10 stars if I could. Wonderful lady owner who went out of her way to ensure we had an exceptional dining experience. Super yummy home cooked meals. The only place in all of Melbourne I could find authentic Singaporean hokkien mee. Brought me straight back home. Reasonable prices, great serving sizes & a taste of Singapore. Bravo!
Priscilla Ha · 2025-01-11
4.5 Stars. Singapore is one of my favourite countries so finding this place was quite a nice surprise! The wonderful pictures and history on the walls make you feel like you're back in Singapore.
The food is great and authentic, but some of the dishes were a tad lacklustre. Still, I would definitely love to come back when in the area again.
The wonderful owner provided such memorable service!
Matthew Yong-O'Gorman · 2024-09-07
New sign says opens from 4.30pm for dinner. 10% surcharge for dine in service. $18 menu price for Hokkien mee. $15 for carrot cake. $3.50 for teh tarik. Carrot cake was amazing. Thick pieces that had heaps of wok hei and wasn't overly sweet like many places in Singapore these days. Old school flavour and texture. Hokkien mee had lots of ingredients including squid, prawns and pork belly. Great wok hei as well. Only difference was that they used lemon instead of lime which altered the flavour slightly. Sambal was spicy, tasty and tangy as well. Owner recommend to try fish curry and Kam heong next time. Owner also said they don't do lobak anymore.
Jason · 2024-07-27
I nearly forgot about my experience here but had to chime in to voice my opinion to balance out a review I read that did not reflect my meal here.
I have a feeling the people who come here have been away from singapore for very long, and maybe over time I might lower my standard. But unlikely. Maybe I’m too fresh from sg but I don’t think I would go to old raffles place again. Just like I seldom go to raffles place in Singapore.
The food is alright (3/5 in my opinion - passable but not going back again willingly). And the service by some of the young folks working there is appalling. However, the ambience is on point - nice old school decor, very nostalgic - I’ll give them 4/5 for effort.
Food wise - we tried a lot of things. The best surprisingly was the sweet and sour pork ribs, but do get the plain rice or chicken rice to go with it. The carrot cake in the sweet black sauce was not bad. The CKT at old raffles place was just sweet and not spicy and no wok hei. The Jalan Kayu roti prata is just a piece of frozen prata from the supermarket cut into 4 pieces - for $8?!?! The hokkien mee was at the very least Singaporean style, but way too soupy and no wok hei. The flavor is not bad though. We didn’t get to try chicken rice cos it’s sold out.
Tiger beer is good for nostalgia, but our teh tarik took almost half the meal (20 to 30 mins) before it came. Taste not bad but the waiter alr gave us attitude for checking on it after 15 mins - “the kitchen is busy, it will come when it will come”. Mm. Also same waiter (young boy why you so angry) told us not to bother to get more food cos it will take more than an hour and we might as well leave and allow more people to come in (what?!?!).
In conclusion, bring cash, come with friends who are out of town or just for the first time. I wish the young folks will learn some manners. The level of service is just as bad as HK Cha Chaan Teng and food is not as good.
Ka Ling (Drkyling) · 2023-10-25
Always solid across the board from food to vibe to service.
The chye tow kueh is a must and as far as I’m aware, this is the only place around to get it. Murtabak is another top snack (and they have a veg version, which is hard to come by). Tried the “spiced” eggplant on my most recent visit, which was also a hit. It’s topped with lots of fried curry leaves and had a decent amount of heat.
There’s a 10% surcharge for dining in and an $8 a bottle surcharge for BYO so it’s not necessarily a cheap spot but serves are generous for the price.
Quincy · 2023-07-09