestly not that common in our hawker centres. But this one always has snaking long queues so I believe it should be not bad? Satay sauce was on the sweeter side and thick enough to hold on to the beehoon

Many satay stalls in Bukit Timah Food Centre but this stall is right at the back near the other zichar stalls. It is also the only one with snaking long queues so it’s hard to miss! Very generous with the satay sauce laced with a bit of minced garlic. Got a 👍🏼 from the fam too

Had the blissful set which is basically a bit of everything - roast duck, roast chicken drum, pork ribs, braised mushrooms, braised egg and vegetables. This was a very hearty hor fun because firstly, I am a liao > carbs person (and mind you, every single ingredient here was done so well) and secondly, the herbal sauce this was drenched in was just like nothing I’ve tasted before! The showstopper for me was the braised mushroom - not sure what sorcery they did to it but it was just so full of herbal flavour and so tender and chewy. Totally would revisit!

Might say this is my fav white beehoon 🥰👍🏼 loads of ingredients, especially the fried egg, and the broth, full of WOKHEI! I definitely prefer this to Sembawang white beehoon as this is much more flavourful in my opinion (but do note that I prefer the soupy type la). MUST TRY!

Nothing too fancy here, just a simple bowl of fish soup that is nonetheless my go-to every time I have cravings. The fish soup here just tastes naturally sweet and I think even completely MSG-less. The braised beancurd skin with taupok and egg is my fav here - every ingredient has been braised for a sufficiently long enough time that all the goodness from the sauce has been soaked up.

While there are other more famous fish soups at Bukit Timah hawker centre, this one run by a husband and wife power duo just tastes more homely!

We dabaoed this because we thought we weren’t gonna be able to finish this on top of the other stuff we had ordered but we were so wrong... This was TOO GOOD to not finish ASAP!!! Beyond just being sweet, the rojak sauce had the distinct shrimp paste taste that made it stand out from the regular rojaks around. It’s no wonder that there’s usually a long queue (they even set up some barricades to facilitate the queuing) but I was lucky to have been there in the late morning and there was no queue.

Decided to give this a shot after seeing snaking long queues at 7.30pm and I’m pleasantly surprised with this unexpected good find in a Kopitiam! This spinach soup reminds me of the 3 egg spinach (egg, salted egg, century egg) that many Chinese restaurants have, except its goodness comes in a full bowl of soup! You can choose to have the soup with seafood, yong tau foo or just 3 types of eggs and mushrooms. The yong tau foo is worth mentioning because I think they make the ingredients themselves freshly.

Very yummy curry puff!!! I was so impressed with the crust which is composed of many layers of thin, buttery flakes. Its crispy outer texture, paired with the soft curry potatoes and chicken within, made this a real winner. I watched a YouTube video that interviewed the lady boss here who is the third generation owner of this place and they’ve have persisted in making every single ingredient from scratch. This curry puff is indeed testament to all their efforts 👍🏼

Truly a messy bowl of goodness! I couldn’t resist snapping a pic when I uncovered all the treasures in my bowl - generous amounts of well-marinated meatballs, lean pork, an egg and vegetables (there’s also pork liver but I requested for mine without) in a bowl of thick, savoury broth. This is largely the same as the one at Bukit Panjang with the same waiting time (~30min). Downside is it can be quite hot at the Kopitiam while waiting

Was expecting more based on the presentation of this dish but sadly, it disappointed. I couldn’t find a single piece of pumpkin in the pumpkin rice and the portion of tofu was pretty sad :( The soup itself was too watery and they seemed to have put in some coriander (which I hate). The saving grace was the ikan bilis that was super crispy and the fried garlic scrapes on the side that you can help yourself to. Unfortunately, I’ve had better leichas, even in food courts!

It was a pleasant surprise finding this in a shopping mall food court. I would say it’s a decent bowl of Putien lor mee to satisfy those cravings if you’re in the area but definitely not the best! While the ingredients given were generous, the soup was just lacking that final bit of tastiness to heighten the flavour of the whole dish.