Best Char Kway Teow (CKT) in Singapore

Char kway Teow (ckt), which means fried flat rice noodle, is a popular dish in Singapore and Malaysia from the Teochew or Chao Zhou community. Malaysian ckt's are invariably of the Penang vareity. The Penang style is fried with chilli and some meat broth with prawns, Chinese sausage, cockles, deep fried pork lard pieces and bean sprout. The Singapore version would add some sweet sauce to the mix. They are usually mild to "reasonably" spicy, customers are welcome to request for it sans chilli, or without any ingredients not suitable to their taste.

Generally known as unhealthy due to the presence of pork lard, "have a plate of ckt" is a common term for cheat days for those on any form of diet. The pork lard pieces are extremely crispy (at least the good ones are) and an essential item for this dish to be delicious (at least for me it is..😎), we should not do without it!

Not exactly my favourite food (one has a model like physique to maintain, you know...😎🤣), but I do have cravings for it at times, especially whenever I'm near a good one.

Joo Chiat Place

Outram Park

Fen Xiang

Dong Ji

Hill Street

Char Kway Teow

Jan 2021

If I’m honest, I’d say I am not the biggest fan of char keow teow (CKT), all carbo and fats with little quality meat, and I am not the biggest fan of cockles. Owing to a “party of interest's" (shhhh… the boss should not know even if it was years ago) liking of this dish, I used to company her to climb up Outram Park for her favourite CKT. I used to look forward to the rojak there more as you’ll always order the rojak while waiting 30-40 minutes for the CKT.

After tasting several other CKT places, I have to say this is the better one, in terms of taste. So much so that at times, I do have craving for this CKT, just the CKT, not the “good old days”...

It has since moved to Hong Lim and it’s probably the stall with the longest Q. Besides its obvious popularity, it is because the CKTC (char kway teow chef) would cook a big wok of CKT each time, then quickly dish out each order when he’s ready to serve. So it doesn’t matter if you’re in the head of the Q or at number 25, the difference is likely to be just the 2 minutes. Someone would go round the Q to take your order and it will be ready when you reach the stall. You’ll have to wait an extra 10 minutes or so should you be unlucky enough that the round of CKT is distributed just before it’s your turn.

Don’t be too happy when you see the stall from far and notice the lack of a Q, the Q goes behind the stall….. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, I actually got fooled 3-4 times! I’ll go hang myself in shame…..

Lard usually plays a part is the tastiness of a CKT, needless to say, Outram Park is not short in this department. I believe what separates this from the others is the sauce that goes into it; on an occasion when I was at the head of the Q, I noticed the CKTC feverishly pouring sauces over the wok while frying the CKT. Magic sauce! Magic marinade should be more apt though.

The CKT here is tasty and spicy. A good well rounded tastiness. Not like the more usual ones where it is just the taste of sweet sauce or chilli sauce. The blend of the marinade has to be the key, as I later notice the better CKTC has some kind of magic sauce! LOL

Cockles here is sufficient, as well the Chinese sausage. All in all, if you want a good genuine tasty CKT, you definitely won’t go wrong coming here to what I believe is probably the best one in Singapore. After all, we should know that a certain someone who used to like climbing a hill for her CKT has good tastes, agree?

Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee

531A Upper Cross Street, #02-17 Hong Lim Market and Food Centre, s051531

Mon – Sat 6am – 3pm

DongJi

Char Kway Teow

Jul 2020

This quiet unassuming corner stall at Old Airport Road Hawker seems to have some attraction. There are long Qs nearby but I am always attracted by the short but ever present Q here.

When I started to Q, and saw that it was a one man operation, I had my doubts, wondering if the Q was generated by the slow operation. The uncle had great memory, he would come out to take orders from 4-5 in the Q before going back to frying, without markers! Each order was individually prepared, which explained the waiting time, and every order in front of me was correct! Impressive.

I was further impressed when the plate of fried kway teow was presented, it looked good! Take a look at the photo, it sat beautifully on a nice plate framed with nice colours, right? You know what they say, do not judge a book by its cover, so let’s taste what it’s made of.

I noticed that shifu tossed some sauce over the CKT when he was frying, must be magic sauce. This fried kway teow tasted as good as it looked! A little on the dry side, unlike those with a heavy dose of sweet sauce; it was more peppery, closer to the Penang style fried kway teow, and served with the prawns. I personally do not like the Penang fried kway teow, maybe I haven’t tried a good one in Penang, but I find it a bit bland, Dong Ji made up for that with a very tasty umami flavour. Work of the magic sauce perhaps?

Genrous portions of Chinese sausage, fish cakes and prawns were given, all adding up to give the Char Kway Teow here something to talk about. Recommended to be my preferred stall at this hawker, and nearby!

Dong Ji Fried Kway Teow

51 Old Airport Road, #01-146 Old Airport Road Hawker, S390051

Daily 8am – 230pm; 630 – 830pm; Thu and Sun 8am – 12pm

https://www.facebook.com/dongjifriedkwayteow/

FenXiang

Char Kway Teow

Oct 2020

My friends all love this place, and looking at the queue, they’re not the only ones! It is nice, more than decent. Fried Kway Teow without much lard pieces but full of Chinese sausages. It is more sweet than spicy even with chilli. This is the first place we gathered after covid restrictions and had ourselves a lovely sinful lunch!

This is an old establishment and the uncle works alone, he has been around for the last 20-30 years at least. We understand that health issues means opening days and hours are not fixed, try your luck when you’re in the area, just next to Eunos MRT station.

2023 update, he is much better now! Hurray! Opening hours are fixed from 5am to about 11am, he has also got himself an assistant. The char kway teow is as good as before, if not better now!

Fen Xiang Fried Kway Teow

4A Eunos Crescent, #01-21 Eunos Crescent Market and Food Centre, s402004

5am - 11am, closed on Sun, Mon and Tue!

Char Kway Teow

Oct 2020

Joo Chiat Place

Char Kway Teow

Jan 2024

Delicious fried kway teow fried just right

I once had a small bite of the kway teow here, my mind was on my prawn noodle while my dear niece ordered this. She added 2 eggs! I was impressed by the egg but the kway teow left a smaller impression mainly coz I didn’t steal too much from her (my swipe of her kway teow had more egg than kway teow and I didn’t want to take another bite).

She said it was good but I haven’t come back until one evening I was here and thought I give it a try. It was indeed delicious.

Run by a mother and daughter team, they look grumpy but were friendly and courteous.

Chilli was supposed to be included but it wasn’t spicy at all, more savoury sweet, the taste just right amongst the mix of the 3. Savoury with a perk, just enough sweet for punch, and the chilli like good children, seen but not heard…

It was succulent enough but not too damp, texture perfect. In the kway teow were fish cake slices, an egg, bean sprouts, cockles and Chinese sausages, also a perfect mix. Little fish cakes, enough of the rest but plenty of sausages, which synced perfectly with the taste by adding some savoury sweet.

As for the cockles, they were so small I didn't know they were there until the last bits had one visible. Though I like cockles I’m not a big fan so I didn’t mind, but you might want to ask for more if you love cockles.

I too added an egg once, a sunny side up instead of having it mixed in during frying of the kway teow. This is recommended, it added an independent fresh egg taste to the delicious dish with some mashed up egg in the kway teow.

Bon apetit! And indeed, after eating this, my apetit became bon bon! Tread cautiously dieters!

Joo Chiat Place Char Kway Teow

59 Joo Chiat Place, s427783

11am – 730pm, closed on Wed

Hill Street

Char Kway Teow

Jan 2024

Insanely popular

Finally got to try this very well-known and crazy popular char kway teow stall. A legend that operated at Hill Street, they moved here since 2020, when the food centre was removed. Now run by the son of the original owner, who used to run the stall with his sister. The siblings have now retired.

A quiet Q started with 3-4 sitting in front of the stall from around 1030, a jovial lady who comes early to do the preparations would come out and take orders after her work is done around 1045. The chef would come in around 11am.

We were 5th in the Q, by the time we had our char kway teow (CKT), it was almost 1130. Good thing we were early, by 1115, the Q had reached bedok north… ok I exaggerate but it was at least 25 deep.

CKT was savoury and tasty, slightly sweet, with bursts of flavour whenever I bit into the tiny bits of lard, those wonderful moments were frequent, very nice. Otherwise, the fragrance of the CKT seemed to come in pockets, with the nice fragrance pocketed to one side of your mouth when you bite.

Not a personal favourite but I will say that not only was I not disappointed, it was satisfying. A very decent meal despite earlier discussions about saturated fats and cholesterol….

Hill Street Fried Kway Teow

16 Bedok South Road, #01-41 Bedok South Market & Food Centre, s460016

11am – 430pm, closed on Sun

https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/3242214/hill-street-fried-kway-teow/