Pu Tien

They’ve gone from dingy hole in the wall to a comfy, contemporary, casual eatery. But the food is consistently good and reasonably priced. The Henghwa cuisine boasts a lot of seafood so anything with seafood is a must try. The drunken cockles are the bomb — literally and metaphorically. It’s loaded with garlic so if you’re on a date and feeling dainty this ain’t a dish to order. I love the lor mee and the noodles — the broth for the lor mee is tasty from the lard and shallots, with a super silky, decadent mouth feel. the noodles are loaded with clams and pork belly, delish.
The braised bittergourd is another winner although I wish they’d remove the seeds — it’s not so elegant to be spitting out seeds in a restaurant.
Another of my favs is the stuffed pig intestine where the intestine is folded in on itself and braised to tender savoury perfection.

One of my neighborhood favorites. My go-​to dish here is the baby kailan with bean curd skin, which is both healthy and tasty. They also make these delicious shredded pork buns. The pork comes sautéed in a sweet sauce with onions, and is served with these fantastic toasty sesame buns that I think are actually deep fried. They’re kind of like donuts that you slice open and stuff with the shredded pork. As a nice added touch, they give you a pair of thin plastic gloves with these so you don’t get your fingers all greasy in the process.
Definitely also try their spice mum, a homemade chili sauce that is really fresh and spicy. It goes great with everything and they sell it by the jar, so a lot of our friends and relatives back in the U.S. demand this whenever we make a trip home.

Have been coming here for family meals for more than 6 years and in this span of time they have struck gold and managed to expand considerably. Now you can get your fix of Pu Tien at many other shopping malls (of which I am not too sure of because I stay loyal to this outlet). The specialty here is in Heng Hwa cuisine which obviously got me a little befuddled when I first heard of it because it is not all that common in Singapore. Heng Hwa cuisine originates from Fujian in China which intrigued me because I am teochew by descent and that means my grandparents came from Fujian too. Okay, never mind, that was a confusing digression.
The thing I like about Heng Hwa cuisine is that it is similar to Teochew food in that it is light and flavourful. Here are a couple of things you should try at Putien (though most of the menu is well up to standard). The drunken cockles topped with the sharp taste of garlic and wine marinade makes a good start to a meal. Have the flavourful and soft braised intestines if you aren’t irked by entrails. Sweet bamboo herb prawns will also make an excellently succulent choice. And of course, your Heng Hwa meal will not be complete without a plate of stir-​fried mee sua that will give you a good load of carbs without being overly filling.

This place is affordable and has a very nice setting. The prawns here are juicy and succulent. And the vegetables and typical dishes you added had a very local/​homecooked flavour about it. The Pu Tien Chi fun or lor mee are great staples to have. Do also try the Bamboo Herbal prawns. The Celery Tofu soup tastes great and refreshing too, normally I hate celeries, but the celery in this soup is so well-​cooked that the raw taste of it is gone. They have set menus at $ 168++ for 4, which is rather value for money since they provide premium seafood such as abalone. If you would like something more affordable, there’s the set at $ 108++ and includes steamed sea bass and deep fried pork ribs. My aunts and uncles who are very traditional swear by this place, and I agree with their choice.

Pu Tien sells quite a few dishes that are actually pretty unique. and being Chinese myself, I thought I have already seen nearly all the Chinese dishes there are to see. Boy, I was so wrong when I came here to eat. I expected the usual prawns, sweet and sour pork and all that but here… I have never ever heard of these dishes before. It was a real eye opener.
I like Pu Tien’s snacks. instead of giving us braised peanuts to munch on while waiting for the dishes to be served, we got some kind of awesome fried seaweed thingie with another dish of preserved chilled vegetables (I am so sorry, I really have NO idea what these dishes are called…)
When the main dishes arrive, they may look «HUH?» but they are delicious. The only dish out of all of them that I can name are the fried fish which my grandma cooks at home. The rest, I’ll be struggling to tell you what they are named, but if you order it and I happen to be at the table, I’ll be able to yell out «OHHH THAT ONE IS DELICIOUS.» So do pop by Pu Tien and try out their food, it’s really quite different from the other chinese restaurants.

The flagship Pu Tien in Little India was originally a scruffy little no-​name place. Discovering it at the time was like landing on a pot of gold. It was cheap and very good, with Chinese favourites that are at once familiar and interesting (because it specializes in Heng Hwa cuisine, which has that effect on me where I know it but not really because I’m also part Fujianese but not Henghwa).
I’m happy to say that even after expanding like crazy — it now has branches all over Singapore and even in Malaysia — the food is still good. The prices have gone slightly more upmarket too, along with the décor. The décor clearly aspires towards one of the higher end Chinese restaurant empires. But the food and service are still down-​home good.
I like the homemade beancurd, all the seafood dishes (esp the clams and bamboo prawns). The lor mee and mee sua are very good too. When the season is right and they have razor clams, you must order it.