If you’re staying in the east side of Singapore and your favourite food is noodles, then you should have heard of this famous authentic Bak Chor Mee at Bedok Blk 85 market.

If you’re staying in the west side, I can feel your anguish over the need to travel so far just to eat this simple but authentic food, but however, if you die die must come all the way to have a Bak Chor Mee experience, then this Bak Chor Mee eight-part series(12 parts in the end) that I’m going to write can help you to decide which stall to go.

For those who doesn’t know, this style of Bak Chor Mee is actually a family business and most of the owners are related in one way or another. I’m not exactly sure how close they are but I have heard of things like this seller is the brother of the wife of that seller or this seller used to be working in that stall, etcetera etcetera.

These Bak Chor Mee stalls are all in Bedok except 1 stall(that’s the only one out of Bedok as far I know) which I will reveal in one part of this series.

All these Bak Chor Mee stalls are not only having different operating hours, their taste somewhat are also different as they have evolved along the years. Some have dumplings while others only have meatballs. Dried version of Bak Chor Mee are not what they’re famous for but yet some stalls do have it and is actually quite authentic too. With all these differences, it can be confusing even for me, deciding which stall to eat or what to order.

So once and for all, the Bak Chor Mee’s moment of truth will be revealed as I visit all the stalls to find out what’s actually going on in every stalls.

At Blk 58(not a typo error), 58 Minced Meat Noodle has been around for a long long time. When I was staying at Bedok long long long time ago, my dad used to patronise this stall for his Bak Chor Mee fix. Today he still goes to this stall for it. My first impression is that this stall looks quite authentic. The signboard looks old fashion and has no graphics. They still don’t have a proper brand and still identify itself using the Blk number. When after you placed your order, they’ll proceed to retrieve a bowl of cut chili and fish sauce and put on your table. Smacks of very old school way kind of serving if you know what I mean.

The person perfecting the bowl of Bak Chor Mee for you inside the stall 20 years ago is still the same person perfecting it for you today. You have guessed it right if you’re thinking he should be quite old by now. Indeed he looked almost something like 65 but he is still taking charge of the main operation inside with what looked like his son and daughter helping out at the front.

My dad says he liked this stall because the soup is Si Bei Tok Kong(super shiok!). I found that they seem to have marinated their bak chor that came in the soup and so making the soup that little saltier and that in turn seemed to produce more flavour. The dumplings are huge and fresh(wrap on the spot) though 1 of it did became loose. So there’s still a tradeoff for it to be freshly wrapped since it may not have time for the skin to stick together so for that, you gotta see your luck.

58 Minced Meat Mee’s Bak Chor Mee

Cut chili and fish sauce

This stall still has a $2 version if you are looking to spend economically though there is a catch. There are no dumplings in the $2 version. Unlike other Bak Chor Mee I’ve eaten, their noodles are slightly thicker and are not served ‘al dente’ aka QQ. Here it seems to spend more time in the water and it’s that tad softer and pong pong(expanded).

The Bak Chor also seems to be ‘rougher’ and not finely grinded so you can really fish out a big chunk somewhere in the bowl and you can instantly feel the marinating flavour in it. This is what make the soup more ‘pang’(flavoursome) I think.

58 Minced Meat Noodle come across as more authentic than other Bak Chor Mee stalls that I’ve eaten. The normal taste slightly deviates a little and if you’re a regular at Blk 85, you definitely can tell the difference. The noodles and the dumplings are also distinctly different but that’s a good thing. It’s the biggest dumplings I’ve eaten from any Bak Chor Mee stalls and the noodles are at least guaranteed cooked whereas I’ve eaten Bak Chor Mee at other stalls that was too ‘al dente’ because the cook obviously ‘miscued’. The quality of dumpling is their strength and the minced meat seem to make the soup more ‘pang’ though also saltier.

This stall opens at around 6am till mid afternoon around 2-3pm. The morning will require a wait of about 20 to 30 mins unless you can be there before 7am. If you’re going at lunch time, be prepared to wait for 1 hour because all these years my dad had been waiting for 1 hour without fail.

Price: $2, $2.50, $3 ($2 without dumplings)

Recommendation: $3 version. You get about 7-8 dumplings and it has huge fillings inside therefore it’s extremely value for money!

Conclusion: May need that bit of getting used to if you’re familiar with that authenticity at Blk 85 but it is definitely good in it’s own way and at the very least, their dumplings will make you realise that you’ve been eating lousy dumplings from elsewhere. Though I’m more used to my soup being that bit more bland but this definitely is quite authentic and the bak chor flavour is definitely better here.

Likes: Dumpling is huge. Soup has more flavour(or saltier, depends how you perceive it). Bak Chor is marinated to a good flavour.

Dislikes: Noodles are soft. Noodles with that QQ texture are always the best though I’ve experienced equal no of hits and misses so if you dread misses, then this will surely and definitely offers you 100% hits!

Address		Overall Rating
58 Minced Meat Mee New Upper Changi Road Blk 58 Market & Food Centre Blk 58 #01-151 630am-2pm Off on Monday		Soup: 8/10   Noodles: 7/10   Bak Chor: 7/10   Dumplings: 8/10   Value: 7.5/10   Overall: 7.5/10