Sin Hoi Sai Eating House (East Coast Road)

Sin Hoi Sai Eating House is a family-run zi char restaurant at 187 East Coast Road in Katong. Zi char means Chinese dishes cooked to order and shared at the table. The menu has more than 200 Hokkien and Cantonese-style dishes, and the kitchen stays open into the early hours, so it is a well-known supper stop in the east.

The story started in Tiong Bahru, where Madam Yap Sor Khim and her family opened the first Sin Hoi Sai in 1980. This East Coast Road branch followed about two years later, and the two now run as separate businesses. Madam Yap, known to many as Auntie Khim, still runs this outlet, and her husband still greets diners at the tables. Their son, Coen Seow, joined full-time in 2020 to run the front of house, and his uncle is the head chef.

What to order

The menu is huge, so it helps to know the house favourites. These are the dishes most often named as favourites:

• Pig trotter bee hoon: rice vermicelli with pork trotter, one of the house signatures.
• Salted egg prawns: prawns coated in salted egg yolk, with curry leaves and chilli for a little heat.
• Red wine pork ribs: pork ribs cooked with red wine.
• Assam fish head: fish head in a sour, spicy tamarind gravy.
• Barbecue stingray: grilled stingray.
• Chai poh omelette: an egg omelette with preserved radish, good with rice.

Other dishes that come up often include marmite chicken, fish head curry, Guinness pork ribs and hot plate beef. Some seafood is priced by season, so ask the staff before you order it.

The setting

This is an old-school eating house with no frills. Tables spill out onto the pavement beside East Coast Road, and many diners eat by the roadside in the cool of the night. It is busy: the family serves up to 100 tables on a weeknight and up to 300 at weekends. Visiting stars, such as Jackson Wang and the Korean band Hyukoh, have eaten here too.

Good to know before you go

• Come in a group: zi char works best when you order several dishes to share with rice.
• Weekends: these are the busiest nights, so go earlier in the evening if you want a quieter meal.
• Late nights: it opens in the late afternoon and cooks until the small hours. Closing times differ between sources, so check before a very late visit.
• Dress: it is a casual roadside spot, so everyday clothes are fine.

Nearby

East Coast Road runs through the heart of Katong, an area known for its Peranakan heritage. Before dinner, see the colourful Koon Seng Road Shophouses in nearby Joo Chiat. For a more formal Chinese meal in the area, try Jia Wei Chinese Restaurant, or browse our list of chilli crab and seafood restaurants. To stay close by, Hotel Indigo Singapore Katong is on East Coast Road too. See more restaurants in Katong and Joo Chiat or hotels in Katong and Joo Chiat.