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Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about curry. Specifically, curry chicken noodles. So, for today’s best-rated review, we’re looking at Da Po Hainanese Chicken Rice & Curry Chicken Noodles, located in Golden Mile Food Centre. We’ve covered this stall previously, but I’m back to see if they’re worthy of being “best-rated”.
Da Po has an impressive 4.4 stars with 273 reviews, which, when compared to other well-known chicken curry noodles, is notably higher.
I arrived bright and early at the stall, about 10 minutes after the official opening time. The signboards weren’t on, and I stood in front of the stall for a few moments pondering what to do. The owner, who was seated in front of the stall and eating his breakfast, told me to come back at 11am instead. Nodding, I decided to plonk myself at a nearby table and wait.
5 minutes later, the owner called out to me again to ask what I wanted. I replied with, “A medium chicken curry noodle with yellow noodles, please.” After confirming I wanted bean sprouts as well, he got to work. I took the chance to go buy a coffee, and when I returned, the stall assistant had brought my noodles to my table. (Extra points for service.)
What I tried at Da Po Hainanese Chicken Rice & Curry Chicken Noodles
While Da Po also sells Hainanese chicken rice, I was there for their Curry Chicken Noodle (S$6/S$7/S$8/S$10). One of the handwritten signs on the outside of the stall also advertised a S$9 portion that wasn’t reflected on the main menu.
My portion was a medium, and it cost S$7… and when I saw what I had gotten myself into, I began having second thoughts about ordering a medium.
“This is medium?!” I thought to myself. The bowl was near overflowing with ingredients and curry gravy – tau pok, fried pig skin, potato chunks, and poached chicken. I couldn’t even see the noodles underneath until I gingerly shifted most of the ingredients into a pile on the side.
After I had seen the size of my S$7 portion, I asked the stall owner about the S$10 portion. Was it a gargantuan bowl meant for 2 or 3 to share? He responded that it was because it contained a lot more ingredients – more chicken parts, more pig skin, so on and so forth. He mentioned patrons ordering the S$10 portion and getting even more ingredients on top of it. (Sometimes, people scare me.)
I tried the curry gravy first. If the gravy isn’t up to snuff, the rest of the bowl is probably a lost cause. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case with Da Po’s curry. The gravy here was on the thicker side, but still very drinkable.
It was wonderfully lemak, not too salty and not excessively spicy. There was also great body and texture from the rempah and added ground peanuts. I had to temper my eagerness to drink more of it. The generous sprigs of coriander lent the gravy a vegetal note which gave it an additional depth. (If you don’t like coriander, do remember to tell the stall owner to omit it, because the flavour will permeate the entire bowl.)
Yellow noodles are not my first choice of noodles, but I make exceptions for certain dishes. The yellow noodles here could be a little bit more al dente, but they were still firm enough and didn’t have that off-putting alkaline flavour.
Queensway Original Curry Chicken: Solid bowls of curry chicken & laksa in Queensway
I tried the chicken next. Da Po is well-regarded for their chicken, so my expectations were high. I found large, generous slices of meat, as well as the remainder of the chicken leg it came from. (Gnawing the meat off the leg wasn’t the most fun, though. I should probably have asked if I could’ve gotten breast meat instead.) The chicken was tender, plump and paired with the curry gravy perfectly. I could still taste its natural sweetness as well. Excellent bird.
The importance of tau pok in curry cannot be understated – my life is incomplete without it. Da Po’s soft yet springy tau pok soaked up the delicious gravy, and when I bit down into one, it was a flavour bomb of curry goodness.
We can’t forget the potatoes, either – no potatoes, no life. I’m quite flexible with the doneness of potatoes in curry, as long as they are not undercooked. The potato chunks here toed the fine line between “falling apart” and “still firm”, and had managed to absorb a lot of flavour from the curry. More, please.
Final thoughts
Does Da Po’s curry chicken noodle deserve its rating? In my opinion, yes! I felt that everything in the bowl worked together, and all of the ingredients were done well. My only complaint was that I didn’t ask for extra tau pok or potatoes, but given that I struggled to finish what I already had, it was probably for the best that I hadn’t gotten even more food.
Expected damage: S$6 – S$10 per pax
Curry chicken noodles showdown: Ah Heng vs Da Po vs Hock Hai
