Eng's Noodles House is one of Singapore's most popular, if not the most famous wantan mee.
Eng's is perhaps the best representative of the Singapore style of wantan mee.
The queue at 1:30pm on a Sunday. We got our seats in about 15 minutes, which I feel is very reasonable for such a popular, iconic shop and brand.
I felt a tinge of regret that I never tried Eng's when I doing my "A" levels at Tanjong Katong Secondary School in the 1970s. My school was just a stone's throw from Eng's (when they were in Dunman Food Centre).
It would be interesting to do a reflection of the evolution of Singapore wantan mee based on first hand experience.
Oh well.....
It's full house inside Eng's. Interestingly, the clientele was a good balance of different age groups.
In Singapore, when the food is good, support will come from all age groups.
Our dry wantan noodle (SGD4.50+) comes plain
On every table there was a squeeze bottle of Eng's "Super HOT Chilli" taunting customers to test the limits of their chili tolerance :P
Well, if you want me to do something, just challenge me not to do it :P
Eng's wantan mee, everything in the bowl (chili, noodles, lard crackers, char siew, choy sum greens, and wantans), ready for tossing.
Giving the wantan noodles, chili sauce and everything inside a vigorous toss.
The noodles were quite thick and slightly curly. It had a nice al dente bite, and slightly tender and spongy.
Eng's noodles reminded me more of good Korean made instant noodles than good egg noodles 全蛋面.
Perhaps this was because I couldn't detect eggy flavours from the noodles. The texture was also quite similar to good Korean instant noodles.
As touted, the chili sauce had quite a kick and the zing lingered on well after we left the shop. I like this as I like chili sauce that has fight and tenacity :D
But, the chili sauce was pretty flat.
The chili sauce was single dimension and lacked layers of spiciness, nor was it balanced with savouriness or sweetness.
(Perhaps I added too much chili sauce which overpowered everything :P Next time I shall try the noodles plain first to suss out the underlying sauce.)
We also tried the soup version (SGD4.50+).
I actually preferred the soup version to the "dry" one.
The soup version allowed me to taste the noodles better (though it was just wheat flavour) and I also liked the sweet and savoury broth.
The thin slice of char siew was sweet and tender. Quite unlike the KL style of chunky char siew caramelized and charred at the edges, but this was still very likable.
The wantans were large and meaty, filled with minced marbled pork marinated with sesame oil.
The mushy minced pork filling seemed to have a high proportion of fat.
Customers can help themselves to as much lard crackers as they like at the self service corner.
The lard crackers had a nice crunchy mouth feel. Though they were more or less tasteless, they added interesting textures and rustic charm to the bowl of wantan noodles.
Singapore's favourite wantan mee shop was still full house when we were leaving after our satisfying meal.
Eng's Noodles House's wantan mee is definitely better than the average in Singapore.
Restaurant name: Eng's Noodles House 榮高叉燒雲吞麵
Address: 287, Tanjong Katong Road, Singapore
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/mzHXt
GPS: 1.306691,103.895730
Hours: 11:00am to 9:00pm
Tel: +65-8688 2727
Non Halal
Date visited: 22 Jun 2014
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OMG, I spotted my favourite lard - a must-have for me! Thanks for sharing! None of my friends incl myself, have never heard of this place.
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