The Noodle House Review: Supper Spot In The West For Laksa, Satay Beehoon And More From $4

Find affordable noodle dishes at The Noodle House

Hidden away in a small community shopping centre, The Noodle House is a Chinese noodle eatery that sells a diverse mix of hawker favourites such as satay bee hoon and bak chor mee. This noodle place first caught my eye as it used to be a popular late-night haunt when the eatery was opened for 24 hours every day. 

Unfortunately, due to manpower constraints, they had to cut down on operating hours. All hopes of having supper here is not yet dashed though! You can still get to your comfort food as long as you order before 11pm. 

Food at The Noodle House

Despite branding themselves as a noodle house,  their most popular dish is the Big Bowl Noodles ($4.90)—an instant noodle creation.. The dish is served in a large metal pot mounted above a small flame and topped with a handful of ingredients.

What’s fun about the Big Bowl Noodle is that you get to pick the type of noodles that goes into your dish. The uncle gestured us towards baskets of instant ramen arranged on a counter, sorted into ‘spicy’ and ‘non-spicy’ categories.  The one we got was Ottogi’s Jin Ramen in mild, which was highly recommended by the eatery’s employees. 

Taking my first slurp, I found the instant noodles to be nothing groundbreaking. It was as decent as any bowl of instant ramen; savoury, slightly addictive, and a little spicy. The texture of the noodles was just right when the dish first arrived. The strands were bouncy and firm, just barely separated from each other, and lightly coated with the savoury broth. 

Unfortunately, with the flame keeping the soup warm and bubbling, the noodles quickly became soggy. Sopping up most of the soup, the noodle strands lost their satisfying chew and the broth got a little too salty for my taste.

I always love when my noodle dishes come served with a runny egg. Breaking into the oozy, soft-boiled egg and mixing it into the broth grants the soup a rich flavour and creamy viscosity. In the case of this dish, the egg also helped in counteracting the saltiness of the soup.

The Big Bowl Noodles wouldn’t be anything more than a packet of instant noodles without the toppings. Our bowl came with a piece of luncheon meat, lettuce, a hot dog, and one fishball. These accompaniments were what I would top a bowl of instant noodles with at home, but I would be deceiving myself if I said this didn’t feel a bit lacking. A handful of minced meat or dumplings would’ve given the dish a needed push in the flavour department. 

Visually, the bowl of Laksa ($4) stood out the most amongst other dishes. Topped with large fried wontons, fishcake, taupok, a hard-boiled egg, and blood cockles—they weren’t light-handed on the add-ons for this particular dish. The moment the bowl of bright orange broth was set before us, the striking aroma of coconut and laksa spices assaulted my nostrils, bewitching me with its mere scent. 

The laksa broth wasn’t very spicy on its own. It had a mild heat, but the aroma of sambal spice was undoubtedly detectable. The creaminess and rounded flavours of the soup definitely categorised this together with the famous Katong laksa. They managed to strike a delicate balance between the saltiness of the shrimp paste and the rich coconut milk. It was smooth and savoury; I was hooked.

We asked for the customary dollop of sambal to be served in a separate saucer. The scoops of soup I spiked the chilli with gained a zesty tang and a much-needed kick of spice. I enjoyed this complex combination so much that I was tempted to ask the uncle for another saucer or two of the addictive paste. 

For seasoned laksa lovers, ‘see hum’ or blood cockles are a necessary and irreplaceable ingredient in laksa. But since the prices of these shellfish began rising exponentially, many char kway teow and laksa sellers had no choice but to omit the classic addition from their dishes, lest they raise menu prices. 

Coming across one of these seafood morsels in my four-dollar laksa was quite a surprise. Small as each piece was, the hum was tender and exploded with that distinctive sweet and briny seafood flavour. 

Besides the few cockles that we picked out like morsels of gold from the mix, there was a small pile of other toppings to the dish. The huge fried wonton sat at the apex of the pile and still had a delightfully crunchy skin even after sopping up a bit of the soup. 

An unsung hero was the taupok. Spongy triangles of beancurd soaked up the laksa broth and delivered the laksa into our mouths.

If the laksa was the most visually appealing, their Satay Bee Hoon ($4.50) took the spot at the other end of the spectrum. Poking around the saucy mess, I spotted thin slices of taupok, kang kong, and some bean sprouts in the dish. Another ingredient that we discovered later on were perfectly camouflaged slices of cuttlefish thrown into the mix.

Some dishes taste better when they’re messy, and messy was this dish. The gloopy satay sauce thoroughly coated each strand of bee hoon, tasting sweet and peanutty. Even the leafy kang kong was completely overtaken by the fragrant peanut gravy. 

Thin bee hoon was certainly the right choice for this dish as it did not get too heavy even with the thick sauce. I could imagine the dish being way too jelak if yellow noodles or thick bee hoon was used instead. However, some parts of the noodles were sadly starchy and stuck together in small clumps, making it hard to slurp up or pull apart.

The thin slices of cuttlefish we uncovered buried in the bee hoon were unfortunately a little hard and way too chewy for my liking. Rather than the tough cuttlefish, I preferred the slices of taupok that went well with the overall texture of the dish. 

Ambience at The Noodle House

It was quite a hassle to get to the eatery. The closest MRT station is Lakeside, and you’ll need to take a bus from the station as well as walk a short distance to get to Taman Jurong Shopping Centre. If you don’t live in the area, this noodle eatery may be a little out of the way. 

The Noodle House has an inviting interior, with bright pops of colour in its furnishing and light-hearted murals adorning its walls. Its ambience is definitely above hawker standards. Well-ventilated with air-conditioning units and ceiling fans, the eatery is spacious and will give you a quick respite from the afternoon heat.

The verdict

Though I’m not a big instant noodle lover or even much of a supper person myself, I can definitely imagine the appeal of slurping down a hearty bowl of Big Bowl Noodles as a warm late-night snack. Despite coming for their supper-worthy noodles, the laksa was undoubtedly an underrated gem that’s worth returning for if I ever find myself in the far side of Jurong.

The eatery offers takeaway options, as well as delivery via platforms such as GrabFood and Deliveroo.

For instant noodles dishes that you can DIY at home, check out our list of instant noodles recipes. If you’re looking for more good food in the West, check out this list of hawker centres in the West.

Address: 399 Yung Sheng Road, #01-24, Taman Jurong Shopping Centre, Singapore 610399
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 9am to 11pm, Sat-Sun 8am to 11pm
Website
The Noodle House is not a halal-certified eatery.

Photos taken by An Lim.
This is an independent review by Eatbook.sg and was written before the Circuit Breaker measures.

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