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The Place Located at level 5 of OCBC building is Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant, one of the most established Hokkien restaurant in Singapore which prides itself as serving the most authentic Hokkien fare.

The Food To be honest, my visit to Beng Thin Hoon Kee stems from my sole craving for the extraordinary Oyster Omelette ($25 – medium). It is the best Oyster Omelette you can find in Singapore in my opinion. I have no idea what secret recipe the restaurant uses to make the Omelette so crispy and tasty. No doubt it is a sinful dish, I have no qualms that the taste is worth every sin of it. We ordered the Fish Maw Soup ($16 – small) as well after I have heard some rave reviews of it prior to my visit. The taste of the soup is thick enough for my liking and yet it is not too starchy. The ingredients served is quite generous as well, given that we only ordered the small serving which I think is sufficient for a group of 3-4 people.

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I've heard Beng Thin's name pop up whenever one talks about the best traditional Hokkien restaurant in town. Finally I had the chance of suggesting this restaurant as it's my birthday. I am really not that old even though I suggested to have a birthday dinner at Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant, which can be traced all the way to 1949 when it all started. For the record, there was no muli-tiered peach shaped buns to celebrate the occasion.

鸭丝冷盘 Beng Thin Duck Salad. This is one of Beng Thin's signature dish. The shredded duck meat, rock melon, cucumber slices, jelly fish and plum sauce mix taste really refreshing.

脆皮烧猪 Beng Thin Suckling Pig. Sis pre-ordered the suckling pig. This dish was half the cost of our whole meal. Crispy crackling skin was the highlight. However, I thought that the marinate that goes at the bottom had too much 5 spices and too peppery. I prefer the one from Hua Ting.

蟹肉鱼鳔羹 Crab Meat fish Maw Soup is also one of Beng Thin's popular dish. The soup was thick and had a generous portion of fish maw. This is one of the better dishes.

五香虾枣 Fried Prawn Rolls. Fabulous with the sweet sauce, crispy and nice ..... Satisfied.

蚝煎 Oyster Omelette ..... The more I go on ..... why do I think that I'm in a Teochew restaurant? Ain't oyster omelette of Teochew origin? I thought the one from Nam Heng @ Simon Road, or Ah Hock @ Whampoa serve a better fried oyster omelette. It was quite good nevertheless.

鲜蒸鲳鱼 Steamed Fresh Pomfret. Another dish that I thought was traditionally Teochew. The flesh of the pomfret tend to stick to the bones which is a sign that this fish wasn't as fresh as it should be for steaming. Maybe it's a Teochew dish that's why us Hokkiens cannot master it.

福建炒面 Fujian Fried Noodles at Beng Thin should appeal to the health conscious. Something that I thought are essentials were missing in this dish. It's not as oily and there wasn't fried pork lard. I'm not a healthy eater, so pardon me.

The entrance of Beng Thin at the enclave on the 5th floor of the OCBC Building. If you're driving, just spiral up the multi-storey car park and park right in front of the entrance.

This traditional Hokkien dinner from Beng Thin was probably too traditional for me. Food is actually not too bad but I thought we could have been better off eating at other restaurants serving similar fare that wouldn't cost us our hands and legs. Service started very prompt but as the night goes on and the place gets filled, no service staff seemed to be bothered with us until we started waving desperately.

For more details and photos, see http://4-the-love-of-food.blogspot.com/2011/08/back-to-tradition-with-hokkien-dinner.html

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http://thefoodnomads.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/beng-thin-ocbc-centre/

A restaurant of the times, Hokkien restaurant Beng Thin Hoon Kee is a grand old dame and a favourite amongst many Singaporeans. Located in OCBC towers, Beng Thin is without fail packed every weekend night with her loyal customers in search for good, hearty, old-fashioned Hokkien dishes. A favourite of our families, my cousins and I used to remember Beng Thin as “that suckling pig restaurant” in association with their signature dish which we would have without fail.

To begin the meal, we had a traditional Hokkien cold dish platter with Prawn Rolls, Fried Egg with Vegetables, Century Egg, Stuffed Beancurd Rolls, Chilled Jellyfish and a Prawn Salad. Compared to other restaurants, I felt the quality of Beng Thin’s cold dish is still on par with the better ones out there. I particularly enjoyed the prawn rolls (Ngoh Hiang) which were stuffed with juicy and tender minced pork and was crisp on the outside yet moist on the inside, going splendidly with the special sweet sauce.

Our favourite starter to order from Beng Thin and a dish we crave for time to time, the roasted suckling pig is their specialty dish and rightfully so. A whole well-sized pig, the roasted suckling pig skin was crisp and had just the tiniest juicy bit of fat underneath the skin. Tasty and fragrant, the roasted skin crackled with a burst of flavour from the thin layer of meat. Not too salty and well-roasted, their roasted suckling pig probably ranks amongst one of the top few in Singapore.

Relatively large oyster pieces in a sweet chilli sauce, it was a pity the omelette wasn’t too well-fried. Slightly too starchy for my liking, the omelette was more fried flour than egg and that unfortunately diminished what could otherwise be a pretty excellent dish.

Fresh and tender fish meat, the quality and freshness of the fish was key to making this simple dish taste perfect. With just a hint of salt and pepper for seasoning and some salted vegetables, this fish dish was light and brought out the full flavour of the sweet fish meat.

A small chicken stuffed with lotus seed and braised in a claypot together with long peas, this dish is yet another one of their specialities. Braised till the chicken meat is very succulent, the meat falls of the bone effortlessly and is incredibly tender. A mix of salty and sweet due to the rich, filling and sweet lotus seed stuffing, the dish was pretty competent.

Or-Ni or Sweet Yam is always a very guilty indulgence of mine at Chinese restaurants and Beng Thin’s version is one of my favourties! Though unhealthily topped with a generous serving of oil and garnished with gingko nuts, the yam paste is incredibly smooth with chunks of juicy pumpkin and fresh gingko nuts. The sweet paste complements the more savoury flavours of the pumpkin and gingko; unlike other lesser versions which overwhelms one’s tastebuds with an overdose of sugar.

One of the restaurants we grew up with, Beng Thin's hearty Hokkien cuisine has accompanied us for many years. The friendly wait staff and the bustling chatter of families enjoying a good meal make for a lively and cosy atmosphere. With consistently good quality, except for peak periods like Chinese New Year, I would recommend families looking for a good traditional Chinese dinner to consider Beng Thin. I know I am definitely coming back for more!