Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant
65 Chulia Street
#05-02 OCBC Centre
https://bengthin.com/
 |
| Crab Meat & Scrambled Eggs With Lettuce (SGD $18) |
Provincial Fujian Dishes In This Heritage Restaurant
(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 7
Ambience & Setting: 6
Food & Beverage: 8
Service: 7
Value for Money: 9
Spent about SGD $31 per person.
.....
Established over 70 years ago in 1949 by Lim Yew Hoon, Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant is a heritage restaurant specialising in Chinese Hokkien dishes. Having occupied their current location in Chulia Street since 1979, Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant is a culinary bastion of the Chinese Fujian / Hokkien community in Singapore, quietly serving generations of customers the beloved, consistent taste of nostalgia.
Ambience at Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant is a throwback to the 1970s. The front is styled like a traditional Chinese temple, and when you step in, it feels like you've gone back in time. The small but open dining hall is warmly lit, with comfortable cushioned chairs, wood trimmings, and white-clothed tables. Mirrors around the room create a sense of space, while several private dining rooms are catered for the bank personnel who often conduct business here.
Service at Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant is professional and attentive. Staff accord each table personalised attention, and display smart insights of the menu and dishes. They are observant and attend to requests promptly, and clean up tables quickly when diners leave. Dishes are first presented tableside, and staff will then offer to portion them out; you can also choose to do it yourself. As the hall has limited seating, advance reservations are recommended.
Food at Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant is focused on Chinese Hokkien cuisine, with traditional Fujian dishes that you won't find elsewhere. With recipes spanning over 70 years, they're known for the consistent quality of execution and familiar comforting taste. Dishes are rustic and hearty, with portions sized for communal group dining. Prices are mid-range, but lower than most other Chinese restaurants, budget about SGD $31 per person for a meal here.
.....
 |
| Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant Exterior |
 |
| Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant Interior |
 |
| Wet Tissue Packets |
The Salted Peanuts (SGD $1.50) are served at the start of a meal, though you can choose to refuse it. The salted peanuts have a light firm crunch, with salty savoury nutty flavour.
 |
| Salted Peanuts (SGD $1.50) |
The Fujian Duck Salad (SGD $20) is a house signature, featuring shredded roast duck over strips of cucumber and rock melon. A sticky sweet sauce is poured over, then the entire salad is slow tossed and mixed. If you get a little of each ingredient with each mouthful, you'll experience the refreshing juicy chewy soft textures, and bright fruity vegetal sweet meaty savoury flavours of this delightful salad. There's an option to add on sliced mango too. Highly recommended!
 |
| Fujian Duck Salad (SGD $20) |
 |
| Fujian Duck Salad |
 |
| Fujian Duck Salad |
The Crab Meat & Corn Soup (SGD $15) is lovely and light, with a thick gloopy texture and generous fillings of juicy corn kernels, tender deshelled Sri Lankan crab meat, and wispy egg. The result is a bold vegetal meaty sweet savoury eggy flavour to the warm soup / broth, great for opening the appetite. Good!
 |
| Crab Meat & Corn Soup (SGD $15) |
 |
| Crab Meat & Corn Soup |
A classic Chinese Hokkien dish, the Braised Pork Bun (SGD $15) features slow braised pork belly in soy sauce gravy, paired with steamed wheat buns. The pork belly is tender and succulent, with a good amount of fat to lean meat, and holds robust salty savoury herbal meaty flavour from absorbing the soy sauce gravy. The wheat bun is soft and fluffy, with natural bready sweet flavour, and holds the slices of pork belly nicely. Pure comfort food. Good!
 |
| Braised Pork Bun (SGD $15) |
 |
| Braised Pork Bun |
 |
| Braised Pork Bun |
 |
| Braised Pork Bun |
The Stir-Fried Spinach With Garlic (SGD $14) is simple and straightforward, with spinach tossed with garlic. Fresh and crisp, with bold vegetal sweet spice flavour, this goes well with the meal. Good!
 |
| Stir-Fried Spinach With Garlic (SGD $14) |
 |
| Stir-Fried Spinach With Garlic |
The Tientsin Cabbage With Conpoy (SGD $22) features large napa cabbage leaves slow braised Chinese Cantonese style in a thick gravy of dried scallops, light soy sauce, and oyster sauce, topped with crunchy carrots. The cabbage is super soft and slippery, picking up the richness of the gravy and its bold vegetal earthy sweet savoury flavour. Good!
 |
| Tientsin Cabbage With Conpoy (SGD $22) |
 |
| Tientsin Cabbage With Conpoy |
Loved the Crab Meat & Scrambled Eggs With Lettuce (SGD $18), which features scrambled eggs tossed with deshelled crab meat, carrots, white onions, spring onions, shiitake mushrooms, and served with lettuce. Take some of the mixture, and wrap it as filling within the lettuce. Bite in, and you get the fresh juicy vegetal sweet flavour of the lettuce with a light crunch, followed by the robust eggy sweet savoury flavour of the filling with a soft chew. You can taste the distinct notes of the egg and crab, so fresh. Loved every bite of this, I polished it off. Highly recommended!
 |
| Crab Meat & Scrambled Eggs With Lettuce (SGD $18) |
 |
| Crab Meat & Scrambled Eggs With Lettuce |
 |
| Crab Meat & Scrambled Eggs With Lettuce |
 |
| Crab Meat & Scrambled Eggs With Lettuce |
 |
| Wrap |
 |
| O__O |
The Fresh Oyster Omelette (SGD $18) here is unique, their version being vastly different from elsewhere. The egg omelette is fried till paper-thin and crispy, almost like a cracker of sorts, with an eggy oily flavour. There doesn't seem to be any sweet potato starch used. The fresh oysters are large and juicy, marinated in a house chili, each bite a burst of sweet spicy salty briny flavour. Decadent but so good. Highly recommended!
 |
| Fresh Oyster Omelette (SGD $18) |
 |
| Fresh Oyster Omelette |
 |
| Fresh Oyster Omelette |
The Roast Chicken (SGD $16 Half), or more accurately, flash-fried chicken done Chinese Hokkien style, was excellent. The chicken fats have completely rendered off, and the skin is crisp crunchy with salty savoury flavour. Yet the chicken meat within remains tender and juicy, with enticing sweet salty savoury flavour. Paired with fresh prawn crackers which are nicely crisp, served with a side of chicken salt. Highly recommended!
 |
| Roast Chicken (SGD $16 Half) |
 |
| Roast Chicken |
The Fujian Fried Noodles (SGD $12) is different from what most people are familiar with in Singaporean or Malaysian style Hokkien Mee, even though it carries the same name. Instead, the thick flat rice noodles are tossed till soft with light soy sauce, pork stock, and prawn stock, resulting in a gravy that's deeply savoury, less salty sweet, and more meaty smoky in taste. The version here also doesn't contain any egg. Garnished with crisp bean sprouts, bouncy deshelled prawns / shrimp, tender pork belly slices, wispy spring onions, and crunchy pork lard cubes, all of which pick up and absorb the flavours of the gravy so well. Personally, this didn't quite appeal to me, because of the mild starchy flavour in the gravy.
 |
| Fujian Fried Noodles (SGD $12) |
 |
| Fujian Fried Noodles |
 |
| Fujian Fried Noodles |
The Fried Hong Kong Noodles (SGD $12) was lovely, with a generous portion of ingredients amongst the thin slippery smooth stir-fried egg noodles. There's cabbage, egg, and pork loin, all contributing to a delicious bowl with bright eggy sweet savoury salty smoky flavour. Can taste the wok hei / breath of the wok in each mouthful. Good!
 |
| Fried Hong Kong Noodles (SGD $12) |
 |
| Fried Hong Kong Noodles |
The Yam Taro Paste With Pumpkin & Ginkgo Nuts (SGD $12) was surprisingly decent, given that this is a Chinese Teochew dessert being served in a restaurant known for its Chinese Hokkien cuisine. The thick gloopy texture of the mashed yam / taro paste has bold earthy sweet flavour, contrasted by the soft mashed pumpkin paste with bright vegetal sweet flavour. The crunchy ginkgo nuts lend a complementary nutty sweet flavour, with the overall dessert being satisfying. Would have preferred it a tad less sweet though. Worth ordering!
 |
| Yam Taro Paste With Pumpkin & Ginkgo Nuts (SGD $12) |
 |
| Yam Taro Paste With Pumpkin & Ginkgo Nuts |
.....
.....
CONVERSATION