Saturday, November 19, 2011

Prince Coffee House 太子咖啡座 ... Hainanese delights since the 1970s

Dad is always looking out for my pocket every time I ask him out for dinner during the weekends.  I guess he knows that I don't mind spending a bit more on good food. Last time when we decided to eat out at a Chi Char place called Joo Hing, I told him it's only Chi Char but I went on to order a 红班 steamed grouper that resulted in a S$100 bill for a dinner for 4. This time he told me over the phone, again, not to go to anywhere expensive. OK then ..... let's have Hainanese delights at Prince Coffee House.

Prince Coffee House, according to the boss, was operating in Shaw House (where there was a Prince cinema) since the 1970s, shift out of the area to Coronation Plaza in 1980s and have been there until recently where they house themselves back at a shophouse unit in Beach Road (the stretch between Arab street and Haji Lane). If you liked Hainanese beef delights and pork chops, you got the British to thank for. In those days, Hainanese worked as cooks preparing beef for the British and after that, they went on to set up coffee houses serving these traditional western dishes when the British left Singapore. If you'll like to remember those taste, Prince Coffee House would be one such place to visit.

After trying Hainanese Pork Chop at several places, I always find them good but Prince Coffee House's serves one of the better Hainanese Pork Chop. As Dad didn't want the western items on the menu, he decided on Hainanese Pork Chop Rice, which ended up could be the similar pork chop meal in the Western category in the menu, only with an extra scoop of white rice. The tender chunks of pork chop, coated with bread crumbs, were fried to golden brown, drizzled with tomato based sauce and complimented with some fries. Dad and I thought that this was much better than the one served up at Chin Chin (another Hainanese outfit in  Purvis Street).

Here's HY's plate of Beef Hor Fun. It definitely tasted better than it looks in this photo that I captured without flashlight. With this plate of hor fun, there's no doubt that Hainanese prepare good beef dishes. The wok hei that went into frying the horfun, the succulent slices of beef and the flavorful sauce that complimented rather than mask the taste of the beef, all made this hor fun one of best around.
Apart from these 2 popular dishes that we enjoyed, boss also recommended their Signature Ox Tail Stew and he enthusiastically mentioned that they also sell very good yam cake and chicken pie. These are food that we'll need to be back for next time. Too full and satisfied with our pork chop rice and beef hor fun ..... Burp!


249 Beach Road
Singapore 
Tel : +65 6468 2088


Opening Hours:
11am ~  9pm daily

2 comments:

FoodieFC said...

Agree with you. I tried the Beef Horfan! It is good!
I have yet to try the Yam cake. Did you try it? is it good?

Unknown said...

Nope didn't try the yam cake .... maybe next time. :)

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