Back to Tradition with a Hokkien Dinner @ Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant

I've heard Beng Thin's name pop up whenever one talks about the best traditional Hokkien restaurant in town. Finally I had the chance of suggesting this restaurant as it's my birthday. I am really not that old even though I suggested to have a birthday dinner at Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant, which can be traced all the way to 1949 when it all started. For the record, there was no muli-tiered peach shaped buns to celebrate the occasion.

鸭丝冷盘 Beng Thin Duck Salad. This is one of Beng Thin's signature dish. The shredded duck meat, rock melon, cucumber slices, jelly fish and plum sauce mix taste really refreshing.

脆皮烧猪 Beng Thin Suckling Pig. Sis pre-ordered the suckling pig. This dish was half the cost of our whole meal.

Crispy crackling skin was the highlight. However, I thought that the marinate that goes at the bottom had too much 5 spices and too peppery. I prefer the one from Hua Ting.

蟹肉鱼鳔羹 Crab Meat fish Maw Soup is also one of Beng Thin's popular dish. The soup was thick and had a generous portion of fish maw.  This is one of the better dishes.

五香虾枣 Fried Prawn Rolls. Fabulous with the sweet sauce, crispy and nice ..... Satisfied.

蚝煎 Oyster Omelette ..... The more I go on ..... why do I think that I'm in a Teochew restaurant? Ain't oyster omelette of Teochew origin? I thought the one from Nam Heng @ Simon Road, or Ah Hock @ Whampoa serve a better fried oyster omelette. It was quite good nevertheless.

鲜蒸鲳鱼 Steamed Fresh Pomfret. Another dish that I thought was traditionally Teochew. The flesh of the pomfret tend to stick to the bones which is a sign that this fish wasn't as fresh as it should be for steaming. Maybe it's a Teochew dish that's why us Hokkiens cannot master it.

福建炒面 Fujian Fried Noodles at Beng Thin should appeal to the health conscious. Something that I thought are essentials were missing in this dish. It's not as oily and there wasn't fried pork lard. I'm not a healthy eater, so pardon me. 

The entrance of Beng Thin at the enclave on the 5th floor of the OCBC Building. If you're driving, just spiral up the multi-storey car park and park right in front of the entrance.

I liked this birthday card that my adorable nephew and niece drew for me. They knew I'm a carnivore .... like T-Rex. By the way that green figure is the T-Rex that I was refering to. It's not some Durian Spirit OK?

This traditional Hokkien dinner from Beng Thin was probably too traditional for me. Food is actually not too bad but I thought we could have been better off eating at other restaurants serving similar fare that wouldn't cost us our hands and legs. Service started very prompt but as the night goes on and the place gets filled, no service staff seemed to be bothered with us until we started waving desperately. 

65 Chulia Street

#05-02 OCBC Centre

Singapore

Tel : +65 6533 7708