King of Pao Fan (Bugis)

We are seriously trying many of what King of Pao Fan has to offer and today, we went for the mixed fish pao fan as we had tried the fried fish version previously! The main difference was the addition of the sliced fish, which were cooked pretty well as they were not overly hard and did not have that fishy/briny taste!

The broth was great and we were happy to drink it with our rice! It was slightly sweet from all that seafood immersed in it and it wasn't overly salty so it's pretty drinkable! Similar to the other Pao fan dishes from the stall, the mixed fish pao fan comes with fried egg and golden rice crisps and these were some of our favourite sides! We would advise you to try them first to enjoy the crisp, before mixing them into the broth!

Overall, however, our favourite is still the seafood pao fan because the broth just seems tastier and more hearty in the seafood bowl! 😋

Jasmine rice submerged in rich savoury seafood soup with egg floss to amplify the strong lobster notes, perfected with roasted rice puff and spring onions. The rice was the star. The lobster was just a side. Don’t get me wrong - the lobster was fresh and sweet but the rice was simply heavenly comforting and fulfilling that I’d gladly shared some of the lobster to my friend.

Flavourful seafood broth made from pork bones, fish bones, pork meat and prawn head. My order of seafood pao fan is accompanied with fresh prawns, clams, chunks of fried dory fish, steamed rice in broth then topped with fried egg floss and crispy rice puff. The broth is hearty, flavourful and packed with umami goodness - perfect for the rainy weather 》$7.50

Went back to King of Pao Fan today to try their Fried Fish Pao Fan! This is slightly cheaper than the stall's Seafood Pao Fan ($6) and it uses the same broth but has around 6 pieces of fried fish as it's highlight instead. However, we find that the Seafood Pao Fan is more delightful as the prawns made the broth more fragrant; on the other hand, the fried fish made the broth pretty salty towards the end.

The stall was pretty empty when we went on a Tuesday evening, although this could partly be because of the tighter COVID restrictions. Nonetheless, you may want to go early for dinner because they close at 8 pm!

Saw many good reviews, and also watched an episode of this shop on Foodking.

Quite dissappointed, I was expecting it to very very good. But found it to be quite bland.

The fish was smooth and fresh though and is quite big slices.

I definitely had better pao fan thou.

Have been wanting to check out this new pao fan place and coincidentally stumbled upon it when walking into a random coffee shop for lunch! (Its directly opposite Bugis+.)
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Pao fan is literally rice that’s soaking in soup. I got the mixed fish one (with steamed fish and fried fish) and the seafood one (which had fish, prawns, and clams. They gave quite a bit of seafood, and it wasn’t overcooked at all. (Rare, imo. You could actually taste the clams and the prawns weren’t mush.) The steamed fish in particular was enjoyable because it’s not over-brined and soft bc it’s coated in corn starch, unlike how some other fish soup places are. The soup was tasty - kind of like an enhanced fish soup but with a slightly sweet prawny flavour, evident from the red tinge of prawn oil. It’s extremely drinkable because it isn’t too salty. The rice inside it a mixture of normal rice and some crispy rice bits for pops of texture, and they also put fried egg inside which absorbs the soup perfectly. My only gripe is that the soup was too hot when we started eating it and I could only properly taste the flavours better after it cooled a bit, so I guess just let it cool for a bit.
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Definitely worth a try! Pao fan isn’t common but really I feel like it’s just the rice version of fish soup. It’s a comforting meal for sure, and would be perfect on a rainy day.