Not sure if there are people like me who enjoy an old school traditional Kopitiam experience, but if you do, this place has the vibes and food that is like that. From the seemingly rude aunty and uncle shouting to the slamming of plates and bowls in front of you, I actually dig into such vibes 😂
Wait till you try their food. Their Yong Tau Foo ($5) is up to the owner to decide which ingredients to give you, and each of them was bursting with a nostalgic taste. It's not like it's so good that you need to come from the far end to try, but each ingredient is handmade with simple meat filling. To cater for the older crowd, they were not too salty and the soup was very comforting and hearty. Not the most flavourful, but definitely perfect for a rainy day.
Now their ingredients come with a plate of dry noodles that were just simply seasoned with minced meat with some kind of flavoured oil. It has an al dente texture and is much better with their homemade chilli. It was not particularly spicy but flavourful.
I feel like it is an experience to dine here, as it reminds you of the olden days where people probably ate the same bowl to get by their day. Such sentimental feelings were probably intensified by the look and feel of the shophouses nearby!
Very chewy skin. The filling is very very bland, esp compared to their intensely savoury abacus seeds sauce
I don't like
Everyone tells you this place's food is top notch but everything else is as bad as the food is good. And they'd be right. There's a constant din despite not much happening, queue moves incredibly slowly because the order taker is the same person as the chef who is also the cashier. There's a lot of queue cutting from regulars presumably(while in the queue someone from behind literally received a plate of soon Kueh as he was in the queue, when even I haven't ordered, much less him). Need to fight for seats, things are so inefficient, and a lot of takeaways, not to mention they aren't understanding the orders very clearly and there's a lot of clarification. Are they the best beef balls and best abacus seeds place in Singapore? Probably. Is it good enough to stand 30mins in queue in a constant chaotic and uncomfortable environment? Not to me, I hated it
Food:
This is really good. It's soft and very chewy, which may not be everyone's thing but I liked it. The sauce is strong to pair w the texture, incredibly savoury from the lovely small shrimps
Their beef balls are really unique. It's kind of how you expect perfection to be, for handmade beef balls. Very tightly bound, very meaty, and the beef muscles can be clearly seen. The bite is strong, and actl abit less bouncy than you would expect but not tough by any means. Solid stuff, pun intended
So they have beef ball and beef tendon ball. The difference is that the beef tendon ball has tiny bits of tendon inside, which has a strong bite on its own, so overall it is more springy and less meaty than the beef balls.
The beef slices are quite decent, the marinate is somewhat unique and despite the rather thick cut it's not unacceptably chewy
Their soup is very clear and very good. Yes it's somewhat mild so not everyone can appreciate it, but it really is good
Do not judge the book by its cover. The beef balls in the soup make look plain and plain with stingy amount of broth but this simple looking bowl of soup still remain as tasty as before. The flavour tasted full-bodied and was filled with natural sweetness from beef bone broth.
The beef balls are still undeniably chewy and bouncy with beefy flavor in every bite. These are very addictive.
Every piece of YTF tasted fresh and appetizing. As you reach the bottom of the soup with the spoon, you will realize that there are a handful amount of soya beans.
The Hakka Noodle is similar to Mee Pok just that they are narrower in size. The execution of Hakka Noodles usually topped with a handful amount of minced meat.
The special part of the Soon Kueh as compared to the usual ones we had was that the skin was made with yam.
Soon Kueh was plump and had chewy skin. Ingredients were filled to the brim with turnip, mushrooms, shrimp, black fungus etc.
Hidden in a very dated coffeeshop, lies this stall that sells old school traditional beef noodles and Yong tau foo. Their Yong Tau Foo is pretty unique, as you don't get to choose what ingredients you want and you live it to what the hawker has that day! For just $3, you get a variety of ingredients, with a bowl of noodles. The noodles were already good on its own, due to the lard used 😍 the yong tau foo ingredients were fresh and very old school tasting! You probably won't get such good quality with such prices anywhere else!
The beef noodles here take after the Chinese Hakka style, closely resembling that of a Vietnamese Pho.
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The family-run stall is reowned for their handmade beef meat balls, painstakingly made daily using fresh Australian beef. It's minced and seasoned according to the heritage family receipe, resulting in a lovely bouncy springy texture with bold meaty sweet savoury flavour.
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The fresh beef slices are medium-rare with a satisfying juicy chew, and robust meaty sweet savoury flavour.
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The clear broth holds a full-bodied meaty sweet aroma, from beef bones boiled over 5 hours. Served with silky kway teow / flat rice vermicelli noodles, though the option of thin bee hoon is popular as well. Pure comfort food, yum.
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Beef Noodles
The Beef House
@ 218 Syed Alwi Road
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More details:
https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2021/11/best-of-singapore-hawkers-beef-noodles.html
Tendon Beef ball soup $4
Looks plain and boring but it is surprisingly flavourful! I thought the soup was light and refreshing but my friend described it as plain and unimpressive. I think it really depends on what kind of person you are ( zhong kou wei or not). Would definitely be back for the tendon beef ball soup! The tendon beef balls are undeniably more flavourful than the beef balls 😋 Skipped the chilli as i felt that it spoils the flavour of the beef balls.
Sliced beef beehoon soup $4
Sliced beef kway teow dry $4
Sliced beef is tender but not v flavourful imo. Initially thought that the sliced beef would have a ‘beefier’ taste as compared to the beef balls
Prices starts from $4
Didnt manage to get the suan pan zi :( Looked amazing tho 😢
Enjoyed every dish i ordered. Felt like a v healthy n hearty meal. 家🏠
The Beef House at 217 Syed Alwi Road is famed for several things: yong tau foo, beef balls, beef tendon balls, soon pan (笋粄) and suan pan zi (算盘子).
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It is not hard to understand why they are so immensely popular because nothing here is factory made - well, maybe except for the various noodles (bee hoon, kway teow, Hakka mee) used here but otherwise, everything else is handmade.
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I ordered a bowl of beef tendon ball soup with bee hoon ($5), two pieces of soon pan ($1 each) and a plate of suan pan zi ($2).
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The soup is refreshingly light and clean-tasting especially with the addition of coriander however, what really stood out for me, are the tendon balls.
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Seriously, I have not tasted such beefy flavored balls before. Also, the texture is firm yet bouncy, I suspect if it rolled off my table, it might bounce across the road to the coffee shop opposite.
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It is so meaty, so substantial I doubt there are any fillers in it.
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I loved suan pan zi but they are so hard to find! This Hakka delicacy is made by kneading tapioca flour with yam but over here, they added pumpkin into the mixture as well which is then rolled into shape and stir fry with a copious amount of minced meat, black fungus, mushrooms and hae bi (dried shrimps).
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The Hakka soon pan had yam added into the dough of the skin.
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They are extremely generous with the fillings inside the soon pan which included jicama, bamboo shoots, black fungus, mushrooms and hae bi.
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Incredibly chewy and starchy, the crystal-like translucent skin may seem a little thick but to me, that is the best part because I enjoy chewing on chewy stuff!
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They are extremely generous with the fillings inside the soon pan which included jicama, bamboo shoots, black fungus, mushrooms and hae bi.
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Read more: https://thedeadcockroach.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-beef-house-217-syed-alwi-road.html?m=1
Recently went back to The Beef House to takeaway one of my favourite suan pan zi around! They’re still as good as I remember to be - soft textured with a great chew and generous ingredients. Try their Hakka soon kuehs too if you’re here!
If you want to taste real beef in beef balls, here is a place for you. As a person who loves to make all types of balls: fish balls, pork balls..., I can say the ratio of beef to flour is higher than other beef balls you have ever tasted in Singapore, at least for me. Not only that, it’s also springy to perfection. A downside is the dried noodle is tasteless with some fatty minced pork.
On a side note, dont forget to couple it with Milo peng $1.5. It’s good.
Small noodle with beef balls: $4
Small noodle with yong tau too: $3
Big mixed beef balls and tendon balls: $5
Took me three attempts before I got to enjoy the Hakka yong tau foo at “The Beef House” coffeeshop in Syed Alwi. The stall which is named after what it sells, is linked to the beef stall next to it, and on my first two visits, had either sold out or was closed.
It opens daily (except for Fridays according to Google Maps) at 7am, so by the time I arrived at 11.15am last Monday, the yong tau foo looked quite visibly reduced to anxious me. And the moderately long queue which was already in place, ended up stretching out onto the pavement by the time I got my food about half an hour later. My advice: Reach early to avoid disappointment.
But was it worth the wait? I believe so.
There is nothing fancy about the Hakka Yong Tau Fu here because it looks a little rough around the edges but it is its old-school taste that’s the big draw for me.
Not that you get to choose but the variety of items on offer (which is impressive considering the hawker doesn’t seem to have any assistants) is divided into those best enjoyed dry and those meant to be served in soup. Every piece of YTF I got tasted fresh and was appetisingly seasoned. My order of two large portions for TH and I cost only $10 which is a steal. I did think the serving of noodles was a bit on the modest side but the yong tau foo certainly wasn’t. In the bowls of soup were a generous amount of soya beans too, something I consider important for the proper enjoyment of this dish.
While eating, we were already in discussion about our next visit. That should say plenty about how good the food here is, right? 😊.
Elite but visit at your own risk. I always found the estrangement between old and new Singapore sharpened in hawker culture. New Singapore is orderly and mechanical, old Singapore is informal and spontaneous. So you get customers who struggle to order in Mandarin/dialect, you get confusion in the system, and other angst. This coffeeshop is a classic example. They're very busy, they have no structured ordering, they allow callers to jump the queue, and they're one of those notorious hawkers who take liberty with your order, which is neither a good nor bad thing lah. My queue took half an hour although there were only five customers ahead. There, it splits into beef noodle and yong tau foo - and they seem to inter-cook! Both stalls would serve you what's left or what's convenient - that's how we ended up with ytf mee kia. On the food, the balls and soup were first-class. Balls were plump, flavourful and juicy. Soup was so sweet it demanded respect. I think they used the same soup but the sliced beef gave its soup a meatier profile. Although this beef was inferior to the balls, its texture was unique. The noodles and Hakka minced meat were good too.
However, when I was there at 12.30pm on a Saturday, they were completely sold out. So, I just ordered what was left - Beef Ball Soup and Noodles [$4].
Because it was not planned, those 2 dishes certainly caught me by surprise. Firstly, the beef balls tasted springy with strong umami. The owner makes them by hand everyday and I can assure you their taste is completely different from any beef ball you buy outside. Secondly, unlike the usual MSG soup from many noodle shops in Singapore, the soup here was very refreshing. It was a clear soup but it had good concentrated flavours. Lastly, the noodles were thin, chewy with a strong onion taste. It may not be suitable for everyone but I certainly liked it as it paired well with the beef balls.
Overall, I may not have gotten to eat the famous Hakka Yong Tau Foo set there but the Beef Ball Soup and Noodles were definitely not subpar. In fact, they were so tasty now I wonder how good the Yong Tau Foo is that it overshadows the success of these 2 dishes. I shall return another day, albeit earlier to make sure I try them. -Foodier✌🏻
This corner stall located along Syed Alwi Road is famous for 3 things, their Hakka Beef Ball Bee Hoon Soup, Hakka Yong Tau Foo and Hakka Beef Kway Teow.
Although I’ve never tried the latter, I must admit both their Yong tau foo and homemade beef balls are seriously good. Their beef balls are dense with a nice chew to it. The flavour is legit and tastes miles better from what you typically get from factory-made ones. For one, you can actually taste the beef in the ball. They’re also really massive which is a major plus too!
With or without the noodles, the price tag of this set remains the same. The number of decently sized yong tau foo pieces (beancurd, bitter gourd, mushroom, fish and pork balls, fried wanton and wuxiang) is totally dependent on your luck as it can hover between 6 to 8 of them. The springy noodles were tossed in pork lard and topped with minced pork. So yum! Definitely missed this old school taste/ 古早味!
According to my mom, you might be delighted to find dried oyster wrapped with meat if you were to join the morning crowd!
Was really surprised to see such a generous portion of abacus seeds at such a wallet friendly price tag. Each of the abacus seeds was huge and had a nice chew to it. Just as any traditional recipe, they were stir fried together with minced pork, mushrooms, dried shrimps, shredded woodear and spring onion! So happy to be able to discover this new place as the abacus seed seems to be a rare find these days:(
