We are really spoilt for choices when it comes to food in Singapore. Other than having brunch, kaya toast or dim sum with the family, there are also many people who enjoy having Bak Kut Teh (a must-try Singapore food) on a weekend morning.

The contenders for the best Bak Kut Teh in Singapore are: Founder Bak Kut Teh at Balestier road, Outram Park Ya Hua Rou Gu Cha, Song Fa Bak Kut Teh opposite the Central and of course, Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh at Rangoon road.

I was actually crazy enough to go there early in the morning just for Bak Kut Teh. Given that they are located at Rangoon road and my place is nowhere nearby, I think it was a great achievement that I was able to wake up to have Bak Kut Teh at 9am.

This was just the first stop of our best-of-Singapore-food-tour that day, and it was obvious from the picture that we over-ordered.

Between the five of us, we had a bowl of Bak Ku Teh each, and shared the preserved vegetables ($2), fried youtiao ($2), green vegetables caixin ($4), braised peanuts ($2), and braised pork trotters ($8). If you are a big fan of pig internal organs, Ng Ah Sio also has pig liver, pig kidney, pig intestine, pig tail, and pig skin on the menu.

When it comes to the main character of the show, they have both the pork ribs ($5.50) and spare ribs soup ($7.50). I think it really boils down to personal preference, but I like to go for spare ribs as they have a bit of fat which can make the meat more tender than the pork ribs.

Ng Ah Sio at Rangoon road is definitely one of the most popular Bak Kut Teh places in Singapore. Whilst the pork ribs in the strong peppery soup base were tasty, I am not sure if I will wake up and go all the way to Rangoon road just for Bak Kut Teh. The Pork Trotter was also not too bad, but it paled in comparison to the one that I had at Founder Bak Kut Teh.

Both Ng Ah Sio Pork Ribs Eating House and Founder Rou Gu Cha Restaurant have different supporters, the former only operates for breakfast till 2pm in the afternoon while the latter opens till late night 3am for supper.

Ng Ah Sio is the Bak Kut Teh restaurant that refused to serve Donald Tsang after their operating hours, so come early if you want to satisfy your Bak Kut Teh craving.

Which is your favourite place to have Bak Kut Teh on a weekend morning?

Singapore Food Blog Review
Ng Ah Sio Pork Ribs Eating House
208 Rangoon Road, Singapore
Tel: +65 6291 4537
Tue–Sun: 6am – 2pm
(Closed on Mon)

// Ng Ah Sio has a stall at Rasapura Masters food court, Marina Bay Sands

It started with another email thread again, this time Camemberu suggested to check out the famous Founder Bak Ku Teh and a date was set. I don’t usually write posts about hawker food. It’s not like I don’t eat hawker food, but the problem is I have too many backlogs of the nice places that I went recently.

Founder is one of the few popular choices that most people will think of them when you mention Bak Kut Teh. You know a place is famous when we actually queued up twenty minutes for a table by the road side of Balastier road, watching the others slurping down their warm peppery soup.

The fact that the walls are filled with the numerous photographs of famous celebrities, and there’s hardly any empty space for new photographs that they probably paste it over some of the fallen-stars. Or the fact that even when we left the place, there’s still a snake-like queue waiting outing for their turn to get in – just for a bowl of bak ku teh.

While the highlight of the show should be the pork ribs, but the pork trotters was even better. Surprisingly, the proportion of lean meat to fats was just right; there wasn’t much fats like the usual pork trotters. The meat was so tender that it falls off the bone and melts in your mouth splendidly.

We also had an pig organ soup that consisted of kidney, liver and small intestines. I like how the medium-rare liver retained it’s tinge of pink, and the robust flavour of the kidney, but the soup lacked the wow factor.

The Bak kut teh was quite a let-down – we were expecting a lot for the fact that we queued twenty minutes for this. Or for the fact that we ordered wrongly and had the normal tough pork ribs instead of the supposedly superior loin ribs. There was the usual side-dishes like youtiao, beancurd skin, salted vegetable, and braised taupok (beancurd).

Founder Bak Ku Teh
347 Balestier Road
(under New Orchid Hotel)
Singapore 329777
Tel: 63526192

Fifteen days. As we ushered into the Chinese new year, this time, our cow friends. The date at Straits café, cong-er and feng-er indulged for the finest feast. It has been the longest time since cong-er remember the last time she had lo-hei, and the first time for feng-er to try Poon Choi. The rabbits, the goat, and the pig. Triple harmony.

The finest. All in one pot. The best to start a brand new year. A traditional Chinese new year delicacy, Poon Choi ($198 for 5 person), composed of many layers of premium seafood, meat and vegetables. Abalone, shark fin, scallop, sea cucumber, prawns, Chinese sausages, duck feet, roasted meat, mushroom, fa-cai. A total of 14 ingredients, & 6 hours of effort. A symbol of wealth and prosperity, the abalone and shark fins in the middle. The whole taste was simple divine! Sea cucumber, or Hoi sam, a secret for our ladies to stay eighteen every year.  Although the roasted pork wasn’t crispy anymore, but the meat was brought to another level after immersing in the pot with the other ingredients. And not to mention the Chinese sausages, which had the normal red colour ones, and the darker coloured, liver sausages. The duck feet was there in place of goose feet; my first time trying it. Without being overly salty, the gravy absorbed the essence of all the top ingredients. Worth its weight in gold.

The Prosperity Yu Sheng, with the vibrant colours, that so reminded us of the joy and happiness during the festive season. Every year without fail, the auspicious Chinese salad will present itself. Tossing the vegetables, the aim is to attain a higher high, just like our life. Wishing Gong xi fa cai, Nian nian you yu, all the lucky greetings for our family and friends. With a choice of salmon or ikan parang, Straits cafe rendition comes in $38, $48 and $58 for its small (2-4 person), medium (5-7 person) and large (8-10 person) portions respectively. All buffet at Straits cafe with the exception for high tea, includes free flow of Fa Cai Yusheng.

After the new renovation of the restaurant during Oct 2008, Straits cafe reopened amidst much fanfare, with the contemporary design and transparent windows which allowed natural lighting to fill the restaurant, and for those interested, people-watching as well.

By order, one will usually start with the salad counter, with some appetising greens to clear the palates before moving on to the savouries. Not that I care anyway, the temptation to resist the desserts were too much for me. Those pretty, petite sweets, we started taking photos of them first, of course. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the pork belly for my stomach to begin on a light note.

Another great appetiser, the chicken salad was just as refreshing as any green salad. The slightly sweet and sour Thai sauce, enhanced the chicken, making it a welcoming starter.

The cold seafood station which has the likes of fresh oyster, cold crabs, squids, and prawns. You know Singaporeans being Singaporeans, the likelihood that they attacked the most expensive food in the buffet is palpable to all. And with fresh oysters, it definitely helps.

Special praises must be reserved for the chefs whom consistently cooks up each bowl of the infamous Straits café Nonya laksa. For that day, there’s also the bak ku teh available. There will changes everyday, with wanton mee, satay been hoon, lor mee rotating, alongside the mainstay laksa.

The infamous Straits cafe Nonya laksa. A bowl of this local favourite, was enough to justify the popularity and status of this dish to the restaurant. Nonya laksa comes slightly sour sweet, with rich and strongly spiced coconut gravy. However, the oilyness of the laksa meant that not everybody could accept it. One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

Jumping from the local dimension, we found ourselves in the Japanese era. The sushi platter was easily another favourite of diners there. Within minutes of a new plate brought out, the platter looks sad, not that the sushi wasn’t good, but because everything was finish.

Well to quote somebody, the tofu wasn’t photogenic. Indeed.

The freshness of the Sashimis were maintained by keeping them inside a transparent closet, to minimise the contact with the air. Also to let people take as little as possible! Well, just her mischievous thought, I’m sure the chefs would be more than happy to let you have your fill of sashimis.

Lo-and-behold! The key player for Straits cafe’s dessert counter. Without a doubt, the Durian Pengat definitely was the one we were eagerly anticipating. Well maybe not we, since i’m not a durian lover. The D24 durian smell was so evident that we would have wager our fortune betting on it. I’ve two spoonful, since almost everybody says it’s so, so good, and the sight of people taking a few of the shooter glass at one go, it’s certainly in the bag.

Moving on from the durian pengat, we have the equally famous durian cake. But after tasting the strong D24 durian in the pengat, I found the taste for the durian cake relatively subtle and light. And it’s a good thing since i’ve no qualms finishing the cake. This might not be the case if i’ve start with the cake first before the pengat.

The macha mousse had one of the strongest macha taste, and it’s good for the macha lovers. Most places scrimped on the tea leaves to cut cost obviously, but the generous fulsome mousse definitely surprised us.

We heard good things about their cheesecakes, however the signature New York cheesecake was nowhere in sight.The blueberry cheesecake was there to save the day. Between the boundaries of the heavy cheesy purist favourites, and the light airy rendition, I’ll say it’s somewhere in the middle. And the best part, you can have as many slices as you want!

There are some who boomed and come of age later than others. The Mandarin orange cheesecake was our reward for being adventurous, not giving up without another walk to the desserts counter for the New York cheesecake. Instead of that, we found ourselves with this new cake, in celebration of our Chinese new year. But, the dessert disappointed us as the cheesecake was rather crumbly, not as firm as we thought it will be, and the mandarin oranges were too sweet, which we suspected that it had some help from the sugary syrup.

On first sight, the ice cream bar looks just to be an ordinary one, featuring the likes of your Walls, and Kings ice cream. But boy we were wrong. The black sesame and raspberry gelato were great, definitely not your cheap ice creams. And my favourite, the vanilla bean flavour!

I must say I’m impressed with the variety and spread of the buffet, given the pricing and the location of the restaurant, it’s good that Hotel Rendezvous recognised that they can’t position themselves against the high-end buffets with the likes of The Line, Melt the world cafe. But by bridging the distance between the expensive and the cheap buffets, Straits cafe provided a good alternative to those who wanted good food, without spending too much.

My thanks to Christina, the marketing communication manager of Rendezvous Hotel Singapore, who invited me for the food tasting session. And also my dining companions, who provided me with great knowledge of the food, good company and fun. A n early happy Chinese New Year to all of you!

Straits Cafe
9 Bras Basah road
Rendezvous Hotel Singapore
Tel: 6335 1771

Per-Chinese New Year Buffet Dinner (16-23 Jan)
Adult $45

Reunion Buffet (24 Jan)
Adult lunch $42, dinner $58

Chinese New Year Festive Buffet (26-27 Jan)
Adult lunch $42, dinner $52

(28 Jan-9 Feb)
Adult lunch $38, dinner $48

Wake up early early on a Sunday Morning to have breakfast with Mister Ang and Mister Ong. Cos mister ang say he long time never wake up early to have breakfast liao, and also i seldom got wake up early to have breakfast with mates one. So here we go, at first wanted to have dim-sum, but in the end we chose Bak Ku Teh. Mister Ang say there are two more famous one in Singapore, one being in Balestier (which S.H.E frequents when they come Singapore), and the other one which we went Ng Ah Sio at Rangoon road, which is the one that appears in the news last time because it refuse/cannot serve the HK Chief Executive, Donald Tseng at night. Rangoon road off Serangoon a bit far, but Mister ang driving, so no problem!

True to its name, when we arrived at 9am, it was close to full house already. But luckily for us, we got a table immediately and start ordering. While waiting for the food to come, we started experimenting with the teapot. Although we got eat Bak Ku Teh before, but none of us actually know the correct way to make the tea (usually other people do it for us). So we put in the tea leave and mister ong start pouring the water. But later we find out the correct way should be rinse the teapot with hotwater once first, den put in the tea leave? O well, since we are not very particular about tea, no harms done!

The main charactor of the day, Pork Ribs ($5.50)!! Now, i am not a expert in Bak Ku Tea, according to Mister Ang & Ong who had been to the Balestier one, the one here soup is different, must be the ingredients different, the pork ribs and the soup are better than the Balestier one (quote them not me)

Pork legs. Mister Ong and me don’t really like eating pork legs because got fat fat skin, but Mister ang likes so we ordered one plate and it turns out to be quite good! Not really a lot fat meat, except for the skin. But if compared to the Balestier Bak Ku Teh, they say the pork legs there are better than here. Your judgement, your call. Its good n’uff for me

We also had peanuts and you tiao (which i believe everyone knows how it looks like so i am not showing). Total bill was $32 for 3 person, is it expensive? A bit i guess, considering we had it for breakfast, but once in a while its ok. The place at Rangoon road off Serangoon road was quite inacessible if you are not driving, a 10min walk from farrer park mrt i think. Also, free-flow of soup, you can always “top-up” yr pork rib soup if not n’uff!

208 Rangoon Road 218453

Tel: 6291 4537 

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