Homely, comforting Hakka dishes like house made yong tau foo, fishballs, abacus seed, and steamed clams in a nostalgic simple family run restaurant. Goldhill Hakka Restaurant 1997 is a household name among Singapore easties.
Goldhill Hakka Restaurant 1997 is one of buddy Sylvia's family's favourite hangouts. Steven, the boss of Goldhill was Sylvia's driving instructor before he took over the restaurant founded by his father. Goldhill started as a push cart stall in the 1950s plying the streets of Singapore's east coast.
Goldhill is a simple, no frills place which still rely on good food, reasonable pricing and friendly service to nurture its loyal following.
Our first dish was Abacus Seeds. The little yam and rice flour dumplings were familiar but this was the first time I've seen them come topped with gritty fried garlic, shallot, dried shrimp, dried cuttlefish, salted fish etc.
The boiled chewy yam and rice flour dumpling was mildly sweet with savoury flavours from the fried topping. The dumplings were not stir fried with sauce and oil, so there was no infusion of flavours. Goldhill's fans appreciate the clean tasting sweet dumplings with savoury aromatic overlay.
KF Seetoh founder of Makansutra loves these abacus seeds.
Their handmade yong tau foo is Goldhill Hakka's claim to fame. The assortment of vegetables and tofu filled with minced fish paste was simply blanched and served with spicy and savoury sweet dipping sauces in a separate small dish.
The yong tau foo pieces were generously filled with fish paste. The fresh fish sweetness was slight and the paste was somewhat floury, making the paste a little soft and lacking the spring of fish meat. The vegetables were boiled a little too long making them soft.
The house made spicy hot sauce and savoury sweet dip were useful complements to the yong tau foo pieces.
The handmade fish balls were large. Same floury taste and soft texture with flour taking away some of the taste and squeaky bite of pure fish meat.
Fresh and clean clams steamed with julienned ginger and cut chili is pure unadulterated joy.
Besides these clams, I heard Goldhill Hakka does great steamed fish and prawn dishes which I want to come back for. Note that Goldhill does not serve rice or noodles (which is easily solved by eating more yong tau foo lo 😄 ).
Goldhill is actually English for boss Steven's Chinese name Jin Shan 金山. Steven's father named the restaurant after him when it opened in the 1970s. Next time, I need to ask Steven why is there a "1997" in his restaurant's name 😄
Goldhill Hakka Restaurant 1997 is a couple of shop lots away from George Laksa, one of my favourite laksa in Singapore 👈 click
Date visited: 6 Aug 2020
I remember they serve noodles during lunch only.
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