Ba Wang Pan Mee – Noodles Worth Traveling Anywhere For?

Do you drive? Then this is a non-issue. But what if you don’t?

As Alderic from Youtube best known for The Best (insert dish) series puts it, this post will answer the question whether if Ba Wang Pan Mee at Tan Xiang Chai Chee makes you wanna go anywhere in Singapore for a bowl of handmade noodles or not. Let’s get started!

Note: Some Mediacorp (Singapore state-run public media conglomerate behind the country’s free-to-air TV channels and mewatch) mentions incoming.

Brief History

Claiming to be Singapore’s first ever stall selling Hakka pork belly ban mian¹, Ba Wang Pan Mee is the brain child of celebrity chef Alvin Leong, who was one of the contestants featured in Channel 8’s Food Struck! (or 食不可挡 in Mandarin) cooking program in 2018. To summarize what the show’s all about, it revolve around food battles between nine chefs, with each episode revolve around visiting different neighbourhoods across Singapore and having their dishes judged by the local residents. (Spoiler alert: Chef Leong was awarded third place. He seemed pleased with the results, regardless.)

And speaking about Chef Leong, he first made his name in the culinary world in 2005 as a sous chef before working his way up as an executive chef till today. Over the years, he has provided his culinary skills and services at various hotels in Singapore, including Holiday Inn Singapore, Hotel Indigo, and PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering which is where he currently positioned at as of this writing. That said, Ba Wang Pan Mian is considered Chef Leong’s first foray into hawker food.

Ba Wang Pan Mee’s first stall at Ang Mo Kio opened in 2023, but had to close down in July this year due to manpower issues. Their remaining, and only stall is currently located at Tan Xiang Chai Chee, which was opened this year in May.

Experience

Dropping by Tan Xiang Chai Chee on a weekday, I was awkwardly greeted by some old Chinese songs playing on the speakers and a newly opened kopitiam with a few cardboard standees of Ben Yeo around. For those of you who don’t know who Ben Yeo is, he’s a Mediacorp actor who acted in quite a fair bit of Channel 8 dramas and reality shows back in the early 2000s. Furthermore, he’s also the founder of this retro-style wet market themed Kopitiam that opened this May.

Visiting this kopitiam made me felt like a kid again with the 80s’ and 90s’ decor and old school kiddie rides. The old-school snacks like the colorful gem biscuits, bangle chocolate and cheese balls reminds me of the times I visited my go-to mamak store after school for sprinkles of joy. And who could forget the dried goods store at wet markets where you can buy your daily essentials and condiments half the prices of goods at supermarkets?

The ordering process was pretty straightforward; you make your order, pay for it and you’ll be handed a buzzer. With no one else aside for another customer in sight, the buzzer was next to redundant as the chef called me to collect my order when it was done. Not like I’m complaining or anything, but let’s turn to the main star of this show, shall we?

Taste Test (Classic Handmade Noodles With Minced Meat, $5)

Out of the recommendations shared by Ba Wang, I ordered the classic handmade noodles soup. Could have ordered the more exotic dishes like the one with the pig trotters or the prawn noodles, but I’ll often order the signature on my first visit at most stores.

Until Ba Wang, you know what to expect when you order banmian/youmian/mianfenguo at handmade noodle stores; handmade noodles, minced pork, vegetables, ikan bilis, egg, fried shallots and spring onions. A few stores might deviate from this ubiquitous list of ingredients from time to time, but Ba Wang tried to shake things up a bit, even though not by much by being the first handmade noodle store ever to include pork lard, which was an interesting choice.

The addition of pork lard boosts the extra crunchiness of the noodles alongside the fried shallots and fried ikan bilis. Didn’t taste too soggy, so that’s a huge plus in my books.

Noodles were really fragrant and pack full of flavours, comparable to the one at 456 Mian Fen Guo. They were the right level of al dente that keeps you wanting for more so the noodles slide down pretty quickly.

Soup was super tasty, and probably one of the better and multi-layered soups I’ve ever tasted in banmian/youmian alongside 456. Cloudy and surrounded by oil all over, it was a perfect blend of fat and soup stock with a tinge of sweetness that has me savor every sip I took.

For this section, this boils down to personal preference and it’s fine if some, if not the majority of you don’t agree with me. Even though mani cai is traditionally used in ban mian, I would have preferred a different type of vegetable like cabbage or kai-lan that might have fit the noodle’s profile better. The texture of the mani cai felt a tad thin and was a little out of place in the bigger scheme of things. It’s like building a Lego medieval castle set piece, only to have a modern hospital bed placed in the throne room for…reasons, I have no freaking clue. Maybe mani cai fits better in the dry version, but in noodle soup? Probably not.

Minced meat were scattered and not very chunky, but it was the right size for a single bite rather than having to split the minced meat into smaller chunks. The only thing the minced meat needs is a little more moisture to better blend them with the soup and noodles, and it would have improved the meal by a mile.

Should have asked for a runnier egg, as the egg has hardened by the time I collected my order. I could have told the chef to place the egg into the noodles right before serving, but I was still glad with what I got.

Final Thoughts

I was overwhelmed with the choices in Ba Wang’s menu, but I was given some recommendations by the store prior to heading down. You can never go wrong with their signature even if you can’t decide what to try first.

Now, this may simply boil down to my own opinion, but hear me out. This is the only (and probably the biggest) deterrence I have with Ba Wang, which is the location. For those taking public transport, there’s only one bus service (26) that will take you closest to Tan Xiang Chai Chee at Block 53 bus stop from Bedok Bus Interchange. After that, you’ll need to walk into Chai Chee Lane for five minutes before reaching your destination. For lazy folks like myself, it’s better if you drive or take Grab if you don’t feel like getting there by foot on a blazing and humid day (which is pretty much every day in Singapore) that leaves you sweating from head to toe by the time you reached Tan Xiang.

If anyone haven’t taken note, they’ve updated their opening hours (previously 9.30am to 8.30pm) recently, so take note if you’re planning your visit. Updated opening hours can be found below under the ‘Address & Opening Hours’ section.

Extra: If Gogyo Surry Hills from Sydney wins the ‘Best Toilet At A Ramen Restaurant Award’, then Tan Xiang Chai Chee wins the ‘Best Toilet At A Coffee Shop Award’ by a landslide. It even has aircon and classy decor, so you’ll feel comfortable answering nature calls.

That was a lengthy review, but before I end, I would like to give extra thanks to Ba Wang Pan Mee for reaching out to me and I have a great time talking to their PR team to pay a visit to their store to try their noodles. Like all of the food I’ve eaten for all the reviews here, all of them are paid out of my own pocket, so I’m not sponsored or paid by Ba Wang to write this review. Take note that all the opinions I posted in my reviews are of my own and are my honest thoughts.

Last but not least, I’ll like to thank you, my readers, for the support so far to For The Love Of Noodles. If you would like to support what I do, you can consider tipping me on my ko-fi account, which you can click at the bottom left button. It means a lot to me so that I can keep doing what I love.

Address & Opening Hours

Address:
Tan Xiang Chai Chee
510 Chai Chee Lane, Singapore 469027
Opening Hours:
Mon to Fri: 8.30am to 5.00pm (updated as of 3rd October 2024)
Sat: 9am to 5pm (no change)
Closed on Sun

1. Claim as stated on Ba Wang Pan Mee’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bawang.panmee ↩︎