Ba Mee Kiao Moo Dang (Wanton Mee) — $4.50 Was actually headed to Luk Lu Eating House along Beach Road to check out a Hainanese curry rice stall but found it to be closed when we were there. That being said, we got reminded about the existence of Wan Thai when we were there. There was a point of time where Thai-style Wanton Noodles had been quite the rage across the island — the said dish is still well-represented by Soi 19 Thai Wanton Mee which has since expanded its operations across multiple outlets around the island. While there are other lesser-known establishments serving up the same dish across the island such as that of Huay Kwang Thai Wanton Mee and Wonton Mama around, it is perhaps Wan Thai that is the most elusive of the lot. This isn’t the first Thai Wanton Mee specialty stall that is located within Luk Lu Eating House — in fact, the same coffeeshop did used to house the now-defunct Fatty Thai as well; the coffeeshop (better known for its claypot rice and Vietnamese pho) being located at the junction between Beach Road and Aliwal Street looking much like a Malaysian-style Da Pai Dang establishment given how the dining area of the coffeeshop is situated outside of its dedicated space indoors. Wan Thai occupies a corner of the coffeeshop; the menu only comprising of five (5) items — the Ba Mee Kiao Moo Dang (i.e. Wanton Mee), Khao Ka Moo (i.e. Pig Trotter Rice), Chicken Cutlet Noodle, Pig Trotter Noodle and Geow Grob (i.e. Fried Wanton).
All orders at Wan Thai are actually prepared ala-minute and despite being pretty much a one-woman show, the food does get served up rather quickly here. It has been quite a while since we have had Thai-style Wanton Noodles, and given how this is also an item that Wan Thai is notable for, we had decided to give it a go. There are two sizes of the Ba Mee Kiao Moo Dang (Wanton Mee) at Wan Thai; the $4.50 portion size and the $5.50 portion size, which we went for the former. Wan Thai does not describe on the elements that comes with their Ba Mee Kiao Moo Dang (Wanton Mee), though it can be observed from our order that the item comes with the usual suspects — a dry egg noodle dish tossed in a white sauce that comes with chunks of Char Siew, Fried Wantons and some blanched greens, and accompanied with a bowl of soup that also comes with two (2) soup wantons. Interestingly, Wan Thai doesn’t actually provide the chili flakes that one would typically find at an establishment specialising in Thai-style Wanton Noodles at the self-service area; instead, patrons would have to specify whether they would like their order of the Ba Mee Kiao Moo Dang (Wanton Mee) to come spicy or non-spicy upon making their order at the counter. Giving the noodles a bit of a toss before digging in, we liked how there was sufficient white sauce going around to provide the noodles with a good flavour — the pork lard in the white sauce inherently giving a good hint of savouriness to the noodles while the noodles were pretty springy.
It seems that the lady behind the counter did manage to have a grasp on the level of spiciness of the bowl of noodles pretty well — there was just a sprinkle of the chili flakes added since we have went for the spicy variant here. The Thai chili flakes usually comes all fiery with quite an intense spicy punch if one adds a little too much to their noodles; the amount added to the noodles here was just enough to tingle the tastebuds without the spiciness overwhelming the entire dish. The Char Siew here does come chunky with a good, meaty bite — not too sweet nor dry. Both the fried and soup wantons were decent — the wantons coming with quite a decent amount of fillings within; the fried ones being slightly more memorable since these were crisp and did not seem to be in any way greasy. The blanched greens provided a refreshing crunch to give the entire bowl a balance. One thing that is notable to have been missing in the Ba Mee Kiao Moo Dang (Wanton Mee) here would be the addition of crispy pork lard which could have given the entire bowl more contrast of textures overall. Having tried quite a number of Thai-style Wanton Mee across the island, Wan Thai’s version does come across as a little more basic as compared to that of Soi 19 Thai Wanton Mee’s rendition that comes with a lot more goodies by default such as the likes of the fish sausage; that being said, their Ba Mee Kiao Moo Dang (Wanton Mee) is still one that is done well enough to satisfy any cravings for Thai-style wanton noodles especially for those whom are working around the Nicoll Highway area.