Katong Jago Fried Kway Teow - Hidden Char Kway Teow in East Coast

As a huge fan of Char Kway Teow, I am always on the look out for a hawker that serves up a mouth-watering plate of Char Kway Teow. To be honest, Katong Jago Char Kway Teow has never popped up on my radar. I chanced upon it during my visit at Brunners Coffeeshop and with newspaper articles plastered all over its storefront, I couldn’t help but order a plate to try. There are many kinds of Char Kway Teow and the common ones are – Penang’s savoury and drier version, and Singapore’s wet and sweeter version.

At $4.50 per plate, Katong Jago Char Kway Teow had a decent portion with the usual ingredients – flat noodles, yellow noodles, eggs, beansprout, lup cheong, cockles and fish cakes. The Char Kway Teow looks closer to the dry Penang version, but as dark as the Singapore version. On the first bite, I enjoyed the amount of Wok Hei it had. This did not come as a surprise as when the cook was frying up the plate of noodles, we could see fumes of smoke from the heavily heated wok, not to mention the stirred fry fragrance that overpowers you.

It also had chunks of crunchy deep fried pork lard, adding even more fragrance into the already Wok Hei infused noodles. For those who find it too sinful you could pick out the lards and place it by the side (like my friend). Personally, I prefer my Char Kway Teow to be wetter and sweeter, which I thought would be the case at first glance. Although Katong Jago’s was closer to the savoury kind, I am not complaining as it was well seasoned and I could see myself finishing the whole plate on my own. The dish also had a decent amount of ingredients – you will not find yourself eating plain noodles with not enough lup cheong or cockles.

Although it doesn’t get as much attention as other famous Char Kway Teow stalls, Katong Jago still serves up a pretty good plate of Char Kway Teow. Plus point of a hidden gem? You will not need to queue for a long time! They appear to also sell Carrot Cakes in the morning, but during our visit, only Char Kway Teow was on the menu. We will probably be back to try their Carrot Cake.