Heritage Yong Tau Foo

There has really been quite a lot in terms of the F&B scene around Marina One recently; while we have just written about the new TangYuan 糖苑 which had recently opened its doors at the basement of Marina One serving up Chinese-style dessert, the basement of the mixed development has also seen the opening of Heritage Yong Tau Foo — a new Yong Tau Foo-centric establishment which is located in the same area as TangYuan in between the walkway between Shenton Way MRT Station and Marina One East Tower. Occupying a stall unit that is relatively close by to Standing Sushi Bar as well as Fun Toast, Heritage Yong Tau Foo is an establishment that serves up only Yong Tau Foo; unlike the trendy stalls these days that serve up Yong Tau Foo with a fixed set of Yong Tau Foo items, Heritage Yong Tau Foo follows the style of the old-school hawkers where patrons get to pick-and-choose their desired Yong Tau Foo items off the display chiller at the counter. Being a rather simple eatery at best, the establishment is simply decorated with the use of a bamboo-print wallpaper that attempts to give the dining space a vibe; all matched against plastic stools and simple wooden tables. Heritage Yong Tau Foo serves up their Yong Tau Foo in sets, with the patrons being able to pick between Yong Tau Foo served with their signature sauce, classic soup / dry, or with Laksa. Beverages available at Heritage Yong Tau Foo includes Nanyang-style Kopi and Teh, as well as canned drinks — just to name a few.

Our usual order at any Yong Tau Foo stall is to go for the Laksa variant — needless to say, we found ourselves going for the Set C - 7pcs Laksa during our visit made to Heritage Yong Tau Foo on a weekday lunch service. It is noted that Heritage Yong Tau Foo does offer a decent range of Yong Tau Foo items that feature are served in soup and fried formats. The minimum order of Yong Tau Foo items at Heritage Yong Tau Foo is set at seven (7) pieces; quite the standard for most Yong Tau Foo-centric establishments around. Patrons also do get the flexibility of choosing between a variety of carb options such as that of yellow noodles, Thick Bee Hoon, Bee Hoon, instant noodles or rice to go with their Yong Tau Foo order. One thing that was pretty stark to us here was the price point — the Yong Tau Foo at Heritage Yong Tau Foo does seem pretty pricey, with the Set B - 7pcs Classic (Soup / Dry) being listed at $8.90; all other Yong Tau Foo
sets are priced at $9.80 (in retrospect, a basic grain bowl from Supergreen; also located at the basement of Marina One also costs $9.80). Orders did take some time to be ready, with a very inefficient self-collection system where collection was made in between the queue to make an order — does seem like a teething issue that would likely be sorted out as they ease into their operations in the future, since we had made our visit to Heritage Yong Tau Foo on their very first day of opening. Having picked a couple of Yong Tau Foo items that is to be served fried, the fried Yong Tau Foo items are served in a separate bowl from the soup Yong Tau Foo items that comes with the laksa gravy and the Thick Bee Hoon which we had opted for as the choice of carb for our order.

Heritage Yong Tau Foo has an upper hand with the Laksa broth as well as the soup items as opposed to the fried items; while most of the fried items are decent, we did wish that they could have drained the oil a little more so that the items feel less greasy. Their execution of deep-frying was not the best; the most evident Yong Tau Foo items exhibiting this would be the beancurd skin where it was done a little too dry with the grease having been absorbed into some parts, while the middle was still a little tough in certain areas to chew upon. The Fried You Tiao with fish paste stuffing was however a good one to order especially when one dunks the fried dough fritter into the Laksa for it to absorb all the flavours of the gravy. What really caught us with the Yong Tau Foo that we had gotten would be the Laksa gravy — this was close to almost having an actual bowl of Nyonya Laksa with a very evident note of rempah spices in the gravy itself; the Laksa gravy also coming with just the right proportion of coconut milk that makes it sufficiently thick without being jelat, and comes with a slight kick of spiciness that should tingle the tastebuds for those whom are tolerable to lower levels of heat. The Thick Bee Hoon was also slippery smooth and slurpy; the greens, bittergourd stuffed with fish paste and beancurd skin stuffed with fish paste being good accompaniments to it. Overall, quite a decent bowl of Yong Tau Foo especially if one avoids certain fried items (i.e. the beancurd skin), though also one which we find a little pricey as well. Still, we do think that Heritage Yong Tau Foo is here to stay — that sort of location that would do well enough from office workers within the same complex that doesn’t want / no time to go further for their Yong Tau Foo fix and don’t mind the slightly marked-up prices here, considering how the food from neighbouring shops are priced as well.