Mui Kee Congee Singapore - HK Cantonese porridge at Orchard Road

Mui Kee Congee Singapore serves the famous porridge from Hong Kong which had been at the back of our minds since they were introduced to Singapore by the Les Amis group a couple of months ago. The only thing that deterred us was the crowds that gathered at lunchtime, which meant a queue on most days. If you, like us, have been holding off visiting Mui Kee Congee for this reason, we have good news. It seems that the initial frenzy has cooled down. We visited on a weekday at lunchtime and there was no queue!

The restaurant was bustling but the turnover was fast enough to cope with the steady flow of congee enthusiasts. Do not expect many empty seats and single diners may be required to share tables with others. Normally we would frown on that practice, but here, we thought it was in keeping with the Hong Kong eatery vibe in the Mui Kee Congee restaurant. We were reminded of its HK origins by the little elbow room, mahjong tiles used to decorate the restaurant and Cantonese music from Samual Hui movies playing in the background. Remember songs like 天才白痴夢 and 半斤八兩? Nice!

Mui Kee Congee Singapore Menu

Here are pictures of some pages from the Mui Kee Congee Menu. There were some more exotic items on the menu such as congee with Hokkaido scallops ($20) or Alaskan crab legs ($22). However, as ordinary patrons, we wanted to try some of the basic Cantonese dishes.

We tried the Mui Kee Congee set lunch ($10.80). Diners get a porridge, century egg, you tiao and a drink. There were four types of porridge to choose from – dace fish balls, sliced beef, four treasures and century egg & lean meat. We selected the last one which seemed the most classically Cantonese. We opted for a yin yang drink – a mix of tea and coffee, also a classic HK ‘char charn teng’ drink. The porridge was smooth and delicious. It has a light gentle but complex taste.

We ordered an extra century egg ($2). The extra egg seemed better than the one that came with the porridge. It had the nice creamy yolk that we associate with Hong Kong restaurants.

Another side dish that we tried was the fried dace fish cake ($8). It felt like a homemade fish cake. The texture was rough with a couple of bits of bone. A good dish but eat with care.

The cheung fun with beef brisket ($7) was a hearty dish. Certainly a value-for-money dish as the amount of beef brisket was generous. The cheung fun was nice and smooth but the sheets were stuck together and not as delicate as we had expected.

Here is a bird’s eye view of our lunch at Mui Kee Congee Singapore. Notice the tiny table space. The box of chopsticks mark the boundary between us and our neighbours.