Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle is a humble noodle stall located in a coffeeshop at Crawford Lane (the nearest MRT is Lavender). It is a local’s favorite and has been attracting long queues even before Michelin Guide came to Singapore.
I first visited the stall in 2016 right after they received Michelin star in 2016, I didn’t write any article about it back then. Over the years, I’ve revisited the stall a few times and managed to try various items on their menu. Here’s my experience.
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Brief History
Tai Hwa Pork Noodle was started by Mr Tang Joon Teo in 1932 at Hill Street. When the late Mr Tang passed away, his sons continued the business. In 1990s, the shop moved to Marina Square. In 2004 it moved again to its current location at Crawford Lane.
Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle was awarded with one Michelin star in 2016, and has been keeping the star every year until 2022 (as at time of writing).
Address & Opening Hour
Address:
466 Crawford Lane, #01-12, Singapore 190466
Google Maps location: https://goo.gl/maps/BLrZiSqdme62GXhG8
Opening Hours:
Open daily 9.30am to 8.30pm
Closed on the 1st & 3rd Monday of the month (except during Public Holiday)
Expect to queue for at least 60 mins if you visit during lunch time and dinner time! If you hate queueing, I recommend that you avoid lunch time and dinner time.
There was one time we visited during lunch time, we started queueing at 11.20am, and got our food at around 1.10pm. That’s 110 mins, which is almost 2 hour! There were about 20 people in front of us when we started queueing.
There was another time when we visited during off-peak timing. We started queueing at 5.08pm and we got our food around 5.38pm. That’s 30 mins of queueing during off-peak period!
Payment Method
At time of writing, they accept cash and PayNow.
Menu & price
The menu of Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle in a nutshell:
- Gan Mian (Dry Bak Chor Mee/Dry Minced Meat Noodle).
- You can choose whether to have mee kia (thin noodle), mee pok (wide noodle) or kway teow (rice noodle).
- You need to specify whether you want vinegar and chili in your noodle.
- Guo Tiao Tang (Kway Teow Soup/Rice Noodle Soup).
- Rou Wan Tang (Meatball soup).
- Zha Bian Yu (Deep Fried Salted Fish).
- Zi Cai Tang (Seaweed soup).
Price: For every item in the menu, you can choose whether you want the $6 (small), $8 (regular), or $10 (large) portion.
Personally, the $6 portion dry bak chor mee is enough for me. However, if you’re big eater or you’re very hungry, $8 might be a better choice. According to the announcement board in the above photo, if you order dry noodle for takeaway, no soup will be given. Meanwhile, if you dine-in, your dry noodle will be accompanied with a small bowl of soup.
Gan Mian (Dry Minced Meat Noodle)
My favorite item in the menu has to be gan mian, the dry minced meat noodle! It comes with minced meat, sliced lean meat, meat balls, wantons, plenty of pork lard, chye poh (preserved radish), fried salted fish, liver, and a small bowl of seaweed soup. For noodle type, you can choose either mee pok (flat wide egg noodle) or mee kia (thin egg noodle).
If you don’t like certain ingredient/seasoning, let them know when you order. Otherwise, they will not ask and they’ll just prepare a normal one for you. For me, I don’t like vinegar and liver, so I asked them to omit vinegar and liver. that’s why you won’t see any liver in my photos. In the past, I’ve tried the noodle with vinegar and it was too sour for my liking.
Guo Tiao Tang (Rice Noodle Soup)
Guo Tiao Tang (Kway Teow Soup/Rice Noodle Soup) comes with minced meat, sliced lean meat, meat balls, wantons, plenty of pork lard, chye poh (preserved radish), and liver. No fried salted fish and no vinegar.
Zha Bian Yu (Deep Fried Salted Fish)
I ordered a bowl of deep fried salted fish because the photo on the signboard looks so attractive. However, when I got the food, I immediately regretted ordering this because I have fish bone phobia. Even though it’s very crispy and the bones are not harmful, I just can’t eat it because of my phobia.
Conclusion: is it worth the long wait?
Yes it’s worth it, but I personally wouldn’t visit during lunch time or dinner time again. I will go during off-peak hours.
Other branch
Mr Tang Chay Seng, the current owner of Tai Hwa Pork Noodle (the one with 1 star Michelin) states that the stall doesn’t have other branch.
The owner’s nephew, Gerald Tang, operates a stall at Hong Lim Complex and it’s called Tai Wah (notice the spelling, it’s WAH not HWA). Tai WAH is the recipient of Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022. However, these two brands operate independently and are not related to each other.
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