The JOFA folks have opened up a kopitiam stall serving local Western-style hawker food (165 Bukit Merah Central #01-3683).
The thick chicken chop was moist, tender, and really smoky with crispy charred skin and coming with a nice sweet brown black pepper sauce. The mash potato was really smooth and creamy, almost like the one at Joel Robuchon, and again with the nice brown black pepper sauce that tasted a bit more savoury here. Very good restaurant standard western food, by ex Burnt Ends and Joel Robuchon chefs.
Recommended by Johor Kaki, and one of the stalls with a consistently long queue here. The sauce was lardy, vinegary and soy sauce savoury, but the noodles were a bit soft and clumpy. The her kiao or fish dumplings were really nice, crunchy and qq with savoury sweet meat filling. The fishballs were also really bouncy. The queue was mad though on this day – a full fifty minutes.
Wanton Mee by MasterChef Singapore Finalist Season 1.
Recommended by 8 Days and many others, helmed by an ex-Boon Tong Kee head chef with a 20 minute queue at opening. The rice was grainy, moist and really fragrant of chicken oils.
Quite a popular store with serviceable lor mee, with a strong pork flavour in the braising sauce. The fritters were quite indistinguishable though – some soft globs, some hard chips.
The mee pok was cooked really well, and was qq and springy. The sauce was just mild savoury without much vinegar. Tge accompanying ingredients were generous and also cooked well, although generic. This was an old school one man operation, with the owner taking some care and time to churn our each bowl.
Bukit Merah Central Food Centre lies a culinary gem renowned for its artisanal noodles and authentic flavors—Lan Xiang Ban Mian 兰香麵粉粿板麵. This unassuming stall has gained recognition for its traditional approach to the beloved noodle dish, embodying homemade goodness.