Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐 should feel proud.
Many people use their Pork Chop Fried Rice as a measurement of the standard to achieve when it comes to the humble dish of Dan Chao Fan (egg fried rice).
There is an eatery at the basement of Golden Mile Tower (building opposite Golden Mile Food Centre), aptly called “King of Fried Rice”.
Its signature item has been described as “Din Tai Fung-style” very often.
The menu typed ”Mai Paiseh”, with just 4 types of Fried Rice – Mala, XO, Tom Yum, and Egg Fried Rice.
A plate is included with pork cutlet or shrimps, and customers can choose to add on tobiko (popular), sunny sideup, spinach, asparagus, nai bai, shimeji mushrooms, cabbage or broccoli for a dollar extra.
First tip: avoid the peak lunch or dinner hours, unless you got all the time in the world to waste away. As the wait can be anything from 30 to 45 minutes, or even longer.
(Photo credit: Lewis Tan @juicyfingers)
Second tip: the most popular choices are Mala and Tom Yum, which are usually the first two to be sold out. (@juicyfingers said Tom Yum reminded him of Mama Noodles, but rice version. He also advised me against writing this because he didn’t want to wait for an hour next time.)
Despite going at a rather off-peak timing of 2:30pm, I still had to wait 20 to 25 minutes with no other customers before me. (Lesson learnt, as I went from being early to late for a meeting.)
I was slightly sceptical at first, ”Got so good?”, but my first mouthful and I knew that this was one of those that are not over-rated.
The wok-hei was strong on this short-grain white rice, and every grain was fluffy and flavourful. The overall texture was just right – not too dry, not too wet.
Oh, and that pork chop was fungtastic. Beautiful golden-brown colour, well marinated, the right thickness, meaty yet tender.
One of those shops that do live up to its name. But do not expect tairrific service DTF style, sometimes you get ignore and tell yourself it shall be fine.
King of Fried Rice
Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road, #B1-56 Golden Mile Tower, Singapore 199589
Tel: +65 9159 4902
Opening Hours: 11:30am – 8:30pm (Mon – Fri), 1pm – 8:30pm (Sat), Closed Sun
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