Laifabar is a noodle house that specialises in traditional wanton noodle, dumplings and roast meats. Chef-owner Royce Lee inherited the recipes by his grandmother, who used to be a hawker selling homemade taupok and wanton noodle back in the 1970s.

Known for its “Bu Jian Tian” Fatty char siew and wanton noodle, Laifabar first started and made a name for itself as a wine bar turned noodle house at Scarlet hotel in Ann Siang Hill. Then it moved to Lucky Plaza B1 Lucky Food Centre in December 2020 for a brief period before shifting to the current location at an industrial building in Bukit Batok in April 2021.

With the move to a bigger space, Laifabar has expanded their menu to include rice options to pair with their roast meats.

On Laifabar’s menu, there are four types of roast meat—char siew, roast pork, roast duck and Soya Sauce Chicken.

There is a top-up of S$2 to upgrade the Char Siew to their signature Bu Jian Tian Char Siew for mains.

Out of the three roast meats that we’ve had, the signature Bu Jian Tian Fatty Char Siew was the clear winner. It had the right proportion of fats to meat ratio and it was truly outstanding.

The difference between the Bu Jian Tian Fatty Char Siew and the leaner Char Siew is the texture of the meat. Bu Jian Tian Char Siew is fattier and a lot more tender than the normal Char Siew. Unless you are not a fan of fatty Char Siew, we definitely recommend upgrading it from the normal Char Siew to the Bu Jian Tian Char Siew.

The Roast Duck was also excellent and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

We didn’t quite like the Roast Pork as it was too fatty (not in a good way) and not as crispy we would like it to be.

Laifabar’s new outlet at Prestige Centre in Bukit Batok isn’t the most accessible location, but their excellent roast meats are worth travelling for. Otherwise, they offer islandwide delivery on Grab and you can still get their roast meats without going all the way to the west of Singapore.

Laifabar
Prestige Centre at 71 Bukit Batok Crescent
Tel: 9181 6383

It seems these many years of hopeless praying has finally paid off, because, at long last, one of our all-time favourite wanton mee stalls is re-opening.

Kok Kee Wanton Mee, famous for their uniquely sweetish, lard-based sauce and springy egg noodles that just make the simple dish so delicious. For those unfamiliar, their version of this noodle classic is very straightforward, just wanton noodles, slices of char siew and steamed wantons served in a flavourful soup—no fried wantons or any other side dishes.

Feeling a sense of nostalgia creeping in? Here’s where you can finally have this again come March 2019.

Believed to be the niece of the original owners, this famous wanton mee stall is slated to open sometime in March over at 30 Foch Road, right beside its former premise at the old (now demolished) Lavender Food Court.

Snaking queues, grumpy old folks, alarmingly high prices for such a simple dish but above all, one heck of an orgasm-inducing plate of wanton noodles. That’s right, Kok Kee Wan Ton Noodle, we’re coming for you.

30 Foch Road

All photos are credited to Singaporeactually & chanksters. 

When it comes to cheap and good food in West of Singapore, the first place that comes to mind is definitely Bukit Timah Food Market & Hawker Centre. It is one of my usual hang-out places for local food as it’s only ten minutes away from my home.

It can be quite a daunting task when you are ordering food in hawker centres. Which stalls do we order from? Shall we flip a coin, judge by the number of newspaper cuttings, or simply look at the queue of each stall? If you are planning to make a trip to Bukit Timah Hawker Centre, I’ll like to share with you some of my favorite food there.

For those of you who have been reading my food blog for a while, I’m sure you know that Char Kway Teow is one of my favorite hawker food. I usually order it from Xin Heng Char Kway Teow (Stall 181) when I’m having dinner at Bukit Timah Food Centre. He Zhong Carrot Cake (Stall 185) is extremely famous for their white carrot cake. I very much prefer the sweet and eggy black carrot cake so I seldom order this unless my friends want to try it.

For Oyster omelette, avoid the one from Fried Carrot Cake Fried Oyster (Stall 145), the omelette was soggy and there was hardly any oyster. I can’t remember the name of the stall that I always order from — it’s in the same row as Xin Heng Char Kway Teow.

It’s always a good idea to eat at hawker centre with a group of friends (at least 4-5 people) so that you can order more food. Stall 156 BBQ Seafood offers a good variety of BBQ seafood like stir fried Lala clams, BBQ Stingray and sambal kangkong – great for sharing, but I can probably finish the excellent stingray on my own.

I have tried two of out three of the hokkien mee stalls in Bukit Timah Hawker Centre. On one occasion, we decided to try Fried Hokkien Mee (Stall 145) because of the long queue. Unfortunately, the hokkien mee was a total letdown, the sambal chili wasn’t spicy enough, and the taste of the noodles was subtle – bordering on bland. The second Hokkien Mee Stall is located in the middle row of the food centre and they use the distinctive flat yellow noodle. I’m going to try out the third stall (facing the main road) the next time round.

Peter Pan Western Food (Stall 133) has been around for some time, and they have value-for-money Western Food. Otherwise, there’s Tom Kitchen Western Food which is located near the stairs. Long House Popiah used to have a branch in Bukit Timah Hawker Centre, but on my recent visit, I realized that it’s not there anymore. Try the popiah and kueh pie tee from Stall 127 instead. There’s also the famous Satay bee hoon, Japanese food, and Thai Food stalls worth trying if you want something different.

If you are having breakfast at Bukit Timah Food Centre, be sure to order the Kway Chap from stall 138. There’s always a long queue when I go there during weekends. My mother is a big fan of the huge fishballs from Teochew Fishball noodle, (Stall 179) as well as the dark sauce wanton mee from Stall 197 Happy Wanton Noodle. To end the hawker feast on a sweet note, have the smooth beancurd and Tang Yuan (glutinous rice balls) from Soyako (Stall 166).

// Bukit Timah Food Market & Hawker Centre is within walking distance from Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, and Bukit Timah Plaza. For other options, there’s a stretch of eateries and restaurants at Cheong Chin Nam road, Chun Tin road and Lorong Kilat opposite Beauty World.

Singapore Hawker Food Review
Bukit Timah Food Centre
116 Upper Bukit Timah Road

When it comes to breakfast, I prefer Wanton Noodles over fish-ball noodles or bak chor mee since I don’t really like fish-balls or minced meat. But who can resist the tender char siew and crunchy wanton dumpling? Especially Eng Kee Noodle House’s Wanton Mee.

Even though I have been eating Eng Kee’s Wanton Mee for years, it took me until now to blog about it because: a) I always takeaway instead of eating there (no chance to take photos), and b) I hope that they will not become even more popular. Oh whatever, I’m going to be nice and tell everyone that Eng Kee Noodle House is my all-time favorite place for wanton noodle. Forget about Feifei wanton mee (over-hyped) or Pontian wanton mee (small portions), Eng Kee’s Noodle House serves the best wonton noodle in Singapore.

I’m not sure about you, but wanton mee is definitely among my list of top 10 breakfast hawker food, it is substantial yet not too filling. There are three criteria for a good wanton mee: the char siew, wanton and noodle. Eng Kee’s wonton noodle however, is not the perfect bowl of wanton mee, for the char siew is only decent, and the wanton dumplings average.

I know I tend to exaggerate when I describe food, but please trust me when I say that the noodles here are fantastic. They waved and beckoned for me to get closer, and once I put them into my mouth; they bounced up and down on the tip of my tongue – it was delicious!

How to test if the noodles are really good: wait two hours before consuming, if they remain springy and Q after that — you get your answer. I always have the wanton mee a few hours after I buy them. It tastes just as good, if not even better than having it on the spot. And one last thing, remember to go for the $3 portion (at least).

Hawker Food Review
Eng Kee Noodle House
Block 155 Bukit Batok Street 11
Li Soon Coffee Shop