Janggut Laksa @ Roxy Square - Powerhouse Laksa Worth Trying

After my positive experience with Sungei Road Laksa, I guess I was in the mood for more laksa this month. This must be a sign telling me to explore the greatness laksa has to offer across Singapore, and where do I even begin? While Katong Laksa is usually the first suggestion that comes to mind, I’m just going to begin this journey my way by starting with Janggut Laksa. But which one, you may ask?

While there’s more than one Janggut Laksa store in the country (the ones at Queensway Shopping Centre and the Chinatown Point comes to mind), my best bet would be to kickstart this journey by visiting the OG at Roxy Square. Time to try my next meal with fresh taste buds!

Brief History

Despite the signboard calling it ‘The Original Katong Laksa’ since 1950s, most people would refer to this store located at Roxy Square as ‘Janggut Laksa’. Why is it called that? It’s named after the founder, Mr. Ng Juat Swee, who is known for his beard (‘janggut’ is Malay for ‘beard’, so now you know) when he first made his calling; pedaling and serving laksa to customers at the Marine Parade area in the 1940s. And speaking of which, it was initially called ‘Marine Parade Laksa’ before the more commonly known Janggut Laksa name took over in people’s consciousness later on.

Before I proceed, take note that I’m not going to divulge into the complicated original Katong Laksa debate here because:

This is a review, not an entire history lesson.
Channels such as CNA has already covered this debacle extensively in their Katong Laksa War series. Say what you want about their coverage, but you can’t argue that they were able to attempt tracing the different origins as much as they possibly can. And it’s barely addressing the bottom of the laksa iceberg with laksa from Siglap, Penang and Sarawak.
Who cares? Original or not, you can’t complain about good food.

Experience

In stark contrast with the long queues Sungei Road Laksa has amassed at their store, Janggut Laksa at Roxy Square is the total opposite where there was barely any queue to wait for your order. That said, there were plenty of customers around already been served laksa during lunch hours.

Extremely starved after traveling to Roxy Square on a warm afternoon for over an hour, it was such as relief (and also a bit of a shock) seeing that there was barely any queue as I joined the queue, with only one man in front of me. No time to waste; time to satiate my empty stomach after a long journey.

Similar to Sungei Road Laksa, Janggut Laksa’s eaten with a single spoon which makes it much simpler and quicker to taste everything – the rempah, the noodles, the ingredients, all in one go. And unlike Sungei Road Laksa where only one size is available, Janggut Laksa has three options of (S)mall, (M)edium, and (L)arge, and they charge $0.50 more for takeaways. I decided to go for the medium size to test the waters. As mentioned earlier, I needed something more substantial, and small isn’t going to cut it after making this long journey.

Seeing the lady behind the pot pouring and releasing the laksa broth was borderline therapeutic to be honest. While the scent of the coconut milk wasn’t as prominent as Sungei Road’s, it was still a bowl worth chowing down to as we move on to the taste test.

Taste Test – Laksa (Medium, $7)

Regardless what you think about Janggut, (almost) everyone agrees that their bowl of laksa isn’t the most photogenic bowl around, but substance over style as they say. From the get-go, you can tell that the coconut milk curdles were unashamedly presenting itself on the surface. More importantly, we care more about the actual good stuff beneath it, and it was time to mix the sambal chili with the rest of the bowl.

No worries though, the laksa isn’t spicy at all even with the chili for anyone who are concerned about not being able to handle spice. Then again, laksa isn’t known to be a super spicy dish to begin with (shrugs).

Something about their broth hits different compared to most laksas I’ve eaten, and it took me a while to figure out what makes it so addictive. Despite its crummy and messy exterior, the broth was surprisingly gentle, slightly moreso than what I had at Sungei Road. Never felt like I needed to take a long walk to deduct a weighty load after finishing the bowl so that’s a positive sign.

As I scoop whatever I could find, it was until the halfway point that I realize the noodles were slightly longer than the one at Sungei Road. Long or short, it didn’t really mattered much to me, and I always prefer longer strands anyway to savour as much of the mixture of noodles and broth in one go.

For the ingredients (the prawns, cockles and fishcakes especially), I felt they play more of a supportive role to the broth and as always, they taste best when submerged in the broth rather than eating them on their own.

Final Thoughts

One look at the empty bowl above tells you how I feel about Janggut Laksa. Perhaps I was so hungry that afternoon that I’ll chow down anything that’s right in front of me, or it just tasted so unforgettable and pleasant that I completed all the ingredients and drank the broth till the last drop. Absolutely no regrets after trying the (allegedly) two best laksa in Singapore, and I’m concerned whether if my next bowl of laksa will ever reach the standards that Sungei Road and Janggut have already established. But that’ll be a problem for future me, so…😅

With that, it’s time to check off Janggut Laksa at Roxy Square off my laksa checklist, and let’s see how things play out in my next destination of NL’s Laksa journey.

Address & Opening Hours

Address

Roxy Square
50 East Coast Road, #01-64, Singapore 428769

Opening Hours

Thu to Tue, 10.30am to 4.30pm
Wed, 10.30am to 3pm
Nearest MRT Station: Marine Parade (TE26)
Cash only