He Jia Huan Ban Mian Mee Hoon Kway (Jurong West)

Across the border, a phenomena has been happening even before the pandemic. Many successful food hawkers start to employ foreign workers and almost without exceptions, the food quality drops. We seldom see this in Singapore but today I came across one.

He Jia Huan used to be very famous in the west side for their Handmade Noodles or Ban Mian. The coffee shop they were located in caught fire a few years ago and since then I have not been back. Decided to revisit this stall today and to my surprise, the shop is still around but run by Vietnamese.

I ordered my usual mee hoon kway. At 10.30am I was the first in queue (so I cannot attest to whether their business is still as good as before). But the taste has changed.

First off, the soup has no more umph! It was just simple clear broth, very little umami. Secondly, the mee hoon kway was not hand torn but came in square pieces cut by cookie cutter. The reason why I always appreciate the hand torn versions is because the one pre-cut end up in clumps (see photo). Stirring vigorously during cooking may avoid this but not always. Today I had to chew through stacks of mee hoon kway sometimes three layers thick.

The one saving grace of this stall is the price. At $4.50, the portion you get is big and they generously give lots of minced meat, sliced pork and an egg. The ikan bilis was a let down, although they gave lots of it. They seem to be those you can buy off the shelf rather than fried in-house and very salty.

They also use sayur manis but quite stingy with the vegetable. Chilli sauce was not the cut red peppers with soya sauce but it was also very salty.

Let you guess whether I’m coming back any time soon.

Portion is huge, but service need improvement. Super bad experience.
1).Placed my orders, 2 packs of ban mian yet they only packed one pack. Returned the next day to buy and as well inform they short package to me, they argued they waited for me to return on the spot so they can return me the one pack..😑 but I returned the next day and they just never bother to even refund me.
2).was queuing to buy, waited very long, they don’t bother to ask what’s my order. Glared at me and then argued with me again why didn’t I place my order?
Seriously wtf?

Noodles were pretty nice and ikan bilis was very salty(i like it). But the highlight was the superb Broth. Admittedly i havent had a lot of ban Mian but this was basically perfection of a Broth to me alr. If this is "average" to DFD im really excited to try out the other stalls in his list of top 12 ban Mian in SG. Btw their dry chili is kickass as well, very fragrant and pretty hot. I enjoyed their version of light soy sauce chili too!

$4/$5

Chewy noodles, Delightful soup
Queue can be rather long but fast

The first place that came to my mind when I think about having a bowl of comforting Ban Mian

Most people staying in the Jurong West area are probably aware of this neighbourhood favourite. I truely think the broth is the highlight of the store, with a deep hearty flavour that is unique to He Jia Huan. Completed with an egg broken and mixed into the soup, this store's ban mian sure taste homemade. Their standards are unfortunately not very consistent though. Regardless, still one of my fav ban mian stores!

a good bowl of you mian loaded with generous servings of meat and vegetables. the soup is especially good after the egg has been beaten up.