Words by Missim | Photography by ladyironchef

Specialising in Heng Hwa cuisine, Putien Restaurant has quickly expanded from its flagship restaurant at Kitchener road to a restaurant chain with 8 outlets in Singapore: Vivocity, Marina Square, Parkway Parade, Jurong Point, Tampines Mall, City Square Mall and nex.

Putien restaurant has recently launched a new Summer menu. The seasonal dishes are mostly light and refreshing ingredients to complement the warm and humid weather.

The first few dishes that came were little light starters to whet your appetite. The Organic Momotaro Tomato ($4.90) from their Summer Menu came in nice thick juicy slices. There was powdered sugar topping over it which I like! Anything that is coated with sugar is wonderful.

The Iced Bitter Gourd ($5.90), on the other hand, was not much to my liking. Don’t get me wrong. I love bitter gourds in fish slice bee hoons, fried with eggs and what not. But not serving it with a chock-full of ice and eating it cold. It reminded me of carbonated water. I can never get used to the weird mix of coldness and the slight bitterness. Even the honey (which you are supposed to dip the bitter gourd into) did not help at all.

Pretty though.

My second favourite meal from the dinner! Snails, I absolutely loved sucking on the tiny little shells. I was even sucking on them after dessert was cleared! My only complaint for the Sauteed Sea Snails with Hua Diao Wine ($13.90) will be that the snails are awfully tiny. They look much bigger on the menu.

A few more dishes came and went but they did not leave a huge impression on me. And finally, the very famous Putien Lor Mee ($7.9/$15.9/$23.9). The first thing that strikes you is the very light coloured gravy. There was also an interesting mix of ingredients like prawns and clams. I took a tentative spoonful of mian and gravy. Man, it was yummy as hell. How yummy? I’m not too sure. I just remember clearing up my bowl and going for seconds and more and more till every last drop of gravy was slurped up completely.

Putien Restaurant serves reasonably good food at reasonable prices. With 8 branches in Singapore, it is a very convenient place for families to drop by for dinner.

Singapore Food Blog Review
Putien Restaurant
City Square Mall #02-51/54 Tel: +65 6509 6015
Jurong Point #02-34 Tel: +65 6795 2338
127A Kitchener Road Tel: +65 6295 6358
Marina Square #02-205 Tel: +65 6336 4068
nex #02-19 Tel: +65 6634 7833
Parkway Parade #02-13/13A Tel: +65 6345 6358
Tampines Mall #B1-K19/27 Tel: +65 6781 2162
VivoCity Food Republic #03-01B Tel: +65 6376 9358

Note: This was an invited media session

Pu Tien Restaurant has been quite impressive in the Singapore Food scene. They have expanded from their original branch at Kitchener road to five other outlets within a couple of years. The other Pu Tien restaurants are strategically located in popular shopping malls like Marina Square, Tampines Mall, VivoCity, Jurong Point, and there’s even a Pu Tien Buffet restaurant at City Square Mall.

I have been wanting to drop by Pu Tien restaurant for dinner ever since I heard that they are a very affordable place for a good Chinese dinner. When I eat out with my friends, we tend to stick with Western food, or check out other cuisines. like the usual Japanese, Italian or French food.

I’m not sure if it’s the same case for you, with the exception of Dim Sum, I usually only have Chinese food and zichar dinner with my family, but not my friends. All this is about to change with our dinner at Pu Tien Restaurant.

Why don’t we have the Deep Fried Duck with Yam ($15)? One of my friends suggested.

It was a good choice. Held within the shattering crisp of the yam, was the most incredibly moist and welcoming duck meat. It’s a brilliant idea to coat a layer of yam around the duck.

The Deep Fried Chicken with Garlic ($12 for half chix) was golden and crispy to the tooth, with the meat retaining the moisture and sweetness even though it was deep-fried. The portion was a little small though.

“Brad, you need to check out Pu Tien restaurant soon. They have one of the best sweet and sour pork in Singapore!”

Ever since then, I have been waiting from the start of forever to go Pu Tien restaurant just for their sweet & sour pork. I could hear the drum-roll when I stretched out to grab a piece of the pork. It smelt good, and there’s lychee too! Emotions took over as I ignored my friends and concentrated on what’s supposedly the ‘best sweet & sour pork’

I wasn’t sure if it’s because I had too much expectations of it, but Pu Tien’s Sweet & Sour Pork ($10 for S, $15 for M) wasn’t what I was looking for. It was not bad, slightly better than most of the sweet & sour pork that I’ve had before, but it was definitely not the best.

Half mee sua, half bee hoon, apparently Pu Tien restaurant’s Fried noodle mee sua ($6) had an identity crisis. We were left wondering about a few possibilities: a) we ordered bee hoon instead of mee sua, b) the waitress took down a wrong order and got us the bee hoon instead, and c) the mee sua was supposed to taste like bee hoon. Not that it mattered actually. We enjoyed the moist and wet mee sua that came with a good mixture of ingredients

Pu Tien restaurant is a good place for families. The prices are slightly higher than what you’d pay for zichar, but it is still very affordable for a meal in a restaurant. If you are looking for a Chinese restaurant for a simple family dinner, Pu Tien restaurant may be just the one.

Restaurant Review
Pu Tien Restaurant
1 Jurong West Central 2
#02-34 Jurong Point Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6795 2338