Fook Kee Ipoh Famous Claypot Noodle Review: Crispy Claypot Noodles In Aljunied

Fook Kee Ipoh Famous Claypot Noodle has crispy claypot noodles at Aljunied

When it comes to claypot dishes, most Singaporeans would immediately think of claypot rice. For some Malaysians, though, it may be claypot noodles that first come to mind. You may be surprised to learn that such a dish exists, but yes, it is a popular dish in Ipoh that sees soupy noodles cooked in a hefty claypot. Fook Kee Ipoh Famous Claypot Noodle, a popular eatery from Malaysia that serves the claypot noodles in question, recently opened its first branch here in Aljunied.

Since I am a fan of all things claypot, I dropped by the palace with a colleague to try the fare.

Food at Fook Kee Ipoh Famous Claypot Noodle

Fook Kee has several claypot noodle dishes that feature different combinations of ingredients. For each of these, you can choose between three types of noodles: “claypot noodles”, mee tai bak, or bee hoon.

We started with the Signature Claypot Noodle ($5.50), opting for the “claypot noodles option”, which are essentially crispy, deep-fried noodles.

Even as they were simmering in the broth, those noods managed to retain their crispiness and were a joy to slurp on.

The savoury and comforting broth was pretty good too. It was flavourful, while not being overly salty. The oil from the crispy noodles gradually seeped into the soup and added additional fragrance to it, too.

The rest of the dish consisted of ingredients such as minced pork, pork slices, pork liver, egg, and cabbage. The meat imbued the soup with porky flavour, and was for the most part well-marinated. I took issue with the pork liver slices, though, which weren’t fresh and had an overly gamey taste—and I say this as a big fan of pork offals.

Aside from a nitpick, this bowl of claypot noodles was good overall. The same cannot be said of the other two bowls we tried, however. Perhaps that has something to do with our choice of noodles. The crispy noodles worked excellently for this dish, but the mee tai bak and bee hoon did not.

We got the Fresh Prawns Claypot Noodle ($6.50) with mee tai bak. As you can tell from the image above, the broth lacks the brownness that was present in our previous dish.

There just wasn’t as much richness in the soup here. While the previous dish was perhaps bolstered by the fried noodles’ flavour, this one was not improved by the mee tai bak. Texturally, though, the mee tai bak was smooth and silky.

The two prawns in this claypot were crunchy, sweet, and decently sized. There was a bit of prawn flavour in the broth too, but it was too mild to substantially improve the taste of the plain soup. If you want to get this dish, I highly suggest you get them with the “claypot noodles”.

Our last dish, the Sliced Fish Claypot Noodle ($6.50), was paired with bee hoon. Again, this was a mistake. The broth here was bland and uninteresting, and the natural briny flavours of the fish slices didn’t really help its cause.

The fish was tender and decently fresh, though I wish there was more of it in the claypot. I did like how its soft texture contrasted the chewier pork slices in this broth. The fish slices complemented the thick and bouncy bee hoon as well. Again, be sure to get this with the “claypot noodles” instead.

Ambience at Fook Kee Ipoh Famous Claypot Noodle

Fook Kee is located in a small but well-furnished and well-ventilated coffeeshop. There are a few interesting food options there, but many diners were munching on Fook Kee’s noods. The fact that it is new and a novel concept—for Singaporeans, at least—probably contributed to that.

The stall is a 12-minute walk from Aljunied MRT Station.

The verdict

This was a difficult place to evaluate because, though I enjoyed having Fook Kee’s crispy noodles in a claypot, their dishes don’t hold up as well with the other noodle options. Ultimately, I will say this is a stall worth checking out, but make sure you try the dishes with the “claypot noodles” option rather than mee tai bak or bee hoon.

For amazing claypot rice, check out our Lian He Ben Ji Claypot Rice review. For Malaysian-style bak kut teh, read our Ge Bi Lao Wang Bak Kut Teh review.

Address: 115 Aljunied Avenue 2, #01-35, Singapore 380115
Opening hours: Daily 9:30am to 8pm
Tel: 9720 0254
Website
Fook Kee Ipoh Famous Claypot Noodle is not a halal-certified eatery.

Photos taken by Melvin Mak.
This was an independent review by Eatbook.sg.