Por Kee Eating House

My friend brought me and a few other friends to try out this place which he had patronise for many years!!

Dun expect too much of a ambience, thou its a restaurant, its a old and simple setting restaurant that is nostalgic, clean and not too crampy. 

Food

1) we are highly recommended by my friend the champagne long pork ribs, it was big and very flavorful, its well seasoned on the outside while the meat is tender and retaining the original pork flavor on the inside!!

(recommend to have it cut into half if you want to try out other dish)

2) the steam thai fish was also highly recommended, this is the first time i saw this kind of presentation, the fish was steam and set on a special made metal plate with fire below (like mini wok), a seperate big bowl of thai spicy and sour soup was served together. The waitress will pour the soup onto the fish like a fish soup!! The taste was not too spicy but more towards sour. 

My first taste was that it was too sour but quite addicting especially after eating all the food which was quite heavy flavor, this warm and sour soup is definitely a must have after all the good food which make you feel you want to eat more!!! 

3) fu ru sweet potato leaves (fermanted beancurd with sweet potato leaves)

we always try to have a green on the table and i'm not a fan of fu ru especially with greens but this restaurant make me change my view!! not super fantastic but definitely better than elsewhere. 

4) homemade beancurd was not too saltly but flavorful, you could still taste the beancurd taste despite the sauce was quite flavorful :)

5) crispy chicken was a recommendation as well but i have eaten better one elsewhere, the skin is not too crispy and the breast meat is a tad too dry. thou something to praise about is that you'll find little or not fats below the skin!! :)

(well i only try it once while other dishes i've eaten a couple of time, maybe i'll give it a try other time)

6) mango pudding with coconut, this dessert i quite like it, not too sweet and with mango cubes with the thick coconut!!! thou my friend thinks it too simple. 

7) the chilli was quite good

Something I must praise about this zi char restaurant beside the good food is the service, i'm quite a picky guy when it comes to service. To be frank, i didnt expect much from this old restaurant especially when i saw the waiter and waitress are dress causally, quite old and didnt really care about you when you enter. 

But to my surprise, their service was excellent, polite, prompt, specially thoughtful, offer to change our plates even we didnt ask for it. We had a ice-cream cake for the bday boys and the knife was difficult to cut was it was frozen, the waitress actually took a long metal knife and a pot of hot water for us!! (putting a lot of well-known restaurant to shame)

Was brought here by good friends and wanted to share yummy food with family. So I ordered: 

1) Cold Dish $60 - for some strange reason, my dad loves the assorted food on the cold dish platter. Theirs is ok, not bad but also nothing to shout about lah. :P 

2) Champaign Pork Ribs $32 - well marinated as before and very popular with my family. They left me none!! 

3) Thai Style Steamed fish $44 - they serve this fish with spicy tangy broth over a hot plate and the spicy tangy broth is so awesome that we 'drained' the dish. 

4) Beancurd $24 - their homemade beancurd is super soft and smooth. Together with the sauce, it was very very yummy. 

5) Cereal Prawn $40 - fairly large prawns deep-fried beautifully with the cereal bits. My daughter couldn't stop eating the cereal bits with her rice! 

6) Prawn-paste Chicken $24 - they have the deep-frying method perfected so even this dish is better than average 

7) Garlic Kailan $20 - my necessary greens of my meal. Average good. 

8) Ee Fu Noodle $12 - daughter loves this! So do I! One of the better ones sold. 

They may not boost of the ambience of high-class restaurant but their cuisine puts many expensive establishments to shame. Wonderful meal!:)

Por Kee Eating House to me, is just average. The food was decent, but it wasn't particularly impressive. About the only thing that stood out was the Steamed Fish done Thai Style, which had a nice tangy flavor. 

Otherwise, everything was was pretty forgettable. And the place is a little out of the way for me, so unless I happened to be around this area, I don't think I'll travel all the way just to eat here.

Check out the full review and pictures at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com/2011/08/por-kee-eating-house.html

Por Kee Eating House is another one of those old-school cze char eateries, located in one of those old HDB estates. With very limited spaces in the spartan air-conditioned area, most of the makeshift tables are placed outdoors just beside the open-air carpark. The fare's rustic, familiar and, while it isn't spectacular, it's fairly decent. However, like Sin Hoi Sai, another cze char eatery a stone's throw away, the prices are quite "ka-ching" (i.e. a tad pricey). I'd say that this is an alright place for cze char, only if you're looking for a cze char supper place (it opens till 12.30am) because there are better cze char places that are more value-for-money.

 We had:

1) Fried Beef with Spring Onion and Ginger ($14) beef had artificial tenderizer taste, but gravy was fairly tasty.

2) Champagne Pork Rib ($16), although a signature dish, was quite a disappointment. Ribs were quite tough and took a bit of chewing to get through the meat

3) Sambal Sweet Potato Leaves ($10) normal ordinary fare, but 1 gripe: we found a piece of unwelcome twig/root left in the dish

Good zichar fare at old style chinese restaurant setting. We ordered:

Crispy Butter Prawns $20 - Big prawns fried with butter batter, basil and chilli padi. Nice, big and fresh prawns, but will be better if it is de-shelled. The "pork floss" you see in the picture is actually butter batter, which is more addictive than their cereal cousin!

Crispy Roast Chicken $15 (half) - This dish was well executed as the skin was super crispy, no fats under the skin (wonder what is their secret?) and the meat moist and juicy. When dipped in the salt provided, it was a delightful burst of flavours!

Homemade Beancurd with mushroom and sweet beans $14 - very humble and ordinary dish by appearance. But the bean curd is out of this world! As I am writing this, I have deleted countless of adjectives like "smooth", "light" and "flavourful", and I am stuck as I really cannot find an appropriate word to describe this dish. Yes the dish is smooth, light and flavourful, but its better than that! You just have to try it for yourself. Best tofu dish I've tried at zichar stall.

Seafood roll $10 - presentation was impressive, but ends there. I do not see or taste the seafood, the dip is the only redeeming factor. Will not order this again.

Champagne Pork Ribs $14 - This looks like coffee or black pepper ribs. The pieces of ribs are more like pork belly - meat was fatty and not the usual long ribs. Although the ribs are not bland, they definitely do not taste of champagne (or coffee or black pepper for that matter). Will probably not order this again.

Fragrant Wheat (Mai Cai) Vegetables $10 - stir fried with garlic. Ordinary vegetables with wok-hei you will expect from a zichar stall. Nothing exceptional, but does not disappoint.

No additional service charge and GST, but charge $1.50 per person for tea/towel and $2.50 per table for pickles.

Will be back to try the chilli crabs and interesting looking mun-tou!

For photos, please go to http://sightsmelltaste.blogspot.com/ 

Nothing special here.  Not bad, but not good either.  Try the har cheong gai - prawn paste chicken, and the house-made tofu.  Unfortunately, nothing else there was very memorable.

<Link to review on my blog>

portions are big if you're a small eater. but the quality of food and chili is amazing. had pork, fish, tofu and soup - felt like a great home cook meal.

Por Kee eating house is situated in a carpark near tiong bahru market. Had dinner here with a group of close friends on Xmas Eve. Overall, the place serves pretty good dishes. However, considering that it's a zi char place, the total bill of $30++ is a bit expensive in my view. Probably because we ordered the "live" fish dish, which alone cost $60.

This establishment has an air-conned extension and is a good place for large groups or gatherings. HGwever, it could get pretty noisy at times.

PS: Corkage is only $3, so you can BYO wine. Suggest you make a reservation.

Por Kee is open all the way until half past midnight, making for a good dinner venue if you're dining late. Sitting inside, it sure looks like a HDB flat with those windows and grills. Still, the tables and chairs were decent - more upmarket than a zi char joint, less than a full-fledged restaurant.

The order for the day was:

Champagne pork ribs

Special homemade tofu

Dou miao

The special homemade tofu was the revelation of the day - well recommended by the service staff! This texture of the large pieces of bean curd were excellent, firm yet soft. The sauce used for this dish was worthy of mention too, mixed with all the other ingredients like mushroom. I think this should rank higher as their signature dish rather than the champagne pork ribs.

Dou miao was nicely done. Pu-er tea is the house tea. I like restaurants that serve teas other than jasmine as the default choice. Service was reasonably good.

I see some reviews here that are not flattering. I have visited por kee for as long as I remember so I have a certain level of bias. However, bad is still bad and I certainly don't think por kee is any worst off than the top 20% of tze char in Singapore. As in all tze char there are some dishes that are hit and some misses - you have to know what to order. A good indication of what to order is to look at what the regulars or older patrons order. If all else fails there is always the staff to solicit recommendations from...

The house special tofu is a dish that most regulars will go for. Certainly worth a try if you are not adverse to tofu. Steam fish can be pretty good depending on what fish they have. Mostly go for CANTONESE type dishes as it seems to be the mainstay of por kee. It seems that the old chefs used to be mostly cantonese years back when my family dines there more frequently...not sure how it is now since I live a little too far from tiong bahru now to dine with any degree of frequency.

As for service I don't think it is fair to be VERY critical if they don't charge service charge (i remember they don't but I may be wrong). And in all traditional uncle and aunty service staff restaurants - the service is what aunty and uncle typically dishes out - OLD SCHOOL! While we may not appreciate it, our parents certain ain't too particular with it somehow... Service certainly not great but to the aunties and uncles this is the same thing they have been doing all their lives so I think we can cut them some slack (You really expecting them to buy into that G.E.M.S campaign??? =P) unless they start hurling insults or something.... =)

It is months since I last went back so I will reserve my ratings until I go back again.