4 Eyes Guys Kitchen

It is quite ironic how we seem to be visiting the Upper Thomson neighbourhood a little lesser despite its proximity to the Thomson-East Coast Line — perhaps it is that shorter distance from us that makes us want to explore further from home around the island. That being said, there have been quite a number of establishments which we have long wanted to check out within the ‘hood; one example being the 4 Eyes Guys Kitchen that is located within the coffeeshop named Wah & Steven’s Corner — the same coffeeshop also houses Go2eat, a western stall whose signage is prominently placed outside of the shophouse facing the cross junction leading into Sin Ming Road. 4 Eyes Guys Kitchen has been operating from the said coffeeshop for quite a while, taking the stall unit that is in between the drinks stall and Go2eat. Being a stall that focuses on serving up zichar offerings, the menu at 4 Eyes Guys Kitchen revolves around both communal dishes, as well as rice sets / noodles that are good for one individual diner to have. The menu isn’t as extensive as most other established zichar eateries out there, though do expect categories of dishes such as Fish, Seafood, Pork, Beancurd, Chicken, Beef, Vegetable, Omelette, Soup, Rice, Bee Hoon, Hor Fun, Noodles and Fish Bee Hoon Soup. A few rather interesting items which we had spotted on the menu at 4 Eyes Guys Kitchen includes the KL Hokkien Noodles, as well as the Fried Durian.

One reason why we had decided to make a random trip down to 4 Eyes Guys Kitchen for dinner on weekday evening was because we recalled seeing that they offered Salted Egg Chicken Rice based on the dishes illustrated on their signboard — we had been developing massive cravings for Salted Egg Chicken Rice of the late, though we weren’t really wanting to go back to familiar eateries that we have had the item at to give other places a try.

While it is noted that the illustrated photo of the Salted Egg Chicken Rice on their signboard is of the creamy sort, we were actually pretty surprised by the looks of the dish when it was ready for collection at the counter. For one, there wasn’t much time taken for them to actually serve up our order, but what was indeed more surprising here is how the dish came with so much salted egg sauce — they were so generous with the salted egg to the extent that the entire base of the plate was totally filled up with the sauce; probably the most salted egg sauce we have ever gotten from a salted egg chicken rice dish. While some stalls chose to use small chunks of fried chicken that could be easily obtained from commercial suppliers for the chicken to be stir-fried in the sauce, the chunks of chicken here are shaped more like slices of pork rib for the pork equivalent of the dish. It is no surprise that we started going around the dish with the salted egg yolk sauce here; yes, the sauce is admittedly slightly more dilute than the likes of Three Meals a Day and Jia Yuen Eating House in terms of consistency — that being said, we do think that is adequately so. In fact, given how there is this much sauce going around, we would prefer it to come the way it is served anyway — it is sufficiently sweet with just a light touch of saltiness; any thicker would have made the dish really jelat. There are bits of curry leaves for an added hint of fragrance, though it didn’t feel like the flavours went into the sauce; the same could be said about the sauce itself, which felt as though it was poured over the chicken rather than being stir-fried together. The chunks of filleted chicken were pretty tender and not overly dry, though these would obviously not be quite crisp as those which uses the smaller chunks that are sourced from suppliers. One thing is quite evident here though — there is definitely sufficient sauce to go with all the rice; if that is too jelat for one though, there is always the choice of having it with the savoury sambal that comes with a good kick of spiciness to cut through the heaviness of the elements on the plate.

For those whom go around the Upper Thomson neighbourhood quite regularly over the years, one would perhaps notice that the more popular zichar establishment in the area would be SK Seafood; this would also be the same stall in the coffeeshop that is located right across the road from Wah & Steven’s Corner. We have never been to SK Seafood before to be able to comment on their offerings — that being said, its existence in the Upper Thomson neighbourhood for an extensive period of time does make it one of the defacto places for zichar within the area for most folks. In retrospect, 4 Eyes Guys Kitchen does look like the spot that has slower business overall, though we did notice that there is always one or two people making orders at the stall every now and then. Our experience at 4 Eyes Guys Kitchen isn’t quite representative of what they have to offer as an establishment — after all, we had only given one dish out of many in their menu a try. For $7, the Salted Egg Chicken Rice can be said as one that hits the spot for those who love their salted egg chicken rice in a creamy format. That amount of sauce which they serve up with the dish does seem to be artery-clogging, though we do also think that they have managed that bit for us by a fair margin and that it could have easily been way more overwhelming — the flavours aren’t too mellow, yet we were able to finish the dish with the rice mixed in for the most part. Based off how the Salted Egg Chicken Rice have went for us, we would probably be back to give their KL Hokkien Noodles a go when the craving for that strikes and if we are around the Upper Thomson neighbourhood again; perhaps even grab a friend or two to see what the Fried Durian in their menu is all about — a decent dining option to consider in the ‘hood.