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Review HWA Seafood Zhi Char ● Tagore Lane off Upper Thomson Road


Eight of us gathered at HWA Seafood off Upper Thomson Road. We had a nice reasonably priced lunch of familiar kopitiam type zhi char dishes.

Stall name: HWA Seafood


Address: 9 Tagore Lane, #01-02, Singapore 787472


Tel: 6452 0918


Hours: 11:30am - 10:00pm



HWA Seafood is located in a food court at the ground level of a large office building. Parking is ample, beside the building and around it.

HWA Seafood is a large stall at the left far end of the food court. The food court is popular with many food stalls. It is full during lunch and the three busiest stalls were HWA Seafood, the chicken rice and chup chai png (economic rice) stalls.

The menu is thick. Dishes range from higher end steamed fishes and seafood to affordable comfort dishes. Our first time here, we just picked a sampling of familiar zhi char type dishes.

The curry fish head was alright. The snapper fish was sufficiently fresh, clean tasting. The curry was mild, flavours well balanced and the coconut milk was at just the right thickness i.e. not cloyingly thick. Apparently, none of the group like thick coconut milk curry - you can guess our age group already 😬

The tea smoked chicken was a little below expectation. 

The meat was tender, juicy and smooth but infusion of tea and smokiness was hardly discernible. It came doused in a gooey savoury sauce with a bit of smokiness but it's a funky taste profile that needed some time to learn to appreciate.

Grilled large squid. 

The squid was quite robustly salty from the seasoning. There was also a bit of smoky flavour from grilling. The squid meat was done slightly dry and chewy. Not much moisture and natural squid taste left.

Fried chai poh tofu. Fried slab of tofu smothered under a mound of fried chai poh.

The tofu was tender firm, not that smooth, savoury with added sweet savouriness from the fried chai poh.

Stir fried green dragon vegetable. Came with bean sprout and enoki mushroom fillers but at least they cleaned the heads and roots off the taugeh.

The salty savoury sauce and the searing from frying drove away and masked the green taste of the still juicy crunchy vegetables.

La La clams fried bee hoon. Vermicelli, vegetables, egg and la la clams in a pool of soupy umami savoury sauce. Provided part of the carbs for the meal in a delicious way. Well liked and I think makes a tasty complete singleton meal.

We paid $21 per person which is reasonable in today's Singapore.



Written by Tony Boey on 26 Feb 2023

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