Guan Hoe Soon Peranakan Restaurant @ Joo Chiat Place. Singapore's Oldest Nyonya Restaurant

Established in 1953, Guan Hoe Soon is one of the oldest and most famous Peranakan restaurants in Singapore, so was I extremely excited about going there for lunch.

Restaurant name: Guan Hoe Soon Restaurant

Address: 200 Joo Chiat Place, Singapore 427764

Tel: +65 6344 2761

Hours: 11:00am - 3:00pm | 5:30pm - 9:00pm

Guan Hoe Soon occupies two shop lots at Joo Chiat Place, a place known for its many eateries.

Guan Hoe Soon's simple decor appropriately sports a rustic old Nanyang theme with round marble top tables, colourful wall tiles, Peranakan paraphernalia in an old display cabinet, etc., just sans the grittiness and humidity of that era. It is bright, clean and air conditioned inside.

Peranakan cuisine was created when Chinese and Malays intermarry. Major Peranakan communities appeared in the Malay peninsular (today's Malaysia) and archipelago (today's Indonesia) in the 1400s e.g. in Malacca and Batavia (today's Jakarta). Peranakan means "local born" in Malay, referring to the descendants of Chinese and Malay intermarriages.

If you like to know more about Peranakan cuisine 👈 click

Guan Hoe Soon is Hainanese owned (not Peranakan owned). In fact, it was the Hainanese who popularised Peranakan cuisine by running restaurants and hawker stalls serving Peranakan dishes, something which the Peranakan community used to loathe to do in the past.

Read about the Hainanese role in promoting Peranakan cuisine 👈 click

Guan Hoe Soon was founded by Yap Chee Quee who learnt the art of Peranakan cuisine while working in the home of a wealthy Peranakan family. With his savings, Yap Chee Quee opened Guan Hoe Soon in 1953. The restaurant was named after Yap Chee Quee's three sons - Kow Guan, Kaw Hoe and Kow Soon. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was a regular of Guan Hoe Soon's dishes. The restaurant is now run by third generation owner Jenny Yap and her husband.

Ayam Buah Keluak is an icon of Peranakan cuisine which is a must order at any Peranakan restaurant. Not surprisingly, it is Guan Hoe Soon's most popular dish.

It is chunky pieces of chicken cooked in a spicy sauce (known as rempah) together with black nuts (buah keluak) stuffed with minced pork, fish and black nut pulp. In Guan Hoe Soon's rendition, the spicy sauce is relatively mild, mainly savoury sweet spicy tangy tasting. The chicken meat was tender but didn't have much flavour on its own, so most of the taste came from the mild tasting sauce.

To me, the best thing in Guan Hoe Soon's ayam buah keluak dish is the black stuffing inside the black nut shell. Ask the staff for little forks to dig the stuffing out of the nut shell.

The stuffing is made by blending minced pork, fish and black buah keluak pulp. The stuffing is prepared outside the shell and then packed back inside for cooking. It is slightly bitter and sweet with subtle earthly undertones. Doesn't look pretty and is an acquired taste but quite addictive once you take a liking for it.

Pro Tip: Guan Hoe Soon sell their buah keluak at $2.50 a piece. (For the amount of time and effort needed to make this, I feel it is reasonable. For the flavour we are getting, it is priceless.) Next time, I shall ask for a few many more - it's the best thing in the dish.

Ngoh Hiang or fried meat roll. A little soft inside with mainly well seasoned vegetable fillings and some pork. Outside, the browned fried bean curd skin was slightly crisp. Taste was mildly savoury sweet.

Otak Otak or spicy fish paste. House made at Guan Hoe Soon, it's a thin slab of mackerel fish paste, spices and coconut milk. The slab is wrapped in banana leaf and cooked by steaming. The slab was tender and moist inside. Its sweet spicy flavours were mild and slightly flat. There was little spice aroma.

Nyonya Chap Chye or mixed vegetables. This savoury sweet dish of mainly cabbages, black fungus, black mushroom and bits of pork softened by stewing with soy sauce and soy bean paste had a homely feel and taste to it. The savoury sweet flavours were mild.

Itek Tim is the Peranakan version of the Hokkien kiam chye ark or duck and salted vegetable soup. It is one of my favourite dishes and I always order it at Peranakan restaurants. We like Guan Hoe Soon's rendition as it had a nice savoury tangy flavour which was at just the right intensity and depth for us. 

It was neither overly salty nor greasy. Thanks to the Guan Hoe Soon crew for going the extra mile to remove the grease. We drank the duck soup to the last drop. 

I like it that Guan Hoe Soon uses asam keping in their itek tim as it (together with tomato) imparts a smooth, mild, sourish tanginess to the duck soup.

The duck meat was a little chewy and flavourless but this is to be expected as the meat had surrendered all its flavour to the soup.

The rice with a pale bluish tint from butterfly pea flower was somewhat cold, a little dry and chewy.

Last but not least was this achar or spicy pickle. It was the most talked about dish during lunch as we were going round the table trying to guess what were the ingredients that made it so delicious.

I especially like its bright, zesty, umami savoury, tangy, spicy, sweet flavours. Complex, and with enough intensity and depth to pack a kick but yet not overpowering. No single flavour dominate, so we can pick out each of the individual flavours.

The vegetables were crunchy and juicy, and well complemented by the flavourful sauce. There were also bits and pieces of chicken offal which made the pickle more interesting (and unique). I have not come achar like this before.

This achar was actually the optional appetiser (you know, those chargeable peanuts, etc., they put on the table without you asking) - don't decline it 😁

From our few dishes at today's lunch, our impression was Guan Hoe Soon's flavours were gentle and comforting, like home cooking - some will remember it as grandma, ma or pa's cooking. This is not the place for getting a kick from strong assertive flavours (except the achar) but for homely dishes that may grow on you. If you come from overseas, this introduction to Peranakan cuisine will be really intriguing and interesting.

I shall be back to try more dishes such as their asam pedas fish, fish maw soup and chendol!

Our receipt for your reference.

You can also get good Peranakan food at this hawker stall 👈  click

       

                     

             

             

               

               

             

           

           

           

                         

           

             

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Written by Tony Boey on 17 Sep 2021