One after another established brand is closing its door, contributed mainly by no successor. Furthermore, with so many new restaurants budding month after month, it left a small opportunity for the old and traditional oldies, as such, they faded from the limelight they used to enjoy. The Teochew restaurants aren’t spared from this fate too. Hence, we felt fortunately that Lian Eng Hwa Restaurant 联英华餐室 still exists till this day and we hope it will continue to strive.
With the above description, I am sure some will have an imagination of the interior design. If you were thinking it might be simple with the decoration of the 80s and with some Chinese paintings and calligraphy, yes, you are right. Though the outlook of the restaurant does not appeal, don’t belittle of the food.
At Lian Eng Hwa Restaurant, they offered Braised Peanut for snacking before meal. I would like to think this as a classic Teochew snack as we do have them at home but instead of snacking, we have it with porridge.
Fish Steamboat seems like a popular Teochew dish too. We got the Promfret Steamboat ($20 – L). Alternatively, diners could opt for Red Garoupa. Uniquness of the Teochew dish was adding of preserved sour plum and a kind of dried fish.
Filled with fish aroma and the tomato fragrance, resulting in a tangy savoury soup that will whet the appetite and warm the stomach.
I always love the classic Teochew Prawn Roll so glad that Lian Eng Hwa Restaurant offers them too. The Homemade Prawn Roll ($20.80 – L) has a crispy beancurd skin after it was deep-fried. Filling was abundant with chestnut, minced meat, parsley and carrot, all diced finely hence the texture was relatively smooth. Lovely the crunchy chestnut texture. Overall taste was rather natural tasting with no much of marinate.
Next is the Assorted Yam Basket ($22). I am sure most would love this dish which is rarely found these days. Smooth Yam mash with fragrance flavour retained, together with crunchy greens and nutty cashew was a perfect combination.
We ordered a Pork Rib for meat. Each pork rib slice was deep-fried before returning to the wok to stir-fry with the fragrance black bean sauce with bitter gourd. The combination of the ingredients made the dish tasty. Though some may find it a little salty.
One of the diner among our group, highly recommended the Cereal Crayfish ($48 – L) In fact, it was this very diner whom suggested Lian Eng Hwa for our gathering. Cereal was slightly sweetish for me and few other while most felt fine. However, I felt they used overly high heat to fry the crayfish resulting in a tough outer layer of the flesh.
Fried “Sang Mee” was the Main we ordered. I am not a Sang Mee fan but I thought this dish was outstanding. It was flavourful. The noodles complemented the savour well. After soaking the noodles for some time, a mixutre of soggy that absorbed the flavour from the sauce together with crispy noodles provided different texture to the palate and I thought it was enjoyable.
Lastly was the Pumpkin Yam Paste ($18 – M). I love Yam Paste but would avoid ordering it at Lian Eng Hwa. It was extremely disappointing. beside cloyingly sweet, I could hardly savour the yam paste as the portion of coconut milk was much more than the rest. Furthermore, gingko nut was hard and tasteless. I always have high expectation of the gingko nuts as my version, inherited from my grandma, is absolutely to adore.
NAHMJ Verdict
Our group love the food at Lian Eng Hwa Restaurant as we felt the food was very much homecooked styled.
Lian Eng Hwa Restaurant 联英华餐室
741 Havelock, Singapore 169655
Tel: +65 6272 6992
Opening Hours
Daily 1100 to 1500, 1730 to 2300
Getting There
By MRT:
- East-West line – Tiong Bahru station
By Bus:
- Opp or at Blk 79 along Ganges Ave 51, 64, 121, 186
Rating: 7/10
