Pa Boon Cafe

As we alighted from the bus and make our way into our lunch place, we were welcomed by some gigantic characters in the garden which make most of us stop by to take photos with their favourite character.

Bumble Bee

The place is scenic and Instagram worthy with a good different vibes.

Hulk

You get to feel a bit of the farm vibes with rabbits, turkeys, small animals and koi fish around.

Look!

The dining place was serene featuring individual pavilions surrounded by the pond. These charming settings provided patrons with an intimate and private setting, allowing us to enjoy our meal while being surrounded by nature; the sound of flowing water, gentle breeze rustling through the trees, splash noises from the Koi fishes in the pond etc. 

Individual Pavilions

The place can be seen bustling with people, families, friends and even couples, relaxing under these shady pavilions.

Surrounded by Pond

You can even feed the fishes in the pond.

Koi Fishes

Besides being thrown with environmental surprises, I received surprises in food too. There are a number of dishes ordered by the locals that I won't get to eat in Singapore Thai Restaurants. 

The Soft Shell Crab with Curry was something that gave us a good surprise. It was sweet and not overly spicy with fried soft shell crab hidden up by the generous amount of eggs. Decent enough.

Soft Shell Crab with Curry - 280 Baht

An assortment of vegetables, Stir-Fried and tasted sweet in its sauce. 

Stir-Fried Mixed Vegetables - 150 Baht

Initially, I was thinking about what kind of hot pot was it till I noticed that the Poached Egg was decorated by strands of crab meat sticks. The egg was fluffy and addictive with its seafood taste.

Seafood Poached Egg - 220 Baht

I'm always a fan of Thai Steamed Fish over the Fire. This Steaming method will bring out the freshness of the steamed fish. The Steamed Fish was often topped with garlic, coriander and chilli all over and in this case, we can drench some fish sauce over it and enjoy it.

Steamed Sea Bass with Lime - 390 Baht

Beancurd's skin was crispy and had a filling taste of innards. Not my favourite choice of appetisers as they tasted bitter but I'm sure my local colleagues do enjoy these with the dipping sauce.

Jopu - 320 Baht

Besides the steamed Sea Bass, the Fried Sea Bass was ordered too. It was popular for its crispiness and it tasted good to pair along with the sauces.

Sea Bass with Fish Sauce - 390 Baht

Phad phrik Kaeng with coconut shoots pork, chicken or seafood. Yummy Rice was presented with the real pineapple with fragrant roasted cashew nuts as well as juicy prawns.

Pineapple Baked Rice - 150 Baht

Besides Thai Cuisine, Pa Boon Cafe also offers some Western food. The T Bone Steak is of a big slab paired with sides like garden salad and fries.

T Bone Steak - 380 Baht

The place was an enchanting destination that never fail to impress me from the moment that I walk in through their garden. It has an inviting atmosphere with a cosy environment, not forgetting the variety of mouthwatering Thai Food Dishes they had on their menu.

Pa Boon Café
Location: 95 Nong Pla Lai, Bang Lamung District, Chon Buri 20150, Thailand

Slice Fish Fish Head Seafood Soup

Updated 10th September 2023

My visit back here reminds me of the pricing of how much inflation is today. For every time I return once in a while, the price of my favourite bowl of Sliced Fish Noodles with Meatballs just went up.

Sliced Fish Noodles with Meatballs - $7.50

Nonetheless, it's still one of the best Sliced Fish noodles in the Western Part of Singapore with its unique taste. The consistency of taste is still there after so many years.

Fish & Meatball

Fishhead lovers might want to try this! The soup was added with ginger to reduce the fishy taste and definitely worth a try. 

Fishhead Noodles Soup - $7.50

You will be provided with an empty bowl to dispose the bones and yes the price is the same as a bowl of sliced fish noodle too.

Fishhead

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Updated 9th January 2022

After so many years, a bowl of sliced fish soup has increased its price till $7 per bowl. Nonetheless, the meatball and sliced fish are still very tasty, taste is still as the same 9 years back.

Sliced Fish Noodle with Meatballs - $7

Sliced Fish with Meatballs Soup - $7

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Posted 15 October 2013

Slice Fish Fish Head Seafood Soup? A stall with no name to be found even after having a hard time searching for it at every corner of the stall.

My visit to West Coast Market Square was very frequent, at least 10 times a month and this stall is one of the many stalls that draws the crowd especially during meal times. Everytime, without fail, I get to see a neat queue form in front of the stall.

Health-conscious patrons, this is for you if you are not sure what to eat on West Coast!

Stall #01-138, Look at the Queue

A basic bowl of slice fish soup costs $4.50 and one can request for meatball add-on at $1.00. However, if you feel that a total of $5.50 is too expensive for a meal, you can request for a mix at $4.50.

The soup base was a bit chalky, unlike the normal clear fish soup we had. Not only that, it had a very unique taste as compared to its competitor in the vicinity and not that kind of taste that we would have expected. Bee Hoon was smooth and silky, therefore good chopstick grabbing skills is required. Beside slices of fish, a small wedge of tomato is added with Chinese parsley (yan sui) as well as fried onions.

Sliced Fish Soup with Meat Balls - $4.50

 Adding their homemade meatballs is definitely recommended. The meatballs were made up of minced meat with hints of salted fish. Bouncy and delicious, goes very well with the soup.

Yummy Meat Balls

The slices of fish given was fresh and thick with a smooth textural feel.

Sliced Fish

Perhaps the downside may be its steep pricing when we could get a bowl of fish bee hoon at $3 but considering the portion and freshness, the amount paid was well worth it.

Rating: 4 / 5

Slice Fish Soup
Location: West Coast Market Square, Blk 726 Clementi West Street 2, #01-138, Singapore 120726

You Fa Duck Rice Kway Chap

If you heard about and visited the popular Holland Village XO Fish Head Bee Hun Stall in Dover Crescent, you might have noticed this Braised Duck stall located right at the corner of the coffee shop next to the convenience store.

Kway Chap for 2 with Braised Duck

The innards were well-handled and braised. We have braised pork belly, skin, intestines, eggs, Tau Gua and topping the dish up with Braised Duck. 

Ingredients for our Kway

Braised Duck

We ordered the Braised Duck Rice Set that comes with peanuts, braised egg and Tau Gua as sides. The braised duck rice was good with its savoury gravy. 

Duck Rice Set - $4.50

The soup has hints of herbal taste which was to our liking and the braised duck was moderately tender.

Braised Duck

Overall, though Fa Braised Duck may be just a humble stall at that corner of the coffee shop, I would say that their standard of braised duck definitely tastes above average. 

Rating: 3.25 / 5

You Fa Braised Duck Kway Chap
Location: 19A Dover Cres, Singapore 131019

Kheng Nam Lee Curry Rice

Kheng Nam Lee Curry Rice is one of the popular stalls in Seah Imm Food Centre for they are always seen with a snakey queue.

Kheng Nam Lee Curry Rice

Let's sink our spoons into the curry and our forks into the pieces of breaded pork chop.

The breaded pork chop was deep fried to a biscuit texture and I can hardly bite the meat.

Both vegetables we ordered were cooked in a similar style, stirred and fried using dried shrimp and they were on the salty side. The eggs on the other side were greasy, not to our liking. 

For a curry rice lover, I find that their curry was on the lighter side and I was quite disappointed as it tasted nothing spicy but in a starchy texture, an resemblance to the Japanese Curry.

Our Spending - $15.60

Nonetheless, the dishes are pocket friendly and decent. The hawkers who are managing the stalls are friendly and welcoming too.

Rating: 3 / 5

Kheng Nam Lee Curry Rice
Location: Seah Im Food Centre, 2 Seah Im Rd, #01-53, Singapore 099114

Foon Yew Laksa-San Lou

We have been passing by this place a lot of times and never had the chance to try it. Just recently, we saw this Laksa Yong Tau Foo place went viral on social media and we decided to make it a necessary stop for our meal.

Foon Yew Laksa-San Lou

Considering a weekday, the carpark lots were almost taken up during lunchtime.

Busy Place

I was overwhelmed by the crowd at Foon Yew Laksa-San Lou when we reached there. There were quite a lot of people in the queue choosing their Yong Tau Foo items. The variety of items was plenty and seemed fresh. 

Pick your Yong Tau Foo

Their variety of items is definitely more than what we have from our Singapore YTF stall. They have raw fish balls and black quail eggs that caught my attention. While this place is famous for its Laksa, they do also serve the non-spicy version ~ clear soup.

Choose your items

For Laksa, you will be asked if cockles are needed. The cockles were small and placed on top of the YTF. There are a number of noodles options: Yellow Noodles, Kway Teow and Bee Hoon. The Laksa gravy was spicy and tasted of spices with coconut milk balancing it, complimenting everything well. However, it tasted thicker with the coconut milk

Laksa Yong Tau Foo

The fish paste tasted fresh and bouncy. Crunchy beansprouts were part of the Laksa order too.

Laksa

The items were well-fried and definitely yummy.

Fried Egg Plant

For those who want to give Laksa a skip, you can order the dry noodle version with items in soup. The Noodles are tossed in black sauce without the usual Singaporean kind of Sweet & Chilli Sauce.  The clear soup tasted good with hints of soybeans.

Non-Laksa Version

No doubt that the items are fresh and yummy I find that the Laksa spiciness level was not suitable for my tummy. Nonetheless, this famous Laksa Yong Tau Foo place has been popular with many and had its returning customers. For 3 bowls of Yong Tau Foo and 4 drinks, we paid about 65 RM.

Foon Yew Laksa-San Lou
Location: 16, Jln Stulang Laut, Taman Stulang, 80300 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Sweet Banana Pisang Goreng

Via word of mouth, I had been hearing pals mentioning that this Pisang Goreng is very nice every time we pass by the place in Stulang but we never had the chance as it was always not of the correct timing. Besides Goreng Pisang, they are also selling other snacks at the stall.

Pisang Goreng

The Goreng Pisang costs RM 0.50 per piece. It was well "goreng" and lightly battered but the taste was not what I had best in Malaysia.

Goreng Pisang

We also bought the samosa, it was quite ordinary.

Samosa

The fried Poh Piah are bite-sized and crispy outside. Not too bad if you want something to bite on. In this case, we were waiting for our Laksa Yong Tau Foo to be served from another stall thus we bought this.

Poh Piah

It is not very often that we got a chance here with the stalls open and I would not mind to drop by to buy their snacks again if I chance upon the place again.

Rating: 3 / 5

Sweet Banana Pisang Goreng
Location: Jln Stulang Laut, 80300 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Teck Seng Soya Bean Milk

Those who patronize Tiong Bahru Food Centre will probably know of this long-history Soya Bean Milk stall. Mr Low has kept going through the process of Soya Bean Milk daily. Soya Bean Milk is made from scratch by soaking soybeans, blending and cooking them.

Soya Bean Milk Stall

Beancurd aka "Tau Huey" is of a very smooth texture, wobbly and does not disintegrate easily while you put them into your mouth. Delicious indeed!

The Soya Milk drink costs $1.20 per cup while the mixture of Soya Milk and grass jelly drink costs $1.50. They tasted refreshing and smooth, free of residue.

What will you like?

They usually has a long queue line up in front of the stall, do grab them early to avoid disappointment. 

Rating: 4 / 5

Teck Seng Soya Bean Milk
Location: Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Rd, #02-69 Market, Singapore 168898