Satay Bee Hoon

Satay bee hoon (or satay vermicelli) is a dish with bee hoon (duh...) and gravy that is similar to the peanut sauce used with satay. Usually with pork slices, pork liver, cuttlefish, shrimps, bean curd skins and wate spinach or kangkong to compliment.

I have yet to know of anywhere else that serves this dish, so it can be considered a pretty unique Singaporean dish! Originating from the Teochew community. The dish is served with all the above on a dish, then the peanut gravy is poured over it.

This dish is delicious and a personal favourite, and it should be considered Singapore's national dish!

Bak Kee

Hock Hai

Hougang Meng Kee

Lao Chao Zhou

Satay Bee Hoon (Pearl Centre)

Satay Bee Hoon (Bendemeer)

Teochew Satay Bee Hoon

Sin Chew

Satay Bee Hoon

Jul 2020

Best satay bee hoon in Singapore, and thus the world!

Satay Bee Hoon, I’d really like to petition this to be the national dish of Singapore, where else can you find it?! Right? Right?

When I first came to Singapore as a school boy, satay bee hoon was like food fantasy. As a child, I loved (still do) satay and especially the peanut gravy, to the point that I would drink up remnants of satay gravy. Im sure Ziggy would too if he gets his paws on some… and bee hoon was my favourite carb; however, my first experience with it was not great…. I had the misfortune of ordering it from a kangkong cuttlefish stall and the satay bee hoon gravy was actually the red sweet sauce! It was not even right as sauce for kangkong cuttlefish from where I came from was the brown shrimp paste sweet sauce. Never touched it again until one day I walked into Redhill market and saw a pretty girl eating an interesting plate of bee hoon filled with actual satay sauce! Where have you been all my life? I meant the bee hoon, not the girl....

A dish of satay bee hoon was simple to judge, it’s all about the satay sauce. Everything else in it would not deviate much in terms of taste, except maybe for the quantity, hence the value for money.

Bak Kee gives you a generous serving of ingredients (cuttlefish, clams, pork, pork liver, kangkong) with the $5 dish. The additional dollar for the bigger portion comes with more meat, not extra bee hoon!

The satay sauce was marvelicous, the gravy thick and peanuty, not spicy hot but s[icy tasty, a perfect mix of the various spices in the gravy. Its taste was the best in the business, and the model for this dish, I have constant cravings for this! Came with a generous pour of gravy too. The cuttlefish and liver were also cooked just right, not over done, allowing their freshness and wonderful textures to present themselves. Likewise the pork slices, big in pieces and thickness just right, perfect texture and taste.

Besides satay bee hoon, they sell cuttlefish with kang kong too. It was pretty decent, nice and fresh cuttlefish, with delicious sweet sauce. Despite the sweet sauce here being the same type of red sweet sauce I mentioned earlier, I have grown up, now more able to discern and appreciate different type of food... If there is space in your stomach, give it a try, well worth it！

They sell their peanut sauce in packets, so you can buy some and try it at home, with your own ingredients, home cooked satay bee hoon anyone? You know what? Their satay sauce is of such standard, you can consider buying this and make your own satay with this as a sauce…. (Idea? Just a thought, I haven’t tried this if I’m honest)

I feel that this is a dish that is very delicious but not as commonly found, it should become one of the unique Singapore dishes. Where else can you find satay bee hoon??!

Bak Kee Teochew Satay Bee Hoon

85 Redhill Lane, #01-40 Redhill Market, s150085

Daily 6am – 4pm, Closed on Wed.

https://www.facebook.com/BakKeeSatayBeeHoon/

Mee Siam, Satay Bee Hoon

Jul 2020

Delicious Mee Siam, with a great Satay Bee Hoon sidekick.

I asked the nice lady owner, which sells better, the satay bee hoon or the mee siam, she said it’s about the same… but probably the mee siam as it’s more conducive than the satay bh for take away.

So I ordered both, despite trying out this stall alone… til now, I still can’t decide which is better! They were both excellent!

LCZ

The Mee Siam was delightful, a right mix of sour in the sweet peanut based sauce. There was a delicious full bodied creamy taste that gave you great satisfaction. Served with bits of sambal chilli at the side, the chilli gave this dish an added boost and excitement in taste.

Moving on to the Satay Bee Hoon, it too had a good full bodied peanut base with a good amount of ingredients. The peanut sauce was a little bit like peanut butter in a soup, almost just as smooth! Full of cockles, pork liver, vegetables and pork slices. I asked for less liver and they gave me only one piece, replacing it with quite a bit of pork slices, how lovely of them!

Do note, they don't serve satay bee hoon on Fridays to give themselves a break as it is tedious to prepare this dish. Give themselves a rest to prepare for the busy weekend.

The plan was to try both of these at one go, just do a taste test, avoid the carbo, leaving out at least half a portion from each to keep within the carbo count, right? Yeah… the only piece of bee hoon left after the "tasting" this was the one that I regretfully dropped onto the table. As for the sauce, I would have licked off every drop of everything if that act wasn’t that embarrassing in public. Some days I wish I was Ziggy….

Notice from the gif below, the lady boss gives a good amount of lime to each mee siam order, I can look at it over and over again, adds to the perfection in taste.

If I’m honest, I have tasted better satay bee hoon, even if this was really good. The mee siam though, is top notch. It’s one of the better ones I’ve tasted, if not the best. The satay bee hoon is still top 2-3.

Lao CaoZhou (Old TeoChew) 老潮州

20 Ghim Moh Road, #01-18 Ghim Moh Hawker & Market, s270020

630/7am – 2pm (or when sold out), closed Tue and Wed (open if they fall on PH, to be replaced “another day”, prob Thu…)

https://www.facebook.com/oldteochew/

Satay Bee Hoon

Jul 2020

This is a co-shared stall at the People’s Park Food Centre, one sells satay bee hoon, the other prawn noodles. It is not fanciful and does not have a following, but is probably the best satay bee hoon around the china town area.

Traditional

The satay gravy is really good, tasty with good peanut taste. Taste wise, it is comparable to the one at Redhill market, which I consider to be the best around, just slightly more diluted. The same wonderful basic taste is there but always seems to be struggling to be prominent. Every time I eat here, I feel like I’m eating a watered down Ba Ji satay bee hoon. As my temporary office was nearby, I was very happy to come here to enjoy a plate of satay bee hoon.

For $5, we can have a plate with plenty of ingredients, ever since Toh Kee closed, this is my go to at this hawker centre.

Satay Bee Hoon

32 New Market Road, #01-1016, s050032

7am - 8pm, closed on Mon

Satay Bee Hoon

July 2022

Operated by an octogenarian lady and his son, with the help of a teenaged grand daughter, this rather popular stall opens only on Saturdays! Sells only satay bee hoon, or mee (yellow noodles).

Nice big plate of satay bee hoon, the ingredients here are plenty. The satay gravy tends to be a little on the diluted side but it has a nice taste, slightly gingery.

I ordered one plate on a day (Sat of course) I finally found it open after 2 years of visiting tg pagar hawker centre! Ordered a small plate to share, looked at the wrong category on the menu and ended up ordering a large one instead. Thought we’d never finish it as we already had our own food… but it was so nice we finished the lot, with only a spoonful of bee hoon left over.

I’d wipe the remains if it didn’t seem too greedy to do so too….

Teochew Satay Bee Hoon

6 Tanjong Pagar Road, #02-46 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, s081006

Every Sat ONLY : 8am - 2pm

Fuhai

Curry Chicken Noodle, Satay Bee Hoon

Feb 2021

This is a stall at the Bedok Central Hawker Centre, not anywhere near Hong Lim! I used to patronise this stall quite often when Heng Kee at Hong Lim lost a bit of its magic and was not operating more often than not, and thought it was pretty decent. Besides curry chicken, they serve satay bee hoon too.

The chicken here is succulent and very well cooked, you can taste the freshness and sweetness of the chicken. The curry is a bit gingery, it is a decent shout. The many times I visit this place, there was never any queue, however, I came here this time at noon and there was a decent queue swing round to the back of this corner stall. The wait wasn’t too long, about 15 minutes. So my guess is that this place is more popular during lunch, previously, I only visited during dinner time.

(Curry Chix Noodle) Hock Hai Curry Chix 3.jpg

(Curry Chix Noodle) Hock Hai Curry Chix 4.jpg

The satay bee hoon is also pretty decent, I have always been curious if I should one day order the satay bee hoon with additional chicken, as they don’t give the usual pork slices. The satay bee hoon comes with cuttlefish, cockles, kang kong and bean curd skin,

(Curry Chix Noodle) Hock Hai Curry Chix 5.jpg

(Curry Chix Noodle) Hock Hai Curry Chix 6.jpg

As this place calls itself Hong Lim, there is inevitably some comparison. In fact, my friend who brought me here told me it is the branch of my favourite curry noodle, and I know my favourite Heng Kee distinctly puts up a sign saying it has no branches!

I thought it was pretty good during those days of Heng Kee’s “adjournment” (probably due to the health of the original owner), and I rated it a good second choice, especially as I never had to Q for it, and I can have dinner here (Heng Kee only serves lunch). With the return to normal with Heng Kee, and a re-establishment of the taste there, Hock Hai has sadly gone from a close second to a distant second to Heng Kee; and having found a few decent satay bee hoon places, this is not as attractive anymore.

(Curry Chix Noodle) Hock Hai Curry Chix 2.jpg

Hock Hai (Hong Lim) Curry Chicken

208 New Upper Changi Road, #01-58 Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre, s462208

9am – 11 pm, closed on Mon

Hougang Meng Kee

Satay Bee Hoon, Fried Oyster

Mar 2024

Intense and wonderful taste

This stall sells an unusual combination of satay bee hoon and oyster omelette, and looks like a tze char stall, this is what attracted me, it has an off beat brilliance about it. Not to mention an interesting character in the owner, haha, look at her laid back attitude in the photo below....

Intuition! Satay bee hoon is top of the range, I’ve been going round trying this and quite a few just lacked the punch, this one I got punch drunk…

Cuttlefish, pork slices, prawns, cockles and kangkong came with it. The cuttlefish here, something I usually don’t like, was brilliantly cooked to perfection. Very tender, so much so I wanted to say melt in the mouth, it definitely slid in easily. The rest had quantity and they were as good as they could be quality wise.

The satay gravy was one of the better ones, or at least the taste that I like. Strong and intense flavour, deliciously rich in flavour, very enjoyable.

Have given their oyster omelette a try, though decent was not spectacular. If you’re greedy, mouth itchy and has space in the stomach, can go for it.

Meng Kee Hougang Traditional Satay Bee Hoon · Fried Oyster

29 Tai Thong Crescent, Lao Zhong Zhong Eating House, s347858

4pm – 1230am, closed on Mon

Bendemeer SBH

Satay Bee Hoon

Jun 2024

New tasty satay bee hoon stall

This stall had previously just started its business at Geylang Bahru, before this could be published, they had already moved to Bendemeer. I was very surprised to see them and asked if it was a branch. They told me the conditions here were better.

I had tried this before and was suitably impressed! The satay bee hoon here was very good, probably the best near enough to home so I was very happy!

Generous with ingredients, my $4 had 2 nice shrimps, 5 pieces of cuttlefish, 2 big slices of pork liver and quite a lot of pork slices, plus beancurd skin.

All the ingredients were fresh and very well prepared. I usually don’t like liver and cuttlefish whenever I have my satay bee hoon, and would make it a point to exchange either or both for pork slices, depending on the amount they give and quality. Here, I will definitely retain them!

The cuttlefish was especially tender and smooth that I loved it do much I had hoped for more. While the liver was fresh and cooked perfectly at medium well. 2 big pieces was just right, as my opinion is that no matter how fantastic, there is a limit to how much liver I can enjoy!

The satay peanut gravy was also thick and delicious. A strong and deep savoury taste with good peanut based flavour. Not a drop was left behind.

Definitely one of the top 3 I have tasted so far, though also not the top, it was brilliant and good enough for me to be a regular here! I asked if they made the satay sauce themselves, no, but they "adjusted the taste with their own spice“.... I think I can hazard a guess where they got it from. Very good nonetheless.

Satay Bee Hoon

29 Bendemeer Road, #01-68 Bendemeer Market & Food Centre, s330029

830am – 3pm, closed on 1st and 15th day of lunar month

Sin Chew

Satay Bee Hoon

Mar 2025

Lightly flavoured but deep in taste, a different kind of brilliance

First visit to this interim market but they were closed, took me another visit to realize they are closed Fridays too. Later, I managed to gather another venture here by train, coincidentally sharing a table with a couple of ladies doing the same! They even ordered exactly the same as us, satay bee hoon, and a carrot cake 😆😆, fools don't differ they say.

Nicely filled with a lot of ingredients like cuttlefish, pork slices, shrimps, beancurd skin and cockles, the medium satay bee hoon here belonged to the "light" variety, with a good deep intensity, just not the strong flavoured type. I have preference for the more "robust" tasting variety but jiak kaki Yao loved it, a lot.

It did slowly get to me, for me to appreciate that despite it's subdued robustness, the intensity of it's taste was there to be appreciated. I can say I've learned to enjoy this other variety of satay bee hoon too.

Sin Chew offers a cuttlefish with Kang Kong (water spinach) as well, and this one turns up more robust, but not too sweet. Very likeable. Cuttlefish maintaining tenderness.

The public agrees Sin Chew's place as a preferred brand for the lighter in taste variety of satay bee hoon, with a perpetual long Q. Despite the Q, we managed to get our food within 15 minutes on a weekday lunch.

We went home impressed, and from what we hear, so did the ladies we shared the table with it. Can this be considered "two" thumbs up...? 🤓🤓🤔

Sin Chew Satay Bee Hoon · Cuttlefish Kang Kong

2A Jalan Seh Chuan, #01-037 Interim Bukit Timah Wet market & Food Centre, s599213

11am - 230pm, 5pm - 830pm, closed on Mon, Tue and Fri