Zi char institution Kok Sen opens new restaurant at City Square Mall
The parking situation in Keong Saik Road, where Kok Sen Restaurant has been for 54 years, is challenging at the best of times.
Now, instead of circling round and round, diners can head to its new offshoot at City Square Mall, with more than 500 parking spots. At the 90-seat restaurant, they can dine in air-conditioning. More importantly, the food is just as good.
The brand, which has a history that dates back to the 1960s, is now run by the third generation of the Wong family. They have not lost their touch. Standouts at the new restaurants are Kok Sen’s Original Big Prawn Thick Beehoon White Soup (from $19) and Deep Fried Yu Gai (from $20).
Diners who head to Kok Sen in Keong Saik Road might be familiar with the spicy prawn noodle soup with big prawns – such a welcome jolt to the palate after a night of bar hopping.
Only available at the new restaurant is the non-spicy version that the family tucks into during festive occasions, birthdays and family gatherings. The soup is still a little tingly, but it is nothing even a chilli coward like me cannot handle.
Because it is not fiery, the quality of that soup comes through. The pork, chicken and prawn stock is full of oomph, and the orange hue comes not from chilli but prawn roe. Large, shell-on prawns, halved for easy excavation, are not overcooked. But the attraction is really the soup.
Thick chunks of toman fish are deep-fried and arrive greaseless in the Yu Gai dish. Better yet, there is a killer dipping sauce made with oyster and soya sauces, chilli and scallions. I find myself attacking chunk after chunk. The dish is simple, like something you might eat at home, if only you could be bothered to deep-fry fish.
Homespun flavour is what has kept diners going back to the original restaurant all these years. Roasted Pork With Black Sauce (from $18) has that exact vibe – something you might whip up if you had leftover siew yoke in the fridge. Except the restaurant roasts its pork every day. The sauce cries out for rice.
Crispy Tea Smoked Duck (from $25), only available at the new restaurant, looks dry but is not. The bird is marinated for eight hours and air-dried for two to three more hours, then smoked. This one cries out for porridge.
Kok Sen looks to be embarking on a new chapter. If the quality of the food at its new restaurant holds up, it will surely last another five – or more – decades.
Where: 04-31/32 City Square Mall, 180 Kitchener Road
MRT: Farrer Park
Tel: 9624-4244
Open: 11.30am to 3pm, 4.30 to 9pm daily. During Chinese New Year, it is open on Jan 28, and closed from Jan 29 to 31
Info: koksen.org
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