Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
Having had my share of reviewing Vietnamese and Filipino food, I thought the best course of my next South-East Asian food journey would be Thai food. Omar’s Thai Beef Noodles & Rice, located at Circuit Road Hawker Centre, fit the bill perfectly.
Two Thai food-loving individuals, who are husband and wife, opened Omar’s Thai Beef Noodles & Rice back in 2019. They frequently visit Thailand and even made friends there who taught them how to cook some of the dishes. What was impressive was that both had no cooking experience and were initially from the shipping line.
What I tried at Omar’s Thai Beef Noodles & Rice
Despite having a relatively modest menu, Omar’s Thai Beef Noodles & Rice manages to serve most quintessential Thai food. You have your Basil Chicken (S$6) and the more unorthodox Basil Beef (S$8). Adding to that were Green Curry (S$7), Creamy Chicken Tom Yum (S$7), and of course Omar’s Signature Thai Beef Noodles (S$8).
You also have the Yaowarat and Ladyboy, both of which are priced at S$9 for Chicken or S$11 for Beef. It’s essentially the basil sets with an additional topping of Wanton or Garlic Chicken. For lunch, I went with Omar’s Signature Thai Beef Noodles and the Basil Chicken.
I was impressed by the plating of Omar’s Signature Thai Beef Noodles. It had three different forms of beef around the edges, as well as a combination of kangkong and bean sprouts hugging the bowl. It was finished off with slices of dried garlic on a bed of rice noodles surrounded by a broth that’s been simmered for 4 hours.
And of course, my first spoonful was a sip of the broth. It had that really familiar savoury taste, with just a touch of sweetness. It was unmistakably beefy and could have had an even fuller-bodied taste with a pinch of salt.
Whilst definitely way more flavourful than a pho broth, this wasn’t exactly leaps and bounds out of what I’ve already had before.
My disappointment grew when the noodles disintegrated before my eyes when I tried taking a bite using my chopsticks. It was way overcooked. To make matters worse, they had that mushy texture that’s relative to bloated noodles. I’m guessing the cook might have overlooked them when preparing my second dish.
As proteins go, they had beef chuck, slices and a homemade beef ball. You get a fair amount of them and thankfully, they were decently cooked with some slices even retaining the reddish colour of rareness. However, the beef ball had a funky taste to them and not the good kind either.
I thought the kangkong was a great addition, especially with the soggy noodles, as it still had its crunch despite being submerged in soup. At this point, I’d much rather have a bowl full of kangkong over the noodles that I got.
Up next was the Basil Chicken and just looking at that runny yolk was enough to make me salivate. The main source of protein was the minced chicken meat with a combination of long beans. Initially, I was a little disappointed with the lack of sliced chilli.
And this exactly hit the spot! The minced chicken had a balanced sweetness to it with just the right amount of spiciness to finish every spoonful. I also liked how the long beans added a nice neutral-tasting touch. I had beads of sweat forming as the heat built up surprisingly fast. And to think there was a spicy option.
The minced chicken was also covered with sauce which helped make every otherwise dull spoonful of rice a flavourful one. They were also really generous with the chicken portion as I didn’t have to ration and ate as I wanted.
It was that same afternoon when I found out that nothing really came close to a spoonful of egg-yolk-infused rice with flavorful basil chicken!
Final thoughts
In spite of the initial disappointment, Omar’s Thai Beef Noodles & Rice is an easy recommendation for me. The beef noodle, for whatever it was, still had decent flavours and was only let down by simple human error. The Basil Chicken though was a game-changer for me. If anything, it just proves the cooking ability they have.
I’m sure to head down again for the Creamy Chicken Tom Yum and probably have another shot at their beef noodle.
Expected damage: S$6 – S$8 per pax
