It was our dear friend’s birthday so Huccalily, Chiobu, Ms Atas and I trotted down to this old-school laksa-based steamboat. Getting there is a big problem. Word of advice: Take the MRT. Although it’s opposite Viviocity, the parking was atrocious. There are only 6 parking lots in front of the shop in 2 rows of 3 cars. And if your car is blocking another car from leaving, you’ll have to come out mid-meal and drive your car away. On San Laksa website, it says to park at Pasir Panjong Methodist Church. DO NOT PARK at the church. Ms Atas–as you know, atas people are cheapskates who don’t want to put parking coupons at public parking lots–parked there and the church gates closed before ten, before she could retrieve her car so one of us had to climb over the gates to look for the gatekeeper but there wasn’t a gatekeeper and so she had to return the next day to get her car.
Besides the difficulty of getting there, the service is another problem. It was the kind of rude, hawker-center, inattentive service. I LOVE IT. Very intimate, very Singaporean (although the servers are PRCs). But the birthday boy wasn’t too happy about the service.
As for the food, it’s not buffet-style. You pay for the amount you order. At first we were worried the laksa-based soup might be too jerlat (too excessive) but it turned out to be excellent, not too thick, not too spicy, with the right balance of coconut milk, and as you put more food, the sweeter the laksa gets, the tastier it gets. You won’t get sick of it.
The customers were boisterous, the atmosphere was convivial, the bad decoration with no sense of aesthetics makes the shop very Singaporean, very nostalgic of a kopi-tiam feel. You don’t have to watch your dining etiquette here. Just whack. However, we got a shock to receive the bill of paying $38 each–there were 8 of us–for such an establishment. But still, the food was very shiok and all of us enjoyed ourselves.
Make reservations. Extremely crowded.
San Laksa Steamboat
404 Telok Blangah Road
Singapore 098840
T: 6275 7059
Website
11am-11pm
Rating: 3.025/5 stars
Categories: Harbourfront, Mount Faber, Singaporean
LOL @ “atas people are cheapskates who don’t want to put parking coupons at public parking lots”
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Funny but true. Rich people are stingy.
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Which is better, this or the laksa soup base at jpot?
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I haven’t tried Jpot before–I try to avoid chain stores–but San Laksa’s soup base is quite hard to beat. It’s very shiok, the more you eat, the more you want to eat.
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Jpot really is awesome though. And until the third quarter of this year, it was just that one outlet at vivocity. Ok i’m gonna try both and see how they compare.
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Ok, i’ll go try Jpot too. :)
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Is this better than the laksa steamboat at Teck Chye Terrace?
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wah, never try King’s Laksa before leh. Ok, try already let you know. Or if you try San Laksa, you let me know which is better. :)
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I tried both King’s and San. King’s Laksa doesn’t taste like laksa, San Laksa is really laksa!
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