Wanton Fu - Wanton Mee at ARC 380 - The Ordinary Patrons

Lavender Food Square, which was next to Eminent Plaza, was one of the most popular food centres in Singapore. Both the food centre and Eminent Plaza had been demolished and replaced by ARC 380, a 16-storey freehold development with office and retail units. The new landmark at the junction of Lavender Street and Jalan Besar has just opened. Fittingly, the first retail tenants of ARC 380 are F&B outlets. Wanton Fu, a wanton mee stall, opened at ARC 380 sometime in July 2018.

Wanton Fu has a witty name and quite an attractive signboard. It has a full glass frontage and is brightly lit. It looks quite inviting from the outside. Inside, the space is not big and the decor and furnishing are basic – neat and functional.

The food preparation area is behind the counter. You go up to the counter to order and pay. The food would be served to your table. You help yourself to the utensils, chillies, la pok and other sauces and condiments from the service stations.

Wanton Fu is a wanton noodle stall. The menu, therefore, offers just wanton noodles – soup or dry version – and a few side dishes. Here is a picture of the menu.

We ordered a soup version and a dry version of Signature Wanton Fu Noodles ($4.80 each for the small bowl) and Ngoh Hiang ($6). The wait for the food was short – less than 10 minutes.

Even for the small bowl, the portion of noodles was quite substantial. The noodles seemed to us to be thicker than the usual mee kia. They were nicely cooked. The texture was slightly firm and rather springy.

The wantons, or boiled dumplings with meat filling, were quite small. Both the wantons and char siew were nice but not very exceptional. The soup was very good – really brought back memories of delicious hot wanton mee soup of the days of tok tok mee man.

The dry version of Wanton Fu Noodles was rather plain. The noodles were tossed and coated with a light savoury sauce. It was left to each diner to add the la pok (deep fried pork belly) and chilli to suit his taste. A bottle of the chilli was left on the table with the warning “I’m not medium hot. I am extra spicy”. Ignore the warning at your own peril. The chilli sauce was very spicy. However, it really added an extra kick to the bowl of noodles.

We liked the Wu Xiang or Ngog Hiang of Wanton Fu. The meat roll was deep fried till the outer skin was brown and crispy. The filling with lots of bits of crunchy water chestnut was delicious.

On the whole, we had a simple but enjoyable meal at Wanton Fu. We would say that the Signature Wanton Fu Noodles were better than the average run of the mill wanton mee. Wanton Fu at ARC 380 is worth a visit if you are in that vicinity.