Balestier Bak Kut Teh @ ION Orchard

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my pork, and one of my fav. pork dishes are the bak kut tehs. Tell me where the best Bak Kut Teh place is located and I’ll try to make it there to give it a try. One such place I was recommended to try out in Singapore is the Balistier Teochew style Bak Kut Teh (pork rib soup) from a famous eatery in Balestier Road. Well, instead of heading over to Balestier Road (I don’t know where that is) and I went to the one in ION Orchard.

(img from camemberu.com)

We were ushered into the place and got ourselves a nice table to sit on, atmosphere wise, the place is nice and comfortable. Maybe because it’s located in a nice shopping complex like the ION Orchard. Anyway, it took us some time to browse through the menu and since we know what we are going for, we place our orders quickly. One thing I was reminded to do is, leave the Malaysian taste bud at home cause I’ll be overly disappointed if I judge the food based on what I’ve been eating all my life.

The dishes we ordered:

1. Braised Peanut (small) @ $2.50
I decided that it’ll take some time for the pork to be prepared so I ordered us some peanuts for us to munch on while we chit chat a bit and wait for our food. It’s just a normal plate of braised peanuts which in my opinion, wasn’t soft enough. It’s not really that big a deal as it’s just a side dish for us to munch.

2. Premium Pork Ribs Soup @ $9.00

At $9 per pop, this is their signature dish and it was a tad disappointing to me, there is more bones than meat to chew on in this bowl we were served. It definitely should please those who don’t like herbal soup cause I didn’t taste any herbs at all in the soup. It doesn’t taste anywhere special at all, if the idea is to use pork belly soup, I don’t taste any of the usual pork belly soupiness in it at all.

So yes, I was utterly disappointed with this dish as there’s barely any meat on the ribs and the soup was a disappointment. I guess I can’t help bringing my Malaysian taste bud to the table and expect the dishes all to be “good”. One thing that never changed in all Bak Kut Teh restaurants is that, the soup’s free flow, so if you’re a soup person. You’d enjoy the ever free flowing add-on of soup whenever you finished it.

3. Braised Trotters @ $8.50

The braised trotters were quite ok compared to the Pork ribs soup. There’s no herbal taste in this as well but the preparation was jut nice. The meat was prepared to the right texture and the fat on this wasn’t too overly fatty so it’s suitable for people who don’t really like fats. I enjoyed this more than the soup, that’s for sure.

One thing I realized when moving around Singapore, most of the Bak Kut Teh stalls and restaurants only served the Teochew style Bak Kut Teh and it’s hard to find the herbal type anywhere. Maybe it was due to the fact that I don’t know Singapore and the right place to go and eat in Singapore but from what I’ve eaten so far, it’s either they are being overly health conscious or ingredients just too expensive for them to really put into the food for sale.

Hopefully, recommendation would come in and let me know where I can really go eat some nice food. If you’re a big fan of the Balestier restaurant and don’t like the way I wrote this, well, this is just the way I think after I ate it. I will praise where praise is deserved.

Balestier Bak Kut Teh @ ION Orchard
Basement Level 2
ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn Singapore 238801

Ratings:
Food – 3/5
Service – 4/5
Cleanliness/Ambience – 3/5
Value for Money – 2/5

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