Jalan Tua Kong Lau Lim Mee Pok -The Art of Mee Pok: Perfectly Al Dente Mee Pok That Will Leave You Wanting More In Bedok

It has been hotly debated which area of Singapore has the best food. For me, there is no discussion; clearly, the East has better food (fight me). Of the myriad of reasons why the East is so great, one of them has to be the food haven of Simpang Bedok.

Just across the street is where you’ll find Jalan Tua Kong Lau Lim – The Art of Mee Pok amongst three other mee pok places. If you love mee pok then you have to make your way down here.

When you get to the Jalan Tua Kong Lau Lim – The Art of Mee Pok, be prepared with your tissue to chope your seats. There was an endless stream of hungry people waiting for their mee pok. Granted, I came on a Saturday so there’s the weekend crowd to take into account.

Nevertheless, Jalan Tua Kong Lau Lim does attract quite a number of people on any given day, so it would be helpful to come early.

Another thing you’d notice about Jalan Tua Kong Lau Lim is perhaps the scale of the business. The staff were clad in the same bright orange shirts and were taking orders and dishing them out like a well-oiled machine.

Naturally, with operations of such extent, I do get a little sceptical with whether the food lives up to the accolades plastered on the wall.

I have been eating mee pok for as long as I can remember, so trust me when I tell you I know mee pok.

My dining companion and I ordered the Medium (S$6) bowls and a hearty bowl of Dumplings (S$5) for good measure.

For their medium bowl, it’s pretty standard with the usual suspects. Expect a heaping spoonful of minced pork, steamed prawns, bouncy fishballs and a meatball complete with crispy lard bits.

Give the noodles a good whirl and you would be greeted with aromatic chilli that coats the noodles. A rather promising sign ⁠— as any good foodie knows the money’s in the chilli.

When you take a huge slurp of the noodles, you’ll notice that the noodles are al dente, which is a little detail which I greatly appreciated. After all, soggy noodles for your bowl mee pok just ruins the entire experience.

I’m happy to report that the chilli was punchy with an addictive kick that will keep you coming back for more.

The highlight of the mee pok has to be fishball. Albeit only one, but this was a rather large fishball by all counts. Just holding it between my chopsticks, I could already feel how exceptionally bouncy this fishball was.

This was one good fishball, springy but with just enough bite. My only gripe was the fact that there were only two of these goodies in a bowl.

The meatball was another sphere of pork goodness. The texture of the meatball was smooth and as QQ as the fishballs, which was an impressive feat.

All in all, this bowl of mee pok was hit the mark for me. Spicy and slightly tangy with perfectly al dente noodles, what more could you want?

I can’t resist a bowl of dumplings, so I was pretty excited to dig into their dumpling soup. Here, you get a pretty generous portion of six dumplings swimming in a clear porky broth.

If you love dumplings as much as I do, you’re definitely in for a treat. These babies are pretty large so you do get your money’s worth.

I bit into one rather quickly and was rather pleased that the pork was fragrant and well-seasoned. These will make a rather comforting meal on rainy days.

Jalan Tua Kong Lau Lim – The Art of Mee Pok is somewhat of an institution when it comes to mee pok. There are people whole have been eating here since their secondary school days and I can see why.

Each component was well-executed and top-notch. There are only a handful of dishes I would eat for the rest of life and mee pok is one of them. While the crowd is not my favourite thing in the world, I think for a stellar bowl of mee pok it’s totally worth it.

Expected Damage: S$4 – S$7 per pax