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

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

This week for some unknown reasons, they let us book out on Friday morning 11am. Cool rite? Never imagine so good let us out one day early instead of booking out on Sat afternoon which is now? haha! Anyway, yesterday came back never do much, had been sick for the whole week, but being elected as platoon-in-charge (for a week), i hang on there and waited until a new platoon ic was elected on thu before i went to see the Medical officer (MO). MO gave me “Attend B” which means that i am excused from light duties for three days, gosh how i regret seeing the doctor, thu fri sat no exercise, people run i cannot run. So bored seating there doing nothing. O well, next time i make sure i got a fever before i see doc.

 Saturday which is today, dad buy lunch back from Block 158 there, for people staying in Bukit Batok, should know/heard of this stall selling Hokkien Mee (Prawn Noodles) there, quite famous i guess, even people not staying in Bukit Batok had heard of its fame before. Having tried the Hokkien mee (HM) so many times for so many years already, i would say the HM is not bad la, but then not really the best i ever tried, the best HM i feel is at Whampoo Market there.

This stall uses Opeh leaf to keep the HM (for $3 and above), but then again does wrapping HM in Opeh leaf really improves the taste of HM? After eating so many times, i still do not have the conclusion, so the ball is in your court to judge. For a $3 packet, the serving isn’t very full, so sometimes we rather buy two packs of $2 for one person. The strength of this HM i will say is its chili, the chili is just nice, not too spicy not too sweet.

Being hungry man after coming back from Tekong, i had another helping, Wanton Mee (WM)! This stall that i’ll like to recommend is at the coffee shop behind the Hokkien Mee stall. “Discovered”this WM stall after my mother brought it once and found it was good, and the rest is history, ever since then when thinking of WM will definitly think of this stall. WM may be a common street food found practically in every Coffee shop and hawker centre in Singapore, but then really, to be able to declare as good WM, few stalls come into mind.

Let’s see, the essential items in WM, first: Great noodles, second: Quality Sauce, third: Excellent Char Siew, last: Fantastic Wanton. Basically some stalls may have good wanton or char siew, but their noodles taste like shit. So for me, i personally felt that so long the noodles is great and the rest are okay, the WM is good. For the sauce of the WM, different stalls varies with different type of sauce, but generally speaking there are two types, the clear and the dark-sauce. I do not like dark sauce for WM.

This stall actually fulfills my requirement, the wanton here is average, char siew not bad, but most importantly are its noodles. Their noodles are really good, once u take a bite you will know what i mean, you can feel that the stall owner really has skill in cooking the noodles one. Seriously just eating the noodles without any wanton or char siew is good n’uff for me. And you-know-what? The damage is only $2!! Where can u find such good Wanton Mee at two bucks nowadays?

I can’t remember the name of the stalls, but if you still don’t know, feel free to ask me, i can “direct” you there. lol. Going for dinner later at Seafood station, so stay tune for the post on crabs & gang : )