Jin Wee Restaurant: Time-Honoured Goodness

Taking Beggar's Chicken and Fish Head Steamboat to the next level.

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Among the fancy shophouses in the same row, Jin Wee seems to be the only one that is quaintly frozen in time.

The nostalgic signboard, wall and floor tiles of the 1960s, and the old-school retractable metal gates are all characteristic of its long heritage in Siglap. Not so quietly, this old Hainanese "restaurant" has been around for almost 60 years now, and its business is still very much thriving.

If you ask me, there are two items everyone should not miss on the menu — the Jiao Hua Ji (a.k.a. Beggar's Chicken) and the fish head steamboat.

There are good reasons why I pay this non-aircon restaurant a visit every week for the Beggar's Chicken. It is probably not an addiction but definitely a tickling craving that kicks in every weekend.

Jin Wee's Beggar's Chicken is actually different from the original version where the chicken will be wrapped in lotus leaves and covered with a layer of clay, before it's sent into a hot oven to bake on low heat over charcoal fire for hours. Their rendition of this classic dish is contained in a dark-coloured ceramic pot covered with aluminium foil, and baked in a huge ceramic vat over charcoal fire.

The result: Silky smooth chicken that smells so good, with intense umami flavours that are enhanced by Chinese medicinal herbs. And the chicken is so tender that it will easily flower into shreds, when you poke your fork into it.

You would typically find two large shitake mushrooms and some deep-fried fish maw in this dish too. But recently, they have replaced the deep-fried fish maw with deep-fried pig's skin due to supply issues. This dish is good on its own to me, but some may prefer to eat it with steamed white rice.

The fish head steamboat is also a protagonist there. The soup's so flavourfully umami from the crushed deep-fried dried sole fish (tee poh), and has a hint of Chinese medicinal herbs. And it's sweetened by the Chinese cabbage and soft yam pieces added to it. Fish is fresh and tender, which is one reason why the soup is so good.

Other great dishes include the dry pan-fried prawns in sweet dark soy sauce and French beans stir-fried with chilli padi and pounded dried shrimps. Their fabled Hainanese pork chops are good too, but I usually won't crave for that.

Although I won't say that all the dishes there are epic, this is definitely one of my go-to places for delicious and reasonably priced zi-char comfort food.

But just a note: if you are heading down for the Beggar's Chicken for dinner, remember to call and place your order in the early afternoon, if not earlier. And fyi, the dish is only available from 2:30 p.m. onwards, except for Wednesdays, on which they are closed.

Locate it

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Address:

Jin Wee Restaurant

928 E Coast Rd, Singapore 459117

Operating Hours:

Thursday - Tuesday, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.

(closed on Wednesdays)

Call:

9852 7066