Lao Jie Fang Review: Michelin-Recommended, HK-Style Beef Brisket Noodles In Queenstown

Lao Jie Fang has Cantonese-style beef brisket noodles in Queenstown

I’m a great fan of beef brisket noodles, and anything Michelin-recommended catches my eye—when I read about Lao Jie Fang in Mei Ling Market & Food Centre, with its seven-year reign in the Michelin guide, and glowing reviews on Google, I jumped at the opportunity to pay them a visit. There’s even supposed to be an outpost of Lao Jie Fang in Hong Kong! I thought it couldn’t get more legit than that.

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Food at Lao Jie Fang

We started with their star dish of Beef Brisket + Tendon Noodle ($8/$10), though you could go for just Tendon Noodle ($6/$8). Right off the bat, I was a little concerned when I saw the stallholder dash a round of thick, dark soya sauce around the bowl; that wasn’t quite traditional.

I was also slightly perturbed by the chunks of beef brisket I’d glimpsed in the slow cooker as they were being dished out onto my noodles—they appeared rather dry and tough, without the wobbly, fall-apart texture I was looking for.

Breaking into the brisket in my bowl, my suspicions were alas confirmed, as I found the meat hard, dry, and stringy.

The tendons, while not as gelatinous as I would have liked, were decently soft.

The noodles, on the other hand, were well cooked, with that QQ finish that’s typical of Hong Kong-style noodles—that is to say, with more bite than our local mee kia. While I thought the flavour of the braising liquid, which was added to the noodles, was pretty on point, the dark sauce rendered the overall taste too sweet for my liking.

Chilli, if you request it, is served on the side, and comes in both a red, gritty chilli paste, and sliced, pickled green chillies.

The Pork Rib Noodle ($5/$6) at Lao Jie Fang wasn’t ready that morning, so we went with Pig Trotter Noodle ($5/$6). The pig trotters, the stallholder shared, were braised for a lengthy four hours.

Of the three generous rounds of pig trotter we were served, most of it was disappointingly rough and dry, which wasn’t what we had been expecting. Absent were the layers of wobbly skin, fats, and fork-tender meat that we were expecting, though it must be said that the meat was quite thoroughly steeped through with flavour.

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Ambience at Lao Jie Fang

Lao Jie Fang is just a nine-minute walk away from Queenstown MRT Station, on the second floor of Mei Ling Market & Food Centre, where they’ve been since 2010. The hawker centre, in spite of being in one of Singapore’s oldest estates, is well-maintained, and pretty clean. You’ll even find seats with an unblocked view of the surroundings at the far end of the second floor.

The verdict

Perhaps we’d visited on a bum day, but we were hard-pressed to find a reason for coming back to Lao Jie Fang. We hadn’t encountered any of the qualities that inspired claims online which said Lao Jie Fang has the best beef brisket in town. It could be that the standards have dropped, or really, that we’d encountered a subpar batch—nonetheless, I’m not motivated to make a return trip here.

Located in the same hawker centre is Xin Lu Fishball Noodle, which serves old-school fishball noodles with XL-sized fishballs. Alternatively, head to Fatty Ox HK Kitchen in Chinatown for another stall that serves Cantonese-style beef brisket!

Address: 159 Mei Chin Road, #02-15, Mei Ling Market & Food Centre, Singapore 140159
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 8:30am to 1pm
Lao Jie Fang is not a halal-certified eatery

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Photos taken by Kaedynce Chew.
This was an independent visit by Eatbook.sg