YY Kafei Dian is an old school Hainanese coffeeshop given a bit of a modern spruce up. It sells Hainanese chicken rice and good old coffee shop food at, though not quite good old prices, very reasonable prices.
Wah Eng Beef Noodle, which traced its history back to 1948, is now available at British Hainan in the Joo Chiat neighbourhood. The Hainanese beef noodle may be enjoyed at the British Hainan restaurant or at home with takeaway and delivery options.
Lee Fun Nam Kee Chicken Rice And Restaurant (李范南记鸡饭餐室) is a restaurant in Toa Payoh which is well-known for their soya sauce chicken rice. According to their website, they began in 1968 as a small hawker stall in Toa Payoh. They have since grown up to be a full restaurant at Lorong 4 Toa Payoh. It occupies a large space, the size of a very large coffee shop. It was a full house during the weekday lunch. The standard of chicken rice in Singapore is high and competition is keen. To be able to grow a chicken rice business to this size is impressive. Of course we had to try their soy sauce chicken rice but it was another dish that won our hearts that day.
Cheng’s @ 27 coffeeshop in Tiong Bahru looks very different from the typical zhi char coffeeshop in Singapore. It is bright and very clean. According to a Straits Times article :25 years and counting: Hainanese coffeeshop Cheng’s 27, the Cheng family regularly receives generous offers to buy over the well positioned corner coffeeshop, but they are not selling. The business has operated in this location since 1989. Previously known as Cheng’s Delicacies, a new generation of Chengs had taken over this business and renamed it Cheng’s 27.
The Mooi Chin Place Restaurant in the Landmark Village Hotel is said to be the oldest Hainanese restaurant in Singapore. They started in 1935, but we can only remember them from the 80s when they were situated in the basement of the Funan Shopping Centre. There are not many restaurants serving food from Hainan in Singapore. So we decided that it was time to check it out. We were there for lunch.
