Dover Road Kai Kee Wanton Noodle: Old-school, comforting and cheap!
What we liked:
— the addictive saucing
— the noodles are quite springy
— generous portions for the money
What we didn’t:
— the ingredients are not great
— the soup has very little flavour
— some fried lard pieces would be a plus
If you’re looking for value-for-money old-school wanton mee around the Alexandra area, Dover Road Kai Kee Wanton Noodle will hit the spot.
Run by Choy Ping Kai — now in his sixties, Kai Kee Wanton Noodles opened at Dover Road Market and Hawker Centre in 1978 and when the area was slated for SERS (Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme) redevelopment, moved to Alexandra Villa Market and Food Centre in 2011 where they are currently based.
Choy is self-taught and developed the saucing for his wanton noodles through trial and error after going round tasting many wanton noodle stalls.
The main draw is the saucing for their noodles which has a comforting old-school taste to it.
The generous saucing has a big robust savoury flavour, generous oil notes, a moderately spicy sambal chilli.
We didn’t detect any lard notes and there is also has no sweetness in the taste, something which a lot of older foodies will appreciate.
It goes well with their nicely qq (springy) noodles and they’re pretty generous with the portions. Honestly, that’s the biggest draw at this stall, because their toppings are quite lacklustre.
The char siu in their Wantun Mee ($3/3.50) is made onsite — you can see a broiler by the side of the stall — but it’s sliced thin and is a bit dry.
Their wantons come rather bland, with not much filling and the skins rather soft.
Their shui jiao (water dumplings) also doesn’t have much filling — with the occasional water chestnut and no prawns.
The chicken for their ji si mian (shredded chicken noodles; $3/3.50) also used to be more generous but they’ve cut back on that these days, probably due to rising costs.
