Wan Chai Hongkong Tea Room IMM : Nice Wanton Noodles

We might not have chosen Wan Chai Hongkong Tea Room IMM as the restaurant to go for lunch if we had known its Google review rating of 3.2 stars. Probably victims of FOMO, we were influenced by the constant stream of folks who were filling up the place. We decided to join them for lunch at IMM Mall in Jurong East.

Lunch at IMM Building on a weekday

IMM Building on a weekday is a quiet place until about 11.30am, when the crowds start arriving. With the J-Walk overhead connections to the nearby Jurong East MRT station as well as the nearby buildings, the working folks have ease of access among the buildings in the area, such as Ng Teng Fong Hospital, Westgate IMM and JEM. The first one hour free parking on weekdays at IMM may also be a factor in attracting the lunchtime visitors.

There are many lunch options at IMM but we observed that Wan Chai Hongkong Tea Room was rapidly filling up even as many other restaurants were still quiet. That was when we decided to join in.

Wan Chai Hongkong Tea Room IMM Menu

This casual HK diner style cafe has the usual noodle house and char charn teng dishes. A multiple choice order form was placed on our tables. We ticked the relevant boxes and headed to the counter to place our order and make payment. BTW they do not accept credit cards – so be prepared with cash or NETS.

The Highlight – Wanton Noodles

The first food item to arrive was the best – shrimp wanton noodles in soup ($8.50). We thought this was quite close to noodles in Hong Kong. The noodles had the right texture – thin, chewy, cooked to a very al dente level of firmness. Soup was light yet tasty and the wantons were a nice size with prawns that had a slight crunch.

This dish certainly provides us with the incentive to visit Wan Chai Hongkong Tea Room IMM again. We also tried the black coffee – it was strong local coffee shop style – very dark and strong tasting. Not bad, we thought.

Lunch at Wan Chai Hongkong Tea Room IMM – Other Dishes

The trouble with eating at a new place without prior research is that everything can be a hit or miss. Wanton noodles was a hit with us but the others were not. We tried a HK rice roll with sesame sauce ($4.70). This cheong fun dish reminded us of chee cheong fun from old days when the rice rolls were simply served with sweet sauce without the extra trimmings of prawn , char siew or other ingredients. It was a nice plate of cheong fun, but not very memorable, other than providing a nostalgic feeling.

Our final dish was familiar HK char charn teng kind of food – Macau pork chop bun ($6.60). This is a nice, but not enough to make us go out of our way to eat it again type of dish. We can imagine it being a nice quick snack to eat with our black coffee if we are working at one of the nearby buildings and on a short break.

Ratings:
Food: 3
Service: 3
Value: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Overall Rating: 3 TOPs

Wan Chai Hongkong Tea Room

2 Jurong East St 21 
#03-51 Singapore 609601

8.30am – 9.30pm