Thursday, June 2, 2011

Toa Payoh Hwa Heng Beef Noodle

Ever since my visit to my favorite beef noodle stall at Kovan Ri Yi, Bobcat has been telling me try out this also very notable beef noodle place at Maude Road, and finally, I managed to make a trip there.

I undersand this used to be the famous Odeon beef noodle many eons back, but unfortunately, I never had the recollection of visiting this during those heydays. And for some reason, their stall name actually says Toa Payoh. Hmmm.

This stall is right at the junction and corner of a rather aged building in a coffeeshop called Yeap Coffeeshop. Rather modest, I had nothing but great expectations.

I wondered if this could really top Ri Yi, and the thing I was looking for was a genuine beef broth with that excellent beef flavored goodness minus MSG, and of course, tender beef slices.

Beef Noodles Soup

My friend had the soup variant and the broth was really notable. Flavorsome and had that distinctive beef aroma. The beef slices were generous to say the least and it was really a very excellent beef broth. Was it the best? Really debatable, as I still find the Ri Yi version slightly more flavorful.

Beef Noodle Dry

I had my usual dry noodles and the first thing that hit me was the strong flavors from the sauce. Perhaps, it was slightly salty, but it certainly did give you that kick and coupled with the delicious preserved vegetables (mei chai), it was certainly tasty and hearty. The beef slices were well cooked, but lacked that almost pink tenderness from Ri Yi.

In the end, if I was to rate this personally, I still give Ri Yi tops, but Hwa Heng certainly did come in second place for the best beef noodle in town.

Toa Payoh Hwa Heng Beef Noodles
Yeap Coffee Shop
27 Maude Road

6 comments:

  1. Have u tried the one near China Square? I heard it's good too :) Hope things are well with u.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Ian,
    Yes... I agree with your comments. The beef here is a little cooked compared to Ri Yi. I brought my Malaysian friends about 2 weeks ago to try this out and they immediately recognize this brother from Odean stall long time ago. Yes.. they had 2 brothers and this brother only has this stall and they initially moved to Toa Payoh before moving here. The other brother is the one having the island wide franchise that have the name Hwa Heng (without the words Toa Payoh) and usually found in Republic Food Courts islandwide and is not worth a try at all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good to know that this is not Ri yi is better so next time I am in Singapore, I got to go try it out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. How to compare Teochew and Hainanese? Elder Kiang Brother does not own Hwa Heng franchise.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Taste was good as ever for the old Maude red store which has shifted to bendeemeer food centre...great old taste

    ReplyDelete
  6. www.facebook.com/Hwahengbeefnoodles

    add them the taste is good as ever

    ReplyDelete