Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Having just recovered from a bout of food poisoning caused by fresh oysters — which left me battling diarrhoea for 5 long days — you can imagine how jittery I felt when it was time to try the worst-rated orh luak stall in Singapore. Unfortunately, the title belonged to 85 Bedok North Fried Oyster at 85 Fengshan Centre.
The business has a 2.6-star rating with a total of 191 reviews on Google Reviews (at time of writing) — definitely one of the lowest I’ve ever featured.
Though the stall also sells other dishes like carrot cake, fried kway teow, and Hokkien mee, the bulk of the 1-star reviews were actually directed at the oyster omelette.
Comments like ‘One of the worst I’ve ever eaten,’ ‘Singapore’s most lousy fried oysters’, and ‘rude service.’ were expressed. These are definitely harsh and strong words. Is it really that bad? Let’s find out!
I headed there around 6pm while the hawker centre wasn’t that packed. Even before I had a chance to look at the signboard offerings, an uncle with a thundering loud voice asked, “Ah boy, what do you want to eat?” Wow, a 42-year-old getting called that — what a good start!
What I tried at 85 Bedok North Fried Oyster
I chose the large Oyster Omelette at S$10, and upon making payment, a buzzer was passed to me. While waiting for the pièce de résistance to arrive, my mind was already racing like a bullet train in Japan, envisioning how my plate of oyster omelette would turn out.
Within 5 minutes, the siren-like red lights and beeping from the buzzer went off.
“Did they already pre-cook some parts? Why did my food arrive so fast?” These questions popped up in my head. My plate of orh luak was already on the table and the uncle had told me to help myself to the cutlery. In terms of service, everything was great so far. As I returned to my seat, I couldn’t help but notice that it actually looked quite promising.
The golden-brown egg clusters were crispy in some areas, and deliciously eggy in others. There were also slightly charred slivers of spring onions that were carried along for the ride into my mouth, which imparted a fragrant aftertaste.
While the occasional large, floury bits might be off-putting to some— like my dining partner— I personally didn’t mind them. They were slightly chewy and added some contrasting textures to the egg.
Fried Oyster Showdown: Hougang Fried Oyster vs Song Kee Fried Oyster
After doing a little treasure hunting, I found a total of 7, slightly larger-than-usual oysters. Unlike the reviews that mentioned about the fishy odour, mine weren’t like that. In fact, they were quite fresh.
The oysters were plump, luxuriously creamy and juicy — I had no complaints. Perhaps they had sourced for a new supplier!
The chilli dip that they had provided was sufficiently tangy and moderately spicy. That being said, 4 out of 5 orh luak stalls in Singapore probably use this very same concoction.
Final thoughts
One thing’s for sure, my oyster omelette experience turned out much better than I’d expected. Has the team actually read all of the negative comments about the orh luak and made efforts to improve it? Or was I lucky enough to catch them on a good day?
Have you visited this stall recently? What are your thoughts? Do share in the comments.
Xin Xin Famous Fried Oyster — $3 orh luak at hawker stall in Clementi
