Koung's in Geylang is touted as one of Singapore's top wanton mee. This was my first time tasting Koung's wan tan mee.
Established in 1964, Koung's wanton mee has built up a huge fan base across generations including millennials. They are well known for their house roasted char siew and spicy sauce.
Queues are well known to be long but we didn't have to wait much when we were there on a Thursday at 10am. Car parking was a challenge though (fortunately, Aljunied MRT station is a 5 minute walk away).
The mound of egg noodles come half buried in a thick lardy aromatic sauce and covered with choy sum greens, char siew slices and lard cracklings.
A good toss mixes the sauce and wraps every strand with a gummy greasy slick. The egg noodles were the thick and heavy type which I prefer (over the skinnier, lighter ones). They were done half a notch softer than al dente (or was it because I took too long to take photographs 😂 ).
The sweet spicy savoury sauce had a pronounced lardy undertone and a fleeting sharp spicy edge. It's one of the old school taste profiles I remember and enjoy.
The thin char siew slices were tender and juicy. It tasted mainly sweet with a subtle toastiness which complemented the sweet - spicy - savoury - lardy taste of the noodles and sauce. If you like soft-tender, sweet char siew, Koung's signature BBQ pork is for you. I did enjoy it with Koung's noodle and signature chili sauce as they went well together.
The blanched choy sum added crunch and slight green taste to the dish.
The lard cracklings are optional which means that the more of that lardy crispy crunch the better. The lard "croutons" were not greasy. Nice.
The quite robust savoury pork, dried scallop and dried sole fish soup is old school Cantonese - a winner in my books. The wantons were nice too - smooth skin, not too thin, and the knob of soft minced fat-lean pork inside was sweet and aromatic.
Koung's is a likeable wanton mee - it is good in every department - just right texture noodles, flavourful & aromatic lardy sauce, good char siew, nice soup and wantons. One of Singapore's best wanton mee, that's for sure.
Restaurant name: Koung's Wanton Mee 龚氏云吞面
Address: 205 Sims Ave, Singapore 387506
Nearest MRT station: Aljunied (East West Line)
Tel: +65 6748 0305
Hours: 8:00am - 8:30pm (close at 7:30pm on Mon)
Non Halal
Date visited: 6 Aug 2020 | Reviewed 16 Feb 2022
i started eating when they were at lorong 14 and that was 1990. they were at their best - they then made another move across the road before the current location. i find after every move their standard drop. the pork lard is a strong telling sign. the ones now is not crispy and they mix them with salt. another telling sign the soup at times is lukewarm and not piping hot.
ReplyDeletehis brother i believe bbq the char siew over a big can with charcoal. i believe today its from a third party the biggest telling sign was that at lorong 14 the average waiting time was 30 to 45 minutes now a days is like 15 minutes. if you did not ate his food in 1990 you would now not complain or compare lolx lolx
Yes, very true the yesteryear Koung's wanton flavour has changed alot after every move standard drop. We have patronised them at lor 14. We ate last month very disappointed & will not go back again. We felt exactly the same comments as unknown feedback here.
DeleteFully agree with all these comments. Patronised it a few weeks ago and it was disappointing. Char Siew maybe just a bit better than other places but overall was merely so so. Not worth the 25min wait and enduring the rather brusque treatment from the old man who I think is the owner. Won't bother patronizing again.
DeleteI did not have to queue at 1800h when I went there on 14/8/20 Friday. The food cooked by the younger bro was horrendous though there was no queue. The noodles were in a mess and the char siew was only four pieces. Veg was a two strand stems and I have to ask for the pork lard which was always hidden. Standard has dropped drastically as they only go for profiteering and can visually noticed that there was no passion in the food serving anymore. I won’t go there again though I have patronised the shop for many years. I felt the noodles being stuck at my throat that night!! Urgh...
ReplyDeletewow guys lighten up on the negativity, almost seems like a smear campaign...
ReplyDeleteany good wanton mee to recommend then? that's what i'm more interested to know :D
Best Wanton Mee IMHO is at Joo Heng Noodle (Toa Payoh West Market & Food Centre) Location: 127 Lorong 1 Toa Payoh #02-12 Toa Payoh West Market & Food Centre, Singapore 310127. Hours: Open really early like 7am (I always went before 9am).
ReplyDeleteTheir Noodle (normal or jade noodle) with Old style chilli & tomatoes sauce are delicious. They made their char siew in a Airfryer & it is good & juicy too. The Wanton was really good as well.
At the same market, do go eat fried black carrot cake at NO.26 CARROT CAKE @ #02-26 Toa Payoh Lorong 1 Food Centre.
- This very old style black carrot cake & is the only black version I eat in Singapore. The black sauce not overly sweet but just totally well balance. Just avoid the overRated Michelin recommend stall in the other corner (very Long wait & rude service).
Hi, does anyone knows there's this fried white carrot cake stall in old Tiong Bahru market which operated like 47 years ago only at night. The taste I can remember and miss since 45 years ago when I was 7 years old. Can't find any carrot cake stall that can match its taste. If anyone knows of its whereabouts now please inform me. Thank you!
ReplyDelete