Sin Teck Heng: Sinfully Delicious Butter & Milk Pork Ribs + Affordable Zi Char Dishes In Woodlands

Sin Teck Heng is a zi char store located in The WoodGrove Food Place, in Woodlands. With no obvious sign board, and a facade that looks like any other typical zi char stall, many miss out on the delicious and unique dishes that Sin Teck Heng has to offer.

The chef at Sin Teck Heng has come up with novel dishes such as Indonesia Prawn ($20.80);Butter & Milk Pork Ribs ($10.80); and Volcano Beancurd ($18.80), which is a large ‘tempura‘ basket that contains a filling of beancurd, sausage, and squid paste. It may sound really weird, but trust me, it is delicious.

The one thing that you absolutely must not miss out on ordering at Sin Teck Heng is the Butter & Milk Pork Ribs ($10.80 – $16.80, depending on size).

These ribs are extremely tender, coated with a thick layer of butter and milk, which made them taste like my favourite cereal prawns, only without the cereal. The smallest portion feeds two to three people — an exceedingly hearty size for the small price.

If you love prawns, you’ll absolutely need to order the Indonesia Prawn ($20.80). I’m the type who would easily forgo any other prawn dish for cereal prawns, but the Indonesia Prawn is an exceptionally good dish that needs to be tried.

Made with Indonesian curry that is steeped in tonnes of dried shrimp, the gravy was immensely flavourful and tasted like the delicious juices you’d usually suck out of the prawn heads. Though curry is meant to be eaten with rice, it was so good I decided to savour it as I would a soup.

Next, we dug into the Mix Seafood Family ($43.80), which is a giant pot of crab, prawns, squid, mussels, and white fish that have been stewed in a milk curry.

Though the broth was not as rich as the Indonesian curry we had before, it was still tasty and went well with white rice. The seafood all tasted good, but I enjoyed the meaty crab the most. The whole crab is smashed before being served, and I could eat it easily with my fork and spoon.

The Volcano Beancurd ($18.80) is another dish that you need to try. The owner told me that his chef was the first to come up with this unique dish but was soon copied by other zi char stalls.

Similar to other beancurd ‘volcanoes’, this dish is made with a sort of pastry/tempura basket that is porous and crispy. However, this pastry has a beancurd filling, which includes Taiwanese sausage and squid, making it taste a little like a meaty fishball.

Combined with the succulent prawns, scallops and juicy capsicums, each bite of this dish is sure to be something you’ll relish.

Even the greens at Sin Teck Heng tasted well above average and we tried the Salted Fish Kai Lan ($10.80). The salted fish added a nice flavour profile to the kai lan that was crunchy and juicy. Many times, kai lan is overcooked and the leaves appear to be wiltedbut it was perfectly cooked here.


If you’ll excuse my lame pun, I’d like to say that it would be a sin not to try these dishes at Sin Teck Heng. It’s not often I praise food this much, and I do it only because the food is delicious and severely underrated. Be sure to check out this stall in The Woodgrove, a short walk or bus ride away from Woodlands MRT.

Expected damage: $10 – $20 per pax

Sin Teck Heng: Woodgrove Food Place, The Woodgrove, 30 Woodlands Avenue 1, #01-11 Singapore 739065 | Opening Hours: (Daily) 11.30am – 11.30pm | Tel: +65 9847 4988 (Louis Tan) | Facebook

Newest