Brian Kennett
Amateur Chef and Foodie Extraordinaire
A Traditional Coffee Shop
Jin Wee Restaurant is about as local as it gets in Siglap and it is right on our doorstep. The quality of food coming from this little hawker cum coffee shop is Michelin Star grade as it is consistent every single time we have been here. You have to come for their Signature charcoal chicken soup that is baked for hours in this huge earthenware urn at the front of the restaurant. If you lift the lid of that you see loads of mini urns all stacked up the sides that contain the soup. This is slow cooking and adds massive flavour as the charcoal permeates through the earthenware pots. It is genius and the soup is just insanely good and so very cheap.
So we want to give you a great restaurant review as they deserve it
Traditions of Jin Wee Restaurant
Their other signature dishes are Hainanese Pork Chop Siglap and Jin Wee Salted Chicken. It surely is a different taste menu and always gets searched for salt-baked chicken Singapore. No wonder Singapore has received the recognition of its hawker culture added to Unesco list of intangible cultural heritage in 2020.
Jin Wee restaurant is an old-fashioned family-owned Hainanese Kopitiam (AKA traditional coffee shop) that has been running and serving up incredible local food offerings since 1963 which makes it 58 years old in my reckoning.
I recommend you come early and I recommend you bring your own beer and you also need to come hungry. It is packed, mobbed in fact and whilst we were there they overtook the forecourt of the shop next to them which was actually the shop frontage for a wine shop. There were so many people here this day and so many already queuing and seemingly coming from afar as they were getting off the bus after bus. It is well worth a visit to this place – Jin Wee Restaurant @ Siglap.
Come to 928 East Coast Road to visit the unassuming Jin Wee Restaurant. Just look for that huge earthen-ware pot out the front containing their signature dishes or sniff out the smell of burning charcoal and you’ll find it easy.
When you walk past this place all you see is this HUGE earthenware ‘pot’ at the front. If you lift that lid you get a waft of charcoal burning smell and then see loads of those little pots in the front stacked around the inside.
Yep this is a version of reverse searing pot in pot low and slow over charcoal – smoky and amazing!!!
Jin Wee Restaurant Michelin Star Grade Hawker Food
Winner winner chicken soup thing in a clay pot that cooks with a bigger clay pot, long-cooked, greasy and super-intense flavoured chicken dinner. This was an absolute BELTER and for this one dish, we have been back again and again. You can see the grease floating on the top, looking like it is a soup almost made from rendered chicken fat that has been charcoaling away for so long in another big pot. WOOF!!!
This is about as local as it gets… not licensed though so BYOD…
Jin Wee - signature Chicken Soup
You MUST order the signature dish which is obviously a Jin Wee Restaurant Chef recommendation.
Jiao Hua Charcoal Chicken.
@ $18
The lady pulls out this long metal pole with a hook thing on the end. “Hold on sweetheart I only ordered the charcoal chicken soup,” says I, now squeezing my buttocks firmly to the seat.
Actually what happened next was that she used this hook to pull out a small pot, an individual pot, from the huge pot sitting on the forecourt of the restaurant.
When you first come here you assume this is just for show, but no it is actually full of charcoal and has little shelves all down its inner sides and these shelves are covered with the smaller pots that have, seemingly, been in there for hours, and hours cooking away. This makes the chicken meat fall away from the bone and fall apart in your mouth with little or no need to chew.
OMG, it is simply exquisite and massively umami. Well done Jin Wee Restaurant.
Let's have a look at the rest of their food - well what we ordered...
I got a wee bit lost with this one. I read the menu and saw Hai Nan Pork Cutlet and thought this could be like that dish we get at Joe’s click to see the previous blog.
That is BBQ’d pork in banana leaves that you then simply squeeze on some Calamansi lime juice to the meat.
But nope, this was a pork cutlet almost Japanese in style (Tonkatsu), then sliced up with sweet and sour sauce (tomato and pineapple) and potatoes. Weird dish. This one came home with us, not a massively popular one.
@ $12
We got two of these – well at $5 each why bother getting steamed rice x4 when you can buy 2x this dish and get rice with it.
Works for me.
And this was really good for $5.
Pork rice with ginger and Spring onion was delicious.
@ $5
I love the fact that Amy can read a menu and choose her own food now in Mandarin.
She ordered a rather scrummy, albeit super-sweet, omelette stuffed with Chinese sausage slices.
A good choice Amy Boo.
@ $10
Wifey and Ollie go for the Fish Head Chacoal Soup.
Yes, you will see spelling mistakes there but that is indeed how it is spelt in the menu haha.
But yes it is another of those amazing charcoal soups in a pot. WOW!!!
@ $20
Jin Wee Restaurant Price
This is about as cheap as it gets for hawker/coffee shop food with dishes ranging from $4 to $8 maxing at $10 for LARGE.
Jin Wee Restaurant Menu
Jin Wee Restaurant Opening Times
Sunday CLOSED
Monday-Saturday 09:00am-09:00pm
Jin Wee Restaurant location
928 E Coast Rd, Singapore 459117
Phone; 9852 7066
This is a turn up early to avoid the queues and disappointment because you can’t book. Jin Wee Restaurant is a coffee shop la! It is seriously good food and is right up there with the best. Don’t forget your Eski though as it is non-licensed, but they will allow you to BYOD. Dig in my friends, dig in as it is so very very good. Islifearecipe gives a huge thumbs up for Jin Wee Restaurant @ Siglap.
ENJOY!!!
Is Life a Recipe YouTube Channel
Other recent hawker reviews from ISLIFEARECIPE
- Jiu Tian Roasted Delights @ 727 E Coast Road Hawker – right on the corner, highly recommended Hainanese Chicken Rice
- Old Satay Mee Goreng @ Gluttons Bay, Makansutra – get your Murtabak head on and dig in
- Bedok Marketplace #ModSinHawker – a variety of stalls and bars, it is brilliant
- 245 East Coast Lagoon Hawker – known as ‘the local’, this is another Mum for me and the best bar on East Coast
Or, if you’d rather stay at home then why not try some of our ChillaxBBQ chicken recipes
- ChillaxBBQ vs McDonalds – chicken nugget showdown
- Jude’s Beer Bum Chicken Dinner – the very best way to roast a chicken in my humble opinion
- ChillaxBBQ Chicken Kebab – no Kofta or Gyros, this is roast chicken all the way
- ChillaxBBQ Chicken Satay Skewers – signature dishes galore
- Chicken Laksa Recipe – my very own take on a non-piscatorial version of Singapore’s famous Laksa
