Hainanese Curry

Hainanese curry rice stalls are just mixed rice stall with certain unique options, then heavily doused with a curry gravy. This curry is starchy and not spicy at all.

Items at a Hainanese curry rice stall would include a deep fried pork piece wrapped in a crispy batter, called Hainanese pork chop; braised pork belly, a steamed pork patty, curry chicken, cabbage, fried fish, curry pork, prawn and octopus, both in a chilli sauce.

This is a popular local dish, operated usually by Hainanese families, some has Q's of 30-40 minutes just to spend 30-40s pointing at what you want with your rice then see them all submerged in curry gravy before consuming.

Hainanese Curry Rice

Aug 2020

My favourite Hainanese curry place, despite the Q. Excellent fish cakes and more

This very popular Hainanese curry rice stall has no name, no signboard, but you won’t miss it when you’re at Beo Crescent’s “commercial centre”, it has people queueing in the sun waiting in line (ok, they tend to hide in some shade wherever there is any)! The Q may be long but the wait is usually about 10-15 mins only.

I just couldn’t resist finding out if the Q was worth it when I first saw it, since then, I was hooked!

First thing first, Hainanese curry rice, I suspect is not so much about the curry, I’ve eaten quite a few and generally the curry is all about the same, at least to this simpleton… it’s just gooey curry gravy where there is probably more corn starch than curry powder. The difference would be the variety and quality of items available, on this front, a few items are ubiquitous: Hainanese pork chop, cabbage, pork belly in sweet sauce (or "lor"), sunny side up egg and of course, curry chicken.

Post renovation, current stall front

Coffee shop before renovation

I notice that besides the gooey curry, they have a red sauce which they chuck into your rice with the curry, this is probably their magic sauce that makes everything tasty, and makes their food stand out.

They have a good variety, what is excellent here is the pork chop and the fish cake/ngo hiang. The other items like the curry chicken and curry pork are nice, so is the pork belly, they do tussle to be my add-on dish (standard would be pork chop, fish cake and cabbage).

Cut into slices or pieces and served like popcorn pork chop, the pork chop is deeeep fried to dark brown, and has a good fermented bean paste flavour. Very crispy, to the point you struggle to find meat; sounds like a downer but I cannot help but be hooked by the tastiness and crunch of it.

The fish cake too is very tasty with five spice flavour, marinade just right. These two items make me come back to this place.

The deep fried pork chop

The fish ngo hiang

They have a pretty decent minced pork patty, which is very tasty and served in quite a good chunk. Full of garlicky flavour, it is tender and delicious. There are also some seafood items. I find the prawn fritters not worth the while, the fish I don’t quite get though I’m sure some might like. The octopus, however, is tender and nice, quite a hit here as well.

Other customers would order different items, probably cabbage and the pork chop are their best sellers, but if I have to choose, I’d pick my top choice as the fish cake, as it stands out compared to all the fish cakes I have tried.

Minced pork Pate, cabbage, pork chop and egg

(Hainan) Beo Crescent 630-3 closed wed.jpg

Cabbage, pork belly, pork chop, fish cake (Hidden)

Fish Cake or fish ngo hiang

Char siew

Selections on display

Menu and price list

One thing I notice is that they would scoop a few tiny spoonful of a red liquid onto the rice after they had poured copious amount of curry. Took me awhile but this was pointed out by my friend who was queueing with me that it's their char siew sauce, I didn't even know they had char siew! The char siew here is decent but I have to say I didn't miss much before the finding.... lol

Go early in the morning or bring a brolly! There will be little shade after 1030am….

Beo Crescent Hainanese Curry Rice

40 Beo Crscent, #01-10, s160040

7am – 230pm, closed on Wed

Loos

Hainanese Curry Rice

Mar 2023

Legendary Hainanese curry rice stall, 77 years of service and marching on.

I have my own preference for Hainanese curry rice, while another Hainan curry rice loving friend insists this is the best, we agree to disagree… Nothing really excites me here, the shop front is promising, occupying 2 stalls, it stands out; but as you move to the stall window, you see next to nothing! The better stuff are placed at the back, fast moving items simply placed beside their preparation table for easy cutting and slicing, makes operations faster.

This is a place where you cannot look at the food and pick what looks good, you got to know what you want. Looking at the people Q’ing up and ordering without much fuss, I’d say many know what they want! For those who don’t, please refer to a menu displayed prominently on top of the stall.

I’ll try to tell you what is good…

The octopus, favourite of that friend of mine, and I have to say it is quite excellent. Tender and tasty, they’d give you some of the octopus’s body, and some tentacles. This is sambal octopus, so it is mildly spicy, so mild I did not feel the spice until after all the octopus has been gobbled up and maybe I had a mouthful of rice soaked with the sambal where the bulk of the octopus had been.

The meat balls. A giant sized ball of wonderlicious. Can’t do without it, and I almost kicked up a fuss like a petulant kid when one day it was sold out at 1045am… Again, tender is the meat, delicious is the ball, a fine treat overall.

The pork chop here is quite excellent too, thick chunky meat wrapped in a crunchy batter with a slight fermented bean curd aroma. Tender too is the meat here. It’s a must have.

The pork belly is also quite amazing, however, the thing is, this item is available at all Hainanese curry rice stalls and they all taste about the same. The only thing different here is that the skin seems to have a bit of an extra bite here, making it more memorable.

Generally, the food is pretty good here, the Q for this stall is consistent. There was a long Q ahead of me and I waited about 20 mins arriving at 1040am on a lazy Monday, not exactly peak hour. When I collected my food at 11am, the Q extended to become L-shaped, if so, I’m guessing a 30 min wait.

Q is about 30 mins from here

If you do some calculations, 77 years, the Q has been around for least the last 30 years or more, we can safely say, millions have enjoyed this, you would too!

Loos Hainanese Curry Rice

30 Seng Poh Road, #02-67/68 Tiong Bahru Market, s168898

8am – 245pm, closed on Thursdays

Beach Road

Hainanese Curry Rice

Review: Oct 2020

This is THE scissor cut curry rice (or Hainanese curry rice) stall, seems to be the one everyone knows and points to when you talk about scissor cut curry rice, probably because it’s about the only one that is open for party goers…. Haha.

The curry rice here is one of the better ones in Singapore. Despite its lack of a good range, everything here is of good standard, nothing is fantastic but everything is above average, very good comfort food. If you will, this is the McDonald’s of curry rice! If you’re wondering if I was being sarcastic, I am quite a McDonald’s fan, making it a point to visit one every country I go if time and schedule allows. I also just learned from my friend from Penang, a foodie from the land of good food, that he loves the curry rice here!

Amongst the dishes, their curry chicken stands out, well cooked and tender, it’s worth a mention here. The pork chop is also decent, meaty enough and good.

The minced pork patty and pork belly are also pretty decent.

Generally one of the better comfort food place with affordable prices. This is probably the standard bearer for Hainanese curry rice, you won’t go wrong coming here. Parking might be an issue though!

They now have 3 more new outlets, total of 4, at Bishan, Vivo, Upper Thomson and the original flagship at Jalan Besar. Below are photos from their Bishan Branch.

Beach Road Scissor-Cut Curry Rice

229 Jalan Besar, s208905

Daily 11am – 330am

222 Upper Thomson Road, s574354

Daily 11am - 1030pm

1 Harbour Front Walk, #B2-23A, s098585

Daily 10am - 10pm

150 Bishan St 11, #01-133, s57150

Daily 730am - 930pm

https://www.facebook.com/beachroadscissorscut.sg/

New Scissor

Hainanese Curry Rice

Oct 2021

Served with chicken chop too, not just the usual pork chop.

This is quite a new place along Geylang Road at the Lorong 35 corner.

In case you forget, they tell you they sell chicken chop with pasted paper notices in the shop. Sensing something there, I decided to add chicken chop on top of the usual pork chop order. Good choice Ziggy! The pork chop is pretty ordinary, forgettable actually… the chicken chop on the other hand, very memorable!

The pork chop is a bit on the thin side, slightly crunchy and all that, pretty ordinary, without comparison, it is decent, but compared with others out there, it is not competitive... The chicken chop, however, has thick pieces of chicken, though the batter is probably the same as the pork chop, it is crunchy and nice when the meat is thicker. Thick and very juicy, it is definitely the choice here.

Pork Chop

Chicken Chop

There are some items that are pretty much the usual fares. Curry vegetables, curry chicken, pork belly in dark sauce, beans etc. Besides the chicken chop, this place is unusual as it has a good variety of fresh vegetables, and sweet and sour pork.

The curry chicken here is quite well done too, smooth, tender and tasty. The sweet and sour pork is pretty nice taste wise too, texture wise its soft instead of crunchy but it’s very likeable. Fits the profile here of a choice for the gravy heavy meal. The pork belly in dark sauce is another treat, very tasty and tender, worth a try. The prawns are just ok, while the octopus is soft and likeable.

When pouring the curry onto the rice, I notice they also pour some red gravy into it. This is likely the extra magic juice that gives the food here the extra oomph. The whole curry rice eating experience is just a wonderful journey of tastes. Combined with the thick juicy chicken chop, this can bring the Hainanese curry rice to a new level!

New Scissor-Cut Curry Rice Restaurant

669 Geylang Rd, Singapore 389596

10am – 345am

Yuguo

Hainan Curry Rice

Jun 2022

Nice selection and the King of eggs...

Don’t know why but whenever I walk past this stall, there seems to be a weird force driving me towards it, and it's been so for a few years. One day I gave it a try.

To my surprise, they are pretty good! I realise they have quite a decent following too. Variety is not their selling point, neither would the pork chop, which is the focus point of most Hainanese style curry rice stall. The pork chop is decent but nothing out of this world. My suggestion here would be the omelette，fried egg with tomato and the minced pork balls.

The pork ball patty is brilliantly tasty. A myriad of fragrance and wondrous taste hits all your senses the moment it goes into your mouth. Made from minced pork and boiled, it is tender and soft too. Wonderful.

Crispy and nice is the omelette, fried til very crispy, it oozes taste and energy. Not easy to find omelettes of such brilliant texture and taste, so well worth a try!

The tomato omelette is wonderful too. The texture of the egg here is more of the scrambled egg style. In this duet, it provides the smooth texture and savoury. The tomato provides some sweet and a more solid texture. They combine very well to makes this dish delish... So this Yuguo stall can be considered the king of eggs!

One of the better stalls here at ABC Market. Actually, there are a total of 3 Yuguo outlets, at Market Street and Amoy Street Hawker, besides the one at ABC.

YuGuo Curry Rice

6 Jalan Bukit Merah, #01-138 @ ABC Brickworks, s150006

Daily 1030am – 830pm

7 Maxwell Road, #01-13, s069111

1030am - 8pm, closed on Sat and Sun

83 Market Street, #03-26, s048948

1030am - 8pm, closed on Sat and Sun