Which is the BEST Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee at Golden Mile Food Centre?

As all our readers would know by now, our favourite Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee in all of Singapore is Tiong Bahru Yi Sheng Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee. Despite winning the Michelin Bib Gourmand, Tiong Bahru Yi Sheng Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee has closed in the early part of 2023. Sadness for us. Happy retirement to Mr Soo nonetheless!

This is also why we were pleasantly surprised that we were able to find a small gathering of Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee stalls at Golden Mile Food Centre. Looking at the plates of some of the patrons, we were happy to find some semblance to Mr Soo’s Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee at ABC Market. Hence, we made it our mission to find out if any of them will be able to become our new Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee.

For the uninitiated, Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee is an uniquely Singaporean dish. During our travels, even to ASEAN countries, we don’t think we have found any dish quite like it. Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee is a fried noodles dish that includes prawns (of course), sliced pork belly and in some instances (squid – locally known as sotong). However, it is not as simple as it seems. To make the best plate of fried hokkien mee, you’ll need to have take note of two important “ingredients”. Firstly, the broth. The broth that is used to fry the Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles is simmered overtime with pork bones and prawn heads (that are usually pre-fried) to allow all the umami-goodness to be extracted. With a great broth, the noodles will soak in the broth, allowing the goodness to infuse into the noodles, delivering a savoury taste on each mouthful. Secondly, the control of the fire. Aka 火候 locally. During the frying process, there are two main portions to it. The simmering part where the broth infuses into the noodles. During this process, the fire cannot be strong and you’ll need time for the infusing process to take place. Towards the end, the fire has to be immense to deliver the smokey goodness and texture before serving.

And if you notice, these 2 processes add to costs. If you scrimp on the ingredients, your broth won’t be great. If you take a shorter time to simmer and fry (to meet customer demands of having fast meals), you’ll probably compromise on taste and texture. Hence, it is a delicate balance. As seen from Tiong Bahru Yi Sheng Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee’s one-hour queues, you know that Mr Soo doesn’t scrimp on the above. Prior to this visit, our next favourite was Swee Guan Hokkien Mee at Geylang Lorong 29. It has the dry version that we like, very smokey flavours from the charcoal (a tad bit too smokey for our liking) but has a super long queue during peak hours as well. Thankfully, we’re happy to report that there is indeed a Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee that is going to be our favourite Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee moving ahead…

For our taste test of the best Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee at Golden Mile Food Centre, we picked from stalls that sold ONLY Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee. Also, we ordered the $5 portion across all stalls. There were a couple that sold other dishes such as fried kway teow and fried carrot cake – these we did not consider as the quality is usually run-off-the-mill. Therefore, this time, we shortlisted our test taste to

1. Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (海南福建炒虾麵)
2. 传统炒虾面 (Stall does not have an English name but is translated to “Traditional Fried Prawn Mee”)
3. Youfu Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (友富)

Let’s start with Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (海南福建炒虾麵)

First, we started with Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (海南福建炒虾麵), a stall owned by an elderly couple. Aunty takes orders and serves while uncle goes hard at work with the hokkien mee, frying them in batches. To be honest, their version were what inspired us to try out this test taste at Golden Mile Food Centre in the first place. We saw from other patrons who ordered that theirs is the slightly dry version of hokkien prawn mee that we love – reminiscence of Mr Soo’s rendition at Tiong Bahru Yi Sheng Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee.

Address: 505 Beach Rd, #B1-34 Golden Mile Food Centre, Singapore 199583

Taste Test: As mentioned, the version at Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (海南福建炒虾麵) is the dry version. We saw that uncle takes his time to stir fry with the immense fire towards the end, allow the “drying” to happen just before serving. In terms of taste, there is a slight smokey flavour and as expected, the broth had infused into the noodles. As for their chili, it was actually not so great. Lack of taste and not that flavourful. However, they probably knew about their weakness and provided cut chili padi as well – which was actually a great accompaniment. An excellent plate of Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee but not quite there to replace our favourite hokkien prawn mee as yet…

If you managed to find Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (海南福建炒虾麵) at B1, 传统炒虾面 is just above it at level 1. Just climb up the stairs and you’ll be able to find it. The selling point about Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee is that they not only serve the usual Hokkien Fried Prawn Noodles, they also “up-sized” versions that include the seafood version ($8) with mussels and more prawns/sotong. The most expensive of these is the Jumbo Hokkien Prawn Mee that costs $15, inclusive of 2 cray fish. Gimmick or pure goodness? We’re about to find out…

Address: 505 Beach Rd, #01-72 Golden Mile Food Centre, Singapore 199583

Taste Test: Firstly, the rendition of fried hokkien prawn mee at 传统炒虾面 is the slightly wet version. As you can see from the photo, it is nicely plated on a beautiful square plate. In terms of presentation, they’ve definitely got the upper hand. Ingredients wise, pretty much similar to Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (海南福建炒虾麵), also with 2 prawns, sotong and pork belly slices. In terms of taste though, it lost out in terms of 2 aspects. Firstly, the broth is a little too prawny – becoming more like a prawn noodle instead of fried hokkien prawn mee. So this flavour actually works against it. Secondly, the noodles does not have as much of the flavours infused during frying. Essentially, the lack of smokiness. Hence, 传统炒虾面 clearly loses out in terms of quality. Chili used was the spicy and appetizing version. One saving grace though – it does have a biggest portion served for $5.

We were actually about to conclude the Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee taste test when we were called out by the owners of Youfu Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee – touting that their rendition is “very good” (很好吃). We saw that the owners were rather young and thought that they definitely don’t have the skills as compared to their older competitors. Nonetheless, to make the comparison complete to find out the best fried hokkien prawn mee at Golden Mile Food Centre, we decided to give it a try, and we were not disappointed…

Address: 505 Beach Rd, #01-57 Golden Mile Food Centre, Singapore 199583

Taste Test: As we had already had 2 plates of fried hokkien prawn noodles, we decided to tabao (take away) the last packet instead. Perhaps because of that, the owners made the takeaway version to be very slightly wet but when we ate it at home, it was the dry version that we liked. Ingredients wise, it was comparable to the other 2 stalls but in terms of taste, it was EXCELLENT! The noodles had soaked up the flavours of the broth and the broth was one of the better version that we’ve tasted in recent times. Even the ingredients itself, it was fresh. The prawns had the slight crunch as compared to the other 2 stalls which were lacklustre. Even the chili was not overlooked – probably the most flavourful of the three. Lastly, there was the smokey taste to it, which was not too overpowering – just the perfect amount to show-off the frying skills but not covering the fried hokkien mee itself (unlike Geylang’s version).

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All in all, we were surprised to find such a big gathering of fried hokkien prawn mee stalls at Golden Mile Food Centre. For the $5 portion, all three stalls had similar ingredients used. Even the proportion of noodles to vermicelli and thin vermicelli was comparable. But here’s a quick summary about what we loved and disliked about each stall…

Hainan Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee (海南福建炒虾麵)
Pros: Dry version with smokey texture. Noodles infused with taste of the broth.
Cons: Poor choice of chili but mitigated with fresh cut chili padi.

传统炒虾面
Pros: Larger portion as compared to the $5 plates
Cons: Broth was too “prawny”. Lack of “fried” flavours in the noodles.

Youfu Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee
Pros: Flavourful broth, noodles. Smokey flavours. Great chili.
Cons: None.

As you can see from our review, we found Youfu Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee to be the best Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee at Golden Mile Food Centre. Although the fried hokkien prawn mee was served up by younger, next generation hawkers, they have proved their worth and honed their craft. If we were to have a craving for a great plate of fried hokkien prawn noodles, Youfu Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee is definitely where we’ll head over to satisfy the craving. If you have tried out the fried hokkien prawn noodles at Golden Mile Food Centre, let us know more in the comments section below!