From Canto-style roast meats and legendary beef noodles to restaurant-quality dumplings and claypot porridge, this coffee shop in the west has it all
You're lucky if your neighbourhood coffee shop has a few decent stalls for a convenient
meal. But a kopitiam where everything’s good? That’s unheard of – until now. These stalls at 46 Holland Drive Coffee Shop offer a local feast worth braving the heat and long queues for.
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You don’t have to pay restaurant prices for expertly made xiao long bao ($4.50). The delicate morsels at Supreme Ramen
Xiao Long Bao are prepared by a Crystal Jade alumnus who also whips up a mean bowl of minced meat and mushroom noodles at just $3.50 too.
If the huge spherical charcoal oven is anything to go by, Ju Kee definitely takes its roasts seriously. There are three types on offer: duck ($5), char siew ($3.50) and pork ($3.50). The duck is definitely the star, fragranced with Chinese spices and herbs with tender and succulent meat that’s served with rice or springy egg noodles.
Aside from its signature bowl of mee pok ($3) that comes with generous portions of fishballs, fishcake and slices of clams tossed in a fiery chilli sauce, Feng Fu also hawks hokkien mee ($4) and pork rib and prawn noodles ($4) so you'll never run run dry of options
For comforting bowls of claypot porridge, look no further than Swatow Is Here. Popular in Shenzhen and Guangzhou,
these bubbling bowls of porridge are usually prepared with opium husks and MSG but owner Jimmy Tan managed to find a way to retain the authenticity of the gruel without the additives. There’s a variety of options available but the best
seller is the Four Treasure Pot ($10/$25/$35), which comes
packed with thick slices of yellow eel, large prawns, flower crab and clams.
George Cheok started cooking beef noodles at Orchard Emerald Mall in 1997. He was there for 11 years before moving to Margaret Drive and finally settled on the stall's current location in Holland Drive in February. Instead of doing things alone like in the early days, he's got the whole
family behind him to help. His wife June assists with the cooking while his sons Jonathan and Gabriel manage marketing and business development – you might recognise Jonathan from his YouTube channel, Cheokboardstudios. The result is beef noodles cooked with plenty of passion and heart. We especially love the beef brisket hor fun ($6) but you won’t go wrong with the standard beef noodle set ($5) either.
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