hock lam beef

Hock Lam Beef Kway Teow is arguably the most famous beef kway teow in Singapore. Every respectable beef kway teow lover will have at least heard of this old name. It has also made news multiple times because the owner, Tina, used to be a banker who gave up a five-figure monthly salary to continue her family business.

Hock Lam has been around for 4 generations and dates back to 1921. So this my friend, is as old-school as it gets.

There are many different Hock Lams around and sometimes I get really confused. There's the Purvis Street one, Empress Place one, someday I really need to sort out this whole beef kway teow history. But as far as I am concerned, Hock Lam is this one. The one with the crazy long queues at lunch hours.

I'm not a huge fan of beef kway teow but this is one bowl that I will crave from time to time. Look at how smooth and silky the noodles are! They are literally glistening, beckoning to be eaten.

I don't like how other places give you SO much gravy that your noodles are literally drowning in starch. It reminds me too much of lor-mee. This place is good because they don't give you a lot of gravy which I like. However, they gave TOO little gravy today and it was a tad bit dry, Sharon had to go back and ask for extra gravy.

They gave a bit too much gravy and the kway teow was just positively drowning, engulfed in the gravy.

They gave me vegetables today and they have never given me vegetables. I wonder if this was to make up for their drastic cut in the amount of beef they serve with the kway teow. My beef slices and beef ball kway teow came with 2 miserable beef balls and maybe 3,4 slices of beef max. The beef slices were very tender though.

The noodles were a bit soggy, probably because we let it sit in the gravy for a tad bit too long while we were taking pictures. They are not like this normally.

I like chilli A LOT so I was a little heavy-handed with the chilli. (Not telling you how much I added.) I really like Hock Lam's chilli. The taste is excellent; faultless balance of fiery and sweet. Mmm.

I did regret putting so much chilli though. Not because it was too spicy, but because I tried Sharon's unblemished version and it was so much better. The gravy's hearty sapor really shone through. The chilli was good but it shrouded the gravy's glory a little.

A minor grouse was that the gravy was not as thick as it used to be and lacked the beefy oomph it used to have.

Sharon likes the soup here. However, today's was a bit watered down and tasted too briney and not beefy enough. You can still see the beef sediments here but it used to be a lot more concentrated. Instead, it seemed that they tried to compensate for it by adding more soya sauce.

We still like this place. It's just a pity that rising costs have resulted in dips in both quality and quantity. A good bowl of beef kway teow, nonetheless.

Hock Lam Beef

Far East Square

22 China Street

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