Lai Huat Sambal Fish Restaurant

I moved to the east earlier this year and have seen this restaurant everytime I make the turn into Jln Tua Kong. I didn’t think much of it since I ate at the (Old) Lai Huat at Rangoon road a while back and was not impressed. After reading the reviews here I decided to give it a try.
This one is way better than the one at Rangoon road. The signature sambal pomfret was done almost to perfection. Not dry from the deep frying and not oily. The sambal was not over fried like the other place. Tofu was silky smooth, and the pig trotters was perfect with a bowl of rice.
What I like about this place is the portion is just right which means I can try more dishes. Don’t leave without trying the orh née. It’s very smooth and not too sweet.
Highly recommend this place!

Classic teochew dishes. They have a few famed dishes.
We like:
1. teochew cai po kway teow;
2. Homemade beancurd — amazingly soft inside topped with crispy cai po
3. Enoki mushrooms nai bai — the mushrooms are deep fried and gives a contrasting texture to the veggies
The two times we went, they were out of their famed emperor chicken. I suggest you pre-​order if you plan to have it.
Surprisingly, I am not a fan of their namesake sambal fish. It is decent but in my opinion, I would rather eat other dishes.
On weekends, they serve a chicken dish done two ways: half roast chicken and half thai style chicken. Definitely skip the Thai style chicken which is mainly chicken drenched in Thai chilli sauce. The roast chicken is however amazing. Crispy thin skin, succulent meat. I would do the entire chicken in roast style next time.
This place is certainly becoming a staple restaurant. They also do delivery for $ 5 charge if you are lazy. But sometimes the motorbike breaks down, or so they claim.

I’ve stayed in Siglap half my life, and it’s a truth when I say that the spot Lai Huat occupies is jinxed. I’ve lost count how many times that spot has changed hands, and in recent years it’s been reincarnated to a western seafood place, a chicken rice outlet, and a bak kut teh shop. Enter Lai Huat — and I gave it six months. Strangely enough, it seemed to thrive, and business looked to be getting better and better, such that tables were spilling out into the road outside the shop.
Piqued, we dropped by one evening and ordered up their signature sambal pomfret, and a couple of other dishes. The fish was spectacular. Deep fried to perfection, it was not overly dry nor tough, and generously topped with sambal that’s not too spicy or greasy. It certainly went down well with a bowl of rice. The other dishes — meats and vegetables are the standard zi char fare and forgettable, and the overall bill was on the high side.
I might drop by again when I’m feeling a little more rich, but I do hope Lai Huat manages to turn the tide on this frequent handover streak.

Here’s a place to rival the usual Hongkong Street Restaurant. If you are a teochew and grew up eating the traditional classics, walk on in to this corner shop along the row of shophouses, next door to the Royal’s Café. Run by young fellows, you would not expect the culinary skills that would win the praises of my picky folks.
The sambal fish is crisped up till you can chew and crunch every fin, while still getting the succulence of fresh promfret. The sambal is a mystery till today, but everytime I go back, I get just one more component, and a step closer to breaking the puzzle. It has a cai po, chilli, dried shrimp and garlic. Not surprising but, every sambal can be that bit different from the others because of the thorough treatment on the wok that it gets. Clearly, the sambal at Lai Huat is well fried till the oils emerge and give a rounded spice flavour rather than a raw tasting chilli paste.
The emperor’s chicken is well prepared, fresh and consistent. Almost every dish does not disappoint, and if it does, before your next visit they would have taken it off the menu. Finish the meal with some ice jelly, and you’ll walk away rubbing your belly.