Da Dong Prawn Noodles

By 8:00am (this was on a Sunday), there were already 10 people in line…. 🤨

Would I go back? Idk. I hate queuing, so probably not. But was this a good bowl of noodles? Yeah. I’m that much fatter now 😬

I was here at 7:30am (which is when they open) on a weekend, & was 3rd in line. I waited 24 mins to place my order... & in that time, I realized I wasn't the actual 3rd in line. People sit down after having placed their orders, so I was a fake 3rd 😂

Sadly, they messed up my order. I ordered a large Pork Rib Prawn Noodles ($10), & a regular Prawn Noodles ($8) - but both were served as large portions. Oh well. At least they were delicious.

The soup is light yet tasty, & doesn’t leave you feeling overwhelmed with the flavours. Unfortunately, they don’t do free soup refills, which may be a turn-off to some.

I would’ve liked a refill of this tasty bowl.. But I did order a Pork Intestine Soup ($5) all for myself, so that satisfied me. It doesn’t look like much, but for 1 pax this was great. Intestines were chewy without being rubbery, & were cleaned well.

Big prawns were quite good.

The broth itself tastes the same as the ones with the normal prawns. It's not extra briny from the big prawns

The broth is very strong. It's quite intense, but quite salty. It's kind of like if you stewed the normal soup down. In which case it's not as creamy from pork or briny from prawn as I rmbed

Overall a decent bowl, definitely not worth the travel

While Joo Chiat is popular for the cafes and restaurants around, it doesn’t stop people going for something local.

Here at one of the corner shops along Joo Chiat Road is this coffee shop, where you would find a sneaking long queue in front of this stall; especially over the weekends.

Everyone on the line waiting patiently for their turn to make orders, and then head back to your table to wait for them to serve you your orders.

Although you can’t request for refill of soup, but I can understand why there’s such requests considering how robust the taste of the broth that is so rich and tasty.

I would really suggest to go with the dry version, so you can have a bowl of the broth separately to enjoy it.

The pork ribs are tender and delicious, as well as for the prawns. Love that they have added some pork lards.

To me, it is way pricier that the other prawn noodle places and the broth is not as umami or intense as I would have hoped for. Perhaps I came with too high of an expectation? We got both the Prawn Noodles (Regular, $8) and Pork Rib Pork Noodle (Regular, $8) to share, with the former being certified healthier choice by the Health Promotion Board, Singapore. Between both the dry and soup version, I will go for the dry version as the noodles are cooked till al dente and it is tossed in a pork lard oil mixture which gives it the additional flavour boost.
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✨ Da Dong Prawn Noodles
📍 354 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore 427600
🍴 [Self Funded]

We got a dry and a soup version. Reached about 1130am and only got served at 12pm thereabout. Would encourage to come earlier cos we were not able to dabao more packets due to limited supply. Many people were also turned away cos they were sold out. Unless you're a friend of the owners of course, he will try to 'squeeze' some bowls out for you.

The noodle and soup serving were small. But I've heard that if you come on a weekday morning they are a lot more generous. I have yet to try that yet. The soup in the soup version is a lot more watered down. I really enjoyed the thick broth on it's on. First taste it has a really strong shallots (I think?) Taste to me. It was gao but still light in a sense like it's not greasy or thick. Yummy, only a pity that it's a very very small bowl.

$8 for a bowl each is slightly on the pricier side for sure but definitely I think the scarcity makes me want to pay for it. Will definitely return!