Singapura Eating House ~ Singaporean / Malaysian - Darlinghurst

Last time we dipped into Singapura Eating House it was awash with body builders fueling up on chicken rice. While the newer Darlo location is still just around the corner from the gym, we do our best to avoid the barbells and instead carb load as many noodles as we can and waddle home.


It's getting kind of hard to find Singaporean food in Sydney, there's only a handful of places around. Ever since Singapore Shiok closed in Eating World we've never quite managed to find the same hawker centre feels anywhere else. While nothing can compare to sitting at the East Coast Food Village with cold Tiger beers in an ice bucket and a river of sweat running down your back, we think that Singapura Eating House at least can recreate some of the food memories.

This is a fleuro lit no frills joint on Oxford Street that used to be inside Oxford Square. To get you further in the mood the bright yellow painted walls have large framed pictures of classic hawker sellers in Singapore. Look for the 80s photo of Tian Tian before Bourdain slapped the 'best chicken rice' moniker on it.

Fried Kway Teow $12. Shiny, flecked with bits of charred goodness, slices of sweet Chinese pork sausage and a touch of chilli. Yep the prawns are probably from a frozen packet but the overall flavour of this flash fried noodle dish is in the wonder of the mix of smoke and spice. It's greasy and good with all the things Singaporean doctors warn their patients not to eat, except for cockles but lets not start that argument.

Mee Goreng $11.50. While we still wish we'd had more stomach room for the mee goreng stalls across the road from our hotel in Georgetown, this mix of hokkein noodles, clumps of minced pork, chunks of potato, carrot and a fried eggy binding of the lot will do. And peas! There's an almost rojak like sweetness to this dish as well. We dig it.

Fried Hokkein Prawn Mee $12. This dish seems like a mix of many elements, like a fridge and cupboard clean out on a plate. Lets mix all the spare noodles, bits of meat, prawn and squid and a handful of leftover bean sprouts all together! Does it work? ON one hand, the mix of different bits does give it elements of a treasure hunt. ON the other hand the sauce was a little bit plainer than the soup version we're more used to. If you're craving something a little plain jane, this could just be your thing.

Hainanese Chicken Rice $12. The body builders favourite, a plate of pure lean chicken protein and a upturned bowl full of chicken broth flavoured rice. The chicken really is super tender, and while breast meat is usually our last choice for a cut, they get away with a nice bit of bird. The chilli sauce gives the plain chook a bit more kick too.

Singapura Eating House is at 147 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst. Ph: 9261 1856.