Beng Thin Hoon Kee Restaurant (Toa Payoh)

We heard that this restaurant used to be so famous and well-liked by many older generations, so we decided to have dinner here.

The location is pretty hard to find partly because the entire Toa Payoh Central / Hub or whatever name you have for it is just so large. But this place is near to the Toa Payoh Library, right in between the Macdonalds and SHOP & SAVE. Walk through the glass door and straight ahead.. you will find a pretty nostalgia looking entrance greeting you. The restaurant is big with many tables for a simple family of four all the way to big families like 10 or 12 and with the option of having a privacy space all to yourself. I think you could also have functions or even wedding at this restaurant. It has the setting and space for smaller scale functions.

I spotted an interesting poster on the wall that has four squares at the corners of a large square in chinese calligraphy. we asked for the meaning and the helpful staff named ROSE... told use the meaning. Will post the picture for you to guess okay.

The table setting is one that speaks of traditional chinese food with peanuts as starters. We ordered some of their more famous dishes and this is our verdict.

1. Scallop with spinach - Scallop is of a good size and packs a good bouncy texture. Spinach well blanched and looked really green and yummy.

2. Treasures in a pot - Good mix of ingredients and healthy to eat. Its not oily, taste is balanced, not too salty and contains a good array of seafood such as crunchy prawns, fresh squid, smooth fish fillets and mixed vegetables.

3. Hokkien style fried noodles - This is suppose to be their winning dish as the restaurant is suppose to be famous for their hokkien style cuisines, however the fried noodles is a little disappointing for me. The noodles are a little overcooked and sticky, tasted a little too salty for my liking and no distinctive flavour. Just tasted like regular not so yummy fried noodles.

Overall, I expected more wow factor and I find the restaurant pretty overrated. There is not much of an ambiance except that its really old school and the service is also old school attention. Food is okay only, no WOW factor. Theres not much a crowd though I was there Friday evening about 7pm for dinner, there were only about 5 other tables of small families dining there not including us. Portion is good, ingredients used are fresh and the only thing I like is the old school feel of the place. You can't get many of these in Singapore anymore.. so we should treasure these little spots that represents whats left of our diminishing culture and social identity.