Cheap Finds

Stuffed bananas with a top layer of grated fried coconut sitting on a buttery flaky crust 😋😋😋 For $2.80 a slice, this is a cheap find for a sweet treat if you're in the area. Located at the basement of katong shopping centre, they usually sell out before their closing time, so it's best to come early to avoid disappointment.

Fried rice coated in tom yum sauce, mixed with onions, egg, pineapple and pieces of chicken. The tom yum sauce was slightly more on the sweeter, than the spicier side so it is pretty manageable even for those who are not good with spicy food. However, the rice was way too moist for fried rice, with the rice grains clumping together. It would have been a lot better if the rice were drier.

Being a restaurant in the heartlands, this place is bustling with activity especially on weekday nights. Hence, be prepared to wait if you are dining in in larger groups.

Came here for a weekday lunch because it is near-impossible to find a seat for lunch on weekends! The stall is famous for their yellowish chicken rice, which is really fragrant, and surprisingly not as greasy as it looks! We got the half chicken set, which comes with a good mix of fat and lean pieces. We were surprised that the chicken meat was not really boneless as the stall's name suggested, so perhaps that needs to be requested for when placing your order. The fried garlic on top of the chicken was awesome to complement the chicken meat, although the gravy might be a little on the saltier end.

The set was also good value for money, as it also came with achar, which is a pretty unique appetizer for chicken rice. In addition, you get a big bowl of lotus root soup, although it can be a little too salty to end your meal with, and we thought the stall's cabbage soup (served when we went previously) was much nicer.

Stall prepares two types of muah chee - one coated with peanut powder and another coated with black sesame flakes! You can choose to mix both like we did, and this is pretty affordable at $3.50! Muah chee serving was generous and it was soft and really chewy, compared to some others that we previously tried, which were of the firmer variety! We think the peanut muah chee was done better, and although the black sesame muah chee was certainly more unique, the taste of black sesame could have been stronger.

While the noodles looked ordinary at first glance, it was surprisingly good! It was really springy and it was cooked in Koo Kee's secret sauce, which was a little oily but gave the noodles a lot of flavour. Topped with minced pork, you can mix in some chilli and ketchup (can be requested) to make the dish even more tasty. This is the upsized version, which was honestly a little too gelat; however, their standard serving was a little too small. It would be great if they could have a size in between.

For the soup, I felt the ingredients were pretty standard, although you can swap the ingredients if you don't like any particular one. Otherwise, the default would be the five items shown in the picture!

Serving was very generous for $7.90 and it is great if you decide to heat it up using the microwave ovens provided!!! :) However, it would have been nice if the karaage chicken were more crispy - it tasted a little soggy ;(

Sourdough toast was done very well as usual, and it came with a very generous amount of mushrooms and cheese. The item was a lot more filling than it looked, although it was well worth the $5!

White chocolate cookie, on the other hand, was really sweet! While we appreciated the generous serving of nuts, there was a strange salty flavour on one side of the cookie???

This is the $4 serving, which came with a generous portion of minced/sliced meat and koka noodles. Soup was somewhat spicy, which makes this more suitable for supper than for breakfast. Note that the stall serves a non-spicy version, but a cursory look around will suggest that the spicy version is more popular. Despite the unique soup broth, this is not something that I will go out of my way for.

The queue can be very long on weekends, so be prepared to wait a while to find a table! Do also note the opening hours, as they are not open at the usual lunch and dinnertimes.

Pictured above is the 2 pax $10 portion. Generous servings of lala and seafood, flavourful gravy, good chilli, and the roasted pork was the cherry on the cake. The yellow noodles did not have the alkaline taste as well. Highly recommend if you're in toa payoh.

Loved the springy texture of the noodles and the amount of vinegar used, although I had to admit the dish was a little lacking on the ingredients. The serving of minced pork was rather measly for a dish of bak chor mee, even as the stall tried the differentiate itself by serving a hanjuku egg. Definitely not enough to fill my tummy for lunch without upsizing!

This Michelin bib gourmand horfun has a rich and flavourful gravy that will leave you wanting for more. This set comes with braised chicken and duck, 2 mushrooms and a plant based dumplings. The dumpling and the mushrooms were so nice they took me by surprise! Only wish that the serving size would be bigger for the price ($7.40) though.

Tried Ah Gan Taro Balls in Taiwan and I personally think Nine Fresh is much nicer! The go to dessert on a hot day or it can be a meal on its own as the beancurd is actually quite filling. Almost neverending combinations in their menu and I can't really taste the difference between quite a few of them but it doesn't matter since they are all nice and worth the calories. Much more worth it compared to bubble tea 🤣