Bao Er Cafe - Singapore

Cynthia (. R.

🍞 𝐊𝐚𝐲𝐚 𝐁𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐨𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐭 - $5.10⁣
Unfortunately this wasn’t to our liking, even though we really wanted to love it 😭 The kaya was way too eggy and custard-like for us, and we definitely prefer the texture of the kaya at Yakun. I personally also prefer the Hainanese kaya so this was not my thing. Eggs & toast were cooked well though, so that was a plus 🙂‍↕️⁣
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🦐 𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐤𝐤𝐢𝐞𝐧 𝐌𝐞𝐞 - $7 ⁣
They use thicker bee hoon noodles here, which I don’t mind, as it makes for a wetter hkm! There was a decent amount of wok hei, and slight seafood flavour, but we would have loved for more prawny/shrimpy flavours to come through. The chilli was also spicy but still prefer the one at Shiok hkm. ⁣
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All in all, we won’t be returning again as neither the kaya toast set nor the hkm impressed us enough to travel so far out of the way. However, if you’d like to visit, do note that there was a bit of crowd when we went down at about 5pm on a Saturday.⁣

Yong H. R. T.

This is actually owned and run by d wife of the owner of Prawnography at Novena Garden.

+ Prices here are cheaper by up to $1 (for Hokkien Mee) compared to Prawnography due to lower rent. The Deluxe Fried Rice which comes with a choice of meat is a good deal compared to buying d meat (eg chicken cutlet) ala carte.

- The excellent but not unusually big Prawn Paste Chicken were priced too high $12 for 4 pieces, ie $3 per full chicken wing set.

+ Portions are big.

- They ran out of food too early (chicken chop and lemongrass drink) even though we were there quite early at 6.30pm.

+ Wok hei for Yang Zhou fried rice and Hokkien Mee

- The HKM and dry prawn noodles were too Salty to be honest. Wish they can dial it down by a good  30%, if not 50%. I actually had to use my lips to physically filter off the gravy as I ate d noodles.

- The cold drinks are expensive, especially when compared to their hot versions. Basically adding ice costs an ADDITIONAL $1 (ice calamansi juice) to even $1.30 (ice honey lemon) !! Canned drinks go for $2, which is also way above normal. Makes one wonder if that's why they left the main dishes so salty.

= Seating capacity is ok, though a small table is expected to fit 5 pax. Need to wait for tables after 6.45pm. It's relative obscurity and inaccessible location means that d crowd is not that big except for regular customers in d know.

+ Service was good. When I informed that they gave me a soup version of the prawn noodles when I ordered a dry one, the young lady cashier immediately jokingly castigated d chef who redid my noodles.

Agnes ?. S.

The coconut kaya butter toast are awesome!😎
The hokkien mee got wok hey, chilli is good 😊 except the prawn is not 100% cooked.. the prawn head is quite raw when i had it..🥲

The prawn paste chicken fried rice can be better if they serve me thigh portion instead of breast meat.🤪
The chessy ham sandwich is nice. Coffee is not bad.

Jacelyn

This is the best kaya toast I’ve ever eaten. Better and cheaper than Yakun. The toast was incredibly crispy and thin, with a generous amount of kaya oozing out and cold butter that melted perfectly with the hot toast—absolutely delicious!

Unfortunately, the other food was not up to par. The Hokkien mee, in particular, was a disappointment. It was overly salty and lacked any wok hei flavor—couldn’t understand the hype around it.

The café itself is very small, overcrowded, and unpleasant to dine in, with limited seating. Overall, while the kaya toast is a must-try, the rest of the experience left much to be desired.

Mok K. M.

Having late lunch at Bao Er Cafe. Fortunately, not so crowded...manage to find a seat. Their must order item is the kaya butter toast bread 🥪 set. S$5.00/set! Cheaper than Ya Kun Kaya Toast Set? One bite, you can taste the aroma of coconut 🥥. Fuiyoh. Their kaya is homemade. I think they can increase sales if we can order their kaya and bring back home.Their signature hokkien mee and prawn fried rice got the smoky wok hei. Not bad. Not bad. I will come back to try their other dishes.

Cindy C.

The fried Hokkien mee and Prawn soup mee are good. Prawn soup is very flavourful and good. Fried Hokkien mee has the wok taste and is worth ordering. Can give the fried prawn taste chicken a miss. For the price of $12 for 4 pieces, i would have expected a much tastier dish but the chicken tasted like it has been re-fried many times. The cleanliness of the place needs to be improved too. The floor and table were left dirty, with used tissue paper, prawn shells lying around. We also had to change the utensils many times as they were dirty (even though they are supposed to be clean).

Matthew L.

Visited on a weekend late afternoon wanted to do lunch and was shocked to see the place so crowded. Was at a loss not sure whether to find a seat first or to queue for food first.
Better try not to come alone so at least one person could get seat and one could queue to order the food. The counter and the kitchen seemed messy and not very controlled quite a bit of shouting here and there.
Took a while before got to my turn to order the food. Not difficult to think of what to order just follow the chef's recommendation and order the dishes to try. Paid for the food and left heading to the table and realized one item was missed out so had to go back to make payment again.
Didn't wait for long for the numbers to be called to collect the food. Seriously the table was too small for the food hope they could do something about it. First came the kaya toast set. The drinks and eggs were decent, people come here to try the kaya toast with their special kaya. I thought it was decent too except that the kaya was more different from typical kind. Looks more sticky and richer in coconut flavour but that was it. The bread was toasted on the spot but it wasn't hot or even warm.
Then had the hokkien mee. We ordered the deluxe one which was slightly more expensive and realized the plating was different for different tables. Some would put the different ingredients nicely on top of the noodles and some just mix everything together. Deluxe one had scallops, the seafood was quite fresh but the noodles were a bit like scam because the plate was so flat. Try eating with fork and spoon instead of chopsticks you probably won't be able to get anything. Noodles were super wet which was my preferred style for hokkien mee, but I didn't like the super burnt taste.
Last came the prawn paste chicken wings. It was super hot every bite you take you can see the smoke coming out. Taste wise was decent nothing to shout about except for the price was quite expensive for $12. Was probably expecting 6 pieces but turned out only 4.
Can give a try but most probably won't head back.

Nic O.

The Kaya Toast was excellent, but the Ice Lemon Tea and FHM were not to my liking. The FHM was overly salty and needed lime to balance the flavor. The prawns and pork belly were good, but the pork lard was soft and not crispy. There was no sotong in the dish. The portion was quite small, so I ended up ordering a Salted Fish Fried Rice, which was average with a bland taste but good wok-hey.