Jiak Mee

For those who prefer heavier flavours, you would probably prefer Jiak Mee's dry version. The strong aroma of the sesame oil and fried shallots is probably the first thing you would notice. The sauce is well balanced and I will highly recommend that you mix the noodles and sauce with the molten egg yolk for an extra creamy touch.

It's hard to find meals that cost $5 or less these days. Jiak Mee is great for those who are seeking good food at a budget and it's heartening to see crowds of diners supporting these young hawker-preneurs.

The only problem is that they do face strong competition at the other end of the cafeteria. For $1 more, the competition provides larger portions and a stronger flavoured bowl of noodles. I do however hope that they keep going as there is always room for a solid and 'cleaner' bowl of noodles!

The smell of fried chicken permeates the air the moment you enter the 2nd floor cafeteria at Bishan Bus Interchange.

The fried chicken cutlet is available both as an ala carte item ($6) or as an add-on ($2) to their noodles. I liked that the freshly fried chicken cutlet was tender and juicy with a nice hint of the har cheong gai marinade. My only complaint was that they were quite generous with the fried chicken cutlet as an add on and portions wise, it didn't seem to make sense ordering it as an ala carte item for 3x the price!

Located in the cafeteria on the 2nd floor of Bishan Bus Interchange, Jiak Mee was opened by a ground of young hawker-preneurs who are still in school, and using the recipes from a hawker chain run by one of their parents.

I actually enjoyed their mee hoon kueh. The handmade dough was hand torn upon order. It is thick, chewy and had a good bite texture-wise - like a good al dente pasta. It was also not too starchy or mushy.

The ikan bilis soup was however rather bland or some may say, "healthy tasting". I actually quite enjoyed the clean and subtly sweet broth though the oldies found it too bland. Do note however that the dry version uses soup stock instead of the soup in which the noodles and minced pork were cooked with, was even more bland and flat.

Portions-wise, I thought that it was alright for a 1 pax portion of you ain't too hungry and slightly bigger than the other and bigger Jiak ban mian chain. They did however cut back on the ingredients. There was barely any minced meat or ikan bilis in the dish.