Geylang 29 Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee

It was my first time trying this stall at East Coast Lagoon Food Village, and I can see why it's a favourite among Hokkien mee lovers. The style of cooking, using charcoal, is a rarity, making it stand out from the more common methods.

Geylang 29 Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee

I ordered the smallest portion to try it, only to realize there were many customers standing quite far from the stall, waiting for their orders. Since they were cooking in batches, my order was ready soon after, along with the earlier batch. I was quite lucky not to have to wait too long.

Hokkien Mee - $7

The noodles looked moist, with a good balance of yellow noodles and bee hoon soaking up the flavorful broth. The egg added a nice sweetness to the dish, complemented by the squid and prawns. The chilli was also well-balanced. Overall, despite the long queue, the dish was decent. However, if you ask whether I'd return for the same order next time, I’d probably skip it and save my calories for something else.

Prawn

Rating: 3 / 5

Geylang 29 Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee
Location: East Coast Lagoon Food Village, 1220 East Coast Park, #01-32, Singapore 468960

Lagoon Leng Kee Beef Kway Teow

During my usual trips to East Coast Lagoon Food Village, I tend to stick to my go-to favorites like BBQ seafood, fried oysters, duck rice, satay, or wanton mee. However, on this visit, a friend suggested I try something different. Following their recommendation, I ventured to another corner of the hawker center and ordered from Lagoon Leng Kee Beef Kway Teow. There wasn’t much of a queue when I placed my order, but it quickly grew afterward. The service was friendly, making the experience even better.

Stall of Lagoon Leng Kee Beef Kway Teow

The flavor profile leans towards the lighter side—subtle yet satisfying to my taste. It's refreshing to find the traditional type of Kway Teow still being served, as not many places offer it nowadays. I chose all meat instead of a mix, and the chili complemented the dish nicely without being overpowering. Overall, this bowl of Beef Kway Teow soup delivered a comforting, homely feel, leaving my tummy happily content.

Beef Kway Teow Soup - $6

Rating: 3 / 5

Lagoon Leng Kee Beef Kway Teow
Location: East Coast Lagoon Food Village, #01-33 Singapore 468960

Bei-ing Wanton Noodles

After visiting The Original Katong Laksa - Janggut Laksa, I realised that people are also talking about the Wanton Noodles stall that share the same row as the laksa stall in the basement. Bei-Ing for instance has been highly raved online for its Wanton Mee. 

Stall of Wanton Noodles

We placed our order after queuing for some time and we had to wait for another round for our number to be called, altogether it took about an hour. The uncle who was sitting down had a very strong vocal. For every number he shouted, it kind of feared us. 

Wanton Mee - $7

The noodle was mixed in black sauce, dark soya sauce and some pepper and reminds me of an old school taste. The soup on the other hand was tasty with leeks in it.

Our Plate of Wanton Mee

The Char Siew was something outstanding as compared to other Wanton mee. The thick-cut slices were juicy and finished with a nice caramelization. 

Char Siew Slices

The slices of tasty Char Siew were consistent in taste and strikes a good balance of lean meat as well as fatty meat.

Char Siew

The fried wantons were pretty addictive. It was crispy and showered with chopped laksa leaves, that gives a good fragrance to these thin wantons. 

Fried Wantons

Though deep-fried, the Fried Wontons were not oily. 

Individual Fried Wanton

The coffee shop has another overflow shop space where more seatings are available to cater for the crowds of Laksa and Wanton Mee Patrons. Do you enjoy black sauce Wanton Noodles too?

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Bei-ing Wanton Noodles
Location:  50 East Coast Road, #01-64 Roxy Square Food Court, Singapore 428769

Isshin Machi 一心一町

The Japanese Business Name is abit misleading as I was not sure if they are serving Taiwanese cuisine. Its no surprise that some of the items are similar to Ding Tai Fung's (DTF) menu as one of the chef is previously from DTF.

Isshin Machi Store Front

Interior was sleek and painted white. Furniture was simple wooden tables and chair. You get to see hanging pictures on one side of the wall while the other side is some Taiwanese murals drawn, featuring some places in Taiwan.

Isshin Machi Interior

Their menu was extensive and have pages of Taiwanese food items with variations from Fried Rice to the popular Taiwanese noodles.

Menu

Talking about Taiwanese Cuisine, such drinks like Winter Melon and Pearl Milk Tea cannot be listed out from their menu.

Taiwanese Black Sugar Winter Melon 台湾黑糖冬瓜露 - $3.00
Brown Sugar Caramel Pearl Milk Tea 黑糖珍珠焦糖奶茶  - $3.90

The prawn cake is praiseworthy. To be able to mix in so many ingredients and yet the taste was well blended. The skin was fried crispy yet the fillings were not overly oily. Pairing up these Moon Shape Prawn Cake was awesome with the given tangy chilli.

Moon Shape Prawn Cake 月亮虾饼 - $11

I love Braised Meat Rice when it comes to Taiwanese Cuisine. Taste of the Hakka Style rice was acceptable with the mixture of fatty, tender and lean pork belly braised meat decking up by pearl white rice. Its tasty and comes with a braised hard boil egg, preserved vegetables and pickled slices of cucumber.

Hakka Style Braised Meat Rice 客家卤肉饭 - $9.00

Another iconic dish not to miss while having Taiwanese Cuisine is their Braised Beef. The soup was flavorful accompanied by thick chunks of braised beef with vegetables in it.

Taiwanese Braised Beef Soup 葱烧牛肉汤 - $9.90

The presentation of fried rice with specially marinated pork chop reminds me of Ding Tai Fung's (DTF) dish and of course we cannot compare the taste of this to the Michelin's award restaurant. The rice is fragrant and decent but my heart still goes with DTF's. 

Fried Rice with Specially Marinated Pork Chop 招牌猪排蛋炒饭 - $12.30

No doubt that the pork chop was very tender and had been specially marinated, its way too tender for me and I still prefer at least a bit of toughness it in.

Pork Chop

This is probably one of the closest you can get for Taiwanese Food if you are residing in the Eastern Part of Singapore since we all cannot travel to Taiwan at the moment due to pandemic.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Isshin Machi 一心一町
Location: 224 East Coast Rd, Singapore 428921

Beach Road Prawn Mee

Thanks pal for the impromptu calling and we decided to meet up in the East over the popular bowls of Prawn Noodle at East Coast's Beach Road Prawn Noodle.

The queue was long but their operations were efficient, whereby patrons can wait at their table after making orders than having to stand in line waiting for the food.

Basically, the menu was quite straight forward with 5 items, while items 1-4 come with 3 serving sizes, big, medium and small while the 5th item is none other than their ultimate Jumbo Prawn Mee.

Menu & Queue

Having ordered the basic Prawn Mee, the broth was tasty and fragrant added with fried shallot oil. No heady taste of prawns and it was not too dilute and of right portion. The small size is good enough for a normal appetite person like me and you will get medium size prawns in this serving.

Prawn Mee 虾面 - $6 (Small)

The man with a huge appetite loves ordering the biggest size available with pork ribs. Likewise, the taste of prawns was discernible and pork ribs were sweet and tender.

Prawn Mee with Pork Ribs 大虾排骨面 - $12 (Big)

One of us ordered the Jumbo Prawn Mee, the only difference is the size of the prawns, whereas broth and noodles remain the same.

Jumbo Prawn Mee 珍宝虾面 - $12

The best of everything in a bowl where you enjoy having prawns, pork ribs and the tail if you are a fan of one.

Mix Bowl 排骨面  /  猪尾面 - $9

Having a Wu Xiang (Ngoh Hiong) Stall and a Prawn Mee Stall side by side seems a good choice. This reminds me of a similar setting in Blanco Court Prawn Mee too at Beach Road where diners get to enjoy the selection of fried items while waiting patiently for the bowls of delicious Prawn Noodle.

Selection of Wu Xiang Items

Luckily my friends are foodies too, sharing the same sentiments as us. Afterall we traveled all the way here, we should also try this out".

Selection of Wu Xiang Items 五香

The orders came shortly after our order which I felt that ordering system was efficient.

Our Breakfast & Lunch

The broth of Beach Road Prawn Mee does suit me and making a return is foreseeable. However, one disadvantage of this place for those who are driving may be the availability of parking lots nearby. We went there on a weekend during Saturday and we had been making rounds and rounds in the vicinity before getting a decent parking lot which is a street or two away.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Beach Road Prawn Mee
Location: 370/372 East Coast Road Singapore 428981

Zuo Ji Duck Rice 作记鸭饭

Getting spoilt for choices while you are in East Coast Lagoon Food Village? Perhaps Zuo Ji Duck Rice stall is one of the choices you can opt for as they are in one of the recommended and Must Try. Zuo Ji is specialized in braised duck with either rice or porridge.

Zuo Ji Duck Rice

Doing dish without the rice as we were very clear that there are more food to try out in the food village so we are leaving more stomach spaces for that. The braised duck dish was well braised and drenched generously in the gooey sweet black sauce. The taste did strike a good balance of tender duck meat and spices. The braised duck comes with special chilli to dip into. Besides having meat on plate, coriander, cucumber slices and lettuce were served among the meat.

Braised Duck - $11

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Zuo Ji Duck Rice 作记鸭饭
Location: East Coast Lagoon Food Village, ECP, #01-29, Singapore 468960

Song Kee Fried Oyster 松記蚝煎

Their food was commendable. At least we won't feel short-changed by the amount paid against the number of oysters given. Generous with Oysters was our comments. Besides that, we were surprised by the amount of egg given thus more fragrant. Though the Oysters may be slightly wet and raw but they went well with the spicy chili that packed a good punch with the chopped Chinese parsley.

Oyster Egg - $6 (Small)

Packed with Eggs

Song Kee Fried Oyster is listed as one of Singapore top-rated foods in 2017 by Singapore Best Foods and they are also being recommended in the Michelin Guide. Looking at the queue after we were done with our dinner, we felt relieved as we do not have to queue earlier on.

Stall of Song Kee Fried Oyster

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Song Kee Fried Oyster 松記蚝煎
Location: East Coast Lagoon Food Village, 1220 East Coast Parkway #01-15, Singapore 468960

Chin Mee Chin Coffee & Cafe Shop [Closed]

Life is such an irony, when we have the same old breakfast daily in the past, we complain about how dull it was and began to search for something interesting.

Chin Mee Chin is perhaps one of the last standings old school coffee and cake shops in Singapore, she is located in East Coast Road and I bet that its quite popular among the tourists as well as the locals for it had a long reputable history.

Chin Mee Chin Confectionery

With Toast and Coffee coming along, most of us would prefer somewhere renovated with comfortable furnishing like our Chains Coffee places e.g Yakun, Toast Box or even Killiney as they give us a good picture of semi old school kind of breakfast. However I would say a visit to Chin Mee Chin would let you have a good reminiscent and a feel of going back into the 60s.

It puzzled me a little when the roller shutter was halfway opened and we saw some consistent crowds waiting outside the shop. As soon as the shop keeper fully open the shutter and welcome the crowd, all of them hastily rushed in and queued over the counter.

Interior 

Furnishings in Chin Mee Chin remains humble in their Mossiac tiles, marble round tables and wooden chairs. Space was rather limited and we have to shared table with others. While orders were taken and queues were clearing, I observed the kitchen.

They were just sweating all over in preparation of toasts, hard boil egg and beverages.

Coffee Lady

Pastries can be grabbed from the shelves by the sides of the shop. The ones with chocolates on top are filled with cream, that is not to my liking as I felt that it was a tad too sweet for me, moreover I got to bite on some sugar crystals. On the other hand, custard puffs were great but you have to be additional careful in handling as fillings tends to drip out easily.

Custard and Eclair - $1 Each

How can a visit to traditional coffeeshop be completed without having hard bowl eggs?  They might not have grabbed the best timing of preparing the egg and do it to the perfection like what is practised in Yakun but this is literally good enough.

Half Boiled Eggs in Shell - $0.90 each egg

In fact, I'm satisfied with my plate of half boiled eggs sprinkled in pepper and some soya sauce. Simply love the way where we can just gobbled it down using the saucer.

Half Boil Egg

You wont get your usual traditional toasts here, instead you gets some burgers that comes with their homemade kaya and a slab of butter in between. Buns were warm and slightly crisp with charred edges seen.

Butter & Kaya Burger - $1 each

The taste of Kaya was not too sweet and goes very well with the chill butter even though the bun might be a little dry. For those who enjoy their Kaya, it is available for sale in the shelves too.

Butter & Kaya Burger

Another way of completing the breakfast comes with beverages in the traditional coffee cups.

Teh C - $1.20 & Kopi O Ti Lo - $1.10

Chin Mee Chin is another good place to introduce or bring your overseas friends when they are here in Singapore as it give them a good feel how simple traditional breakfast in Singapore can be. For those who has not been here, you can make a trip to East Coast to enjoy your time back in the 60s.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Chin Mee Chin Coffee
Location: 240 East Coast Road, Singapore 428903

Hua Yu Wee 华友园

Hua Yu Wee is an old school Cze Char housed in a Colonial bungalow along upper East Coast Road.
Restaurant is known for its nostalgic feel and pocket friendly Cze Char dishes.

Hua Yu Wee Seafood Restaurant

Given a Friday evening, the place was bustling with people, young and old. Given this, dining is only make possible with reservations even though restaurant have extended its seating into the backyard area. Servers were dressed in Kerbaya which reminds me of Singapore Airlines where our air stewardess are all dressed in such traditional costumes.

Hua Yu Wee

Best is parking is free and even if the parking lots are full, valet parking is available without additional cost.

Valet Parking for Free

Going straight after the main gate will be where the diners gather. However if you are wondering where did they prepare the food, well if you look closer on the left side after entering the main gate, you will see a block perpendicular to the main dining area where you heard lots of hitting noises from the wok and pans, that's the one.

Driving into Hua Yu Wee

Looking around the tables and it seems to be a popular dish in Hua Yu Wee. It was sweetly coated in sauce and all I can say that its crispy and gave a good cracking feel when you bite on it.

Deep Fried Baby Squids - $12.84

The Tofu was good. The perfection of a little crispy on the outside cradling the soft silky tofu inside where the top layer was cover with spinach, assorted mushrooms and enoki. The sweet and starchy gravy was so pleasant and moreover with the enoki, they give the dish an extra bite.

Tofu

We all like healthier choices and for the greens we had stirred fried broccoli with garlic. Simple food like this is comfort food as the gravy tastes good with a bowl of plain rice.

Garlic with Broccoli - $10.70 / $16.05 / $21.40

Oh yeah! Oatmeal with prawns was definitely fragrant. Prawns were fresh and plump. Surprisingly, the fried oatmeal were pillowy soft.

Prawn with Oatmeal - $20.33 / $40.66 / $55.64

The entire chicken was very well deep fried and preserved. It was such tasty that I had a thought I'm attending someone's dinner as the service was good with servers dividing out into portions for the table of us.

Feng Sha Chicken 风沙鸡 - $32.10

Given the traditional place, Salted Egg Yolk crab is not in the menu, however they do serve the common ones like ketchup with chilli, black pepper, salt and pepper baked, deep fried butter and steamed crab. Crabs were all charged at $7.28 per 100g.

Steamed Crab

We ordered the most original recipe and did not expect it to turn out so well! It was all impressive, at least to us with its most original flavour without additional sauces it was tasty in its juiciest and plump fresh. On top of that these crustaceans were placed on a bed of steamed egg which makes it presentable and unique in its style. Steam eggs were silky, light and refreshing. Believe me, I cant simply stop at one spoonful.

On the bed of steamed egg

Next will be crab again but served in the mixture of Tomato Ketchup and chilli sauce. The amount of spice was well balance out by the ketchup. Meat was as fresh and plump. However, more votes will still be given to the original steamed crab.

Ketchup and Chilli Crab

Take these lovely Mantou for a dip inside the spicy chilli sauce and soak them up!

Fried Mantou

When all yummy food fills our tummy, here comes the complimentary food from the restaurant. We have a platter of 2 melons, watermleon and honey dew melon. They were served chilled and tasted sweet.

Complimentary fruits

Being the first timer there, even though the environment may seems a little bit of chaotic initially, I would say that servers were all professionally trained. We are dining in big groups, occupying 2 tables and service was rather prompt without having our serving mixed up with others. As a whole, I like the place as it is good for gathering and family dinners. Even if you are there to celebrate your birthday, they are there to help you play the birthday song in the background for you!

Rating: 4 / 5

Hua Yu Wee
Location: 462 Upper East Coast Road Singapore 466508