Jin Pai Zi Char 金牌煮炒 (Alexandra Village)

Jin Pai Zi Char is one of the few stalls here at Alexandra Village that opens after 8pm.

Google reviews for this place is rather good.

The Fish Head curry here is rather good. Curry was thick and flavourful. Fish head was fresh and this place totally justified its high Google rating.

My fortune. I came early and there was no queue. After my adventures here, I thought to order what should be a crowd favourite. The sauce was starchy and complex again, but although the meat was fried well, it's a little dry and bland. I was slightly disappointed, but that's owing to the high standards here. I previously thought the cook might be Viet as the stallholder is, but he isn't and likely local.

Good food comes in categories. One is how it's so good you forgive the suffering it causes you. Despite the usual lack of queue here, the wait is insane. It almost erased my goodwill from my first visit. Then this arrived. I thought my creamy chicken was a one-off, but even something common like sambal beef was unique here. The sauce was rich, unlike some diluted ones, yet complex, unlike some either spicy or salty. The meat was large, tender slices. Strong wok hei again. Not only did the goodness excuse the wait, the uniqueness distracted me from it. The female stallholder is Viet, I can't tell is the male cook local, but this is not your usual zichar. The one-dish meals arrive so confident. Just one large serving of your choice and plain rice. Nothing fancy. This zichar cannot compete with the full-menu brands, but I'm tempted to say it's the best zichar with one-dish meals.

Good food comes in categories. One is how it's so good you forgive the suffering it causes you. I haven't experienced that in a long time, but here it is. I tried this nondescript zichar purely by random. But despite the usual lack of queue, the wait was insane. Then I received this strange yet familiar plate. The chicken was starchy, had layers of flavours, and fried so lovely. There was also strong wok hei. Not only did the goodness excuse the wait, the uniqueness distracted me from it.

Tried this as this was one of the few stalls opened at 9+pm on a weekday night after our run. We were very pleasantly surprised at how good it was, and at such reasonable prices too! If I’m not wrong, we paid

This zichar stall is very popular and unfortunately has a very haphazard way of organizing its queue. It was quite a long wait before I got to order and get my food. That said, the wok hey is very strong and every time the chef serves up a dish, I found myself making a mental note to try that some other time. For tonight, I had the salted egg chicken which was extremely filling. The salted egg sauce was gritty from the salted egg, yet really thick, almost like there was a lot of cornstarch added. I personally prefer a slightly more watery consistency for salted egg sauce zichar dishes, but to each his own. Nonetheless, the chicken chunks were tender and juicy and I was generally quite happy eating this.