Bao Er Cafe must be the most talked about Hokkien fried prawn mee and butter kaya toast place in Singapore for the last one year.
The place was humming along at 4pm and queues started to form at around 5pm.
Step up to the counter to order, pay up, and get a queue number. Go back to your table and wait. When your number is called, return to the counter to collect your food and utensils.
There's a long menu with small print but most people including us, just ordered the most talked about Chef's Recommendations.
At 4pm, my wait was less than 15 minutes.
Our SGD15 signature serving.
It's a relatively loaded fried Hokkien prawn mee with most of the requisite ingredients such as prawn, pork belly, lardons. The lardons were excellent - crackly, saturated with flavour, not oil. Prawns a bit stiff but okay. Pork belly was soft-tender, it's alright too.
Not much sotong (squid) - I feel more would be better, after all some old-timers call this dish sotong mee. But, they have a couple of scallops which I have never seen before in Singapore fried Hokkien mee. There were also fish cake slices.
The yellow noodles, chor (thick) bee hoon and bean sprouts were done till soft and served saucy wet though not soggy.
The lead flavour was sweet, followed by savoury saltiness, then subtle lardiness, egginess and toastiness of caramelisation (wok hei), in that order. Seafood umami was shy though I expect prefer it assertive in a crustacean and seafood stock based dish.
We like the fresh hot kick of this spicy savoury pulpy sambal so much that we got two portions of it.
Three deep fried har cheong gai chicken wings for SGD12. Crisp outside, moist inside. Marination was robustly savoury likely from fermented bean curd (nam yue) and fermented shrimp paste.
Butter kaya toast was a cut above those from the ubiquitous chains.
Butter not margarine, not overly sweet house made kaya between crisp, airy light, thin sliced browned white bread.
My sweet bitter kopi C kosong was alright too.
Stall name: Bao Er Cafe
Address: Balestier Plaza, 400 Balestier Road, unit #02-01, Singapore 329802
Nearest MRT: 15 minutes walk from Novena station
Tel: 8686 9777
Hours: 8am - 8pm
Not forgetting their prawn paste chicken wing which flavours penetrate even into the bones
ReplyDeleteMy family did not super like the hkm and kaya toast. Honestly the kaya was dripping everywhere when eating
ReplyDeleteimo..truthful comment abt their hkm n prefer their economical fried bee hoon with their chilli instead!
ReplyDeleteNot nice at all overrated b attitude v bad 🤬
ReplyDeleteLeong Hock Wong what the bee hoon is so sweet n the luncheon meat so hard is the worst I ever had
ReplyDeleteDid the price of their Har Jeong Gai went up? I believed I had it at 3 for $9 the last time I was there
ReplyDeleteThis shop is just a stone throw away fr my apartment. Went there for the hokkien mee, toast n kopi. Pure disappointment. The kaya is too sweet n pandan fragrance. Kopi was sour the hokkien mee was a letdown.
ReplyDeleteI realized they are not cook by local or Malaysian. They still haven’t master the art of cooking local dishes.
Will never return.
Hokkien mee ok, kaya toast is #1
ReplyDeleteAfter eating their kaya toast, my wife and i cannot eat kaya toast at any other place anymore, we only crave for their kaya toasts.
I went and like most have to say “way too over rated” by food reviewers n bloggers. I wouldn’t even go there a second time. The kopi c kosong was horrible.
ReplyDeleteUnlikely to return to this place. V chaotic on weekend, staff not bothered with queue mgmt, staff too busy to smile & explain...
ReplyDeleteKaya was too watery & not aromatic.
Hkm - sweet, no umami, evidently burnt taste (not wokhey)
Coffee - averagely good
I prefer hokkein mee fried with thin vermicelli because it would absorb the stock when fried properly. This stall uses farm prawns which doesn't give the natural sweetness
ReplyDeleteWay too overrated by food reviewers n bloggers. I went coz the reviews were glowing and was sorely disappointed. Wouldn’t go there again.
ReplyDeleteAwesome 😊
ReplyDeleteLove the hkm. Solid!
ReplyDelete