Sin Hoi Sai - Tiong Bahru’s Michelin-Listed Zi Char Since 1978

Founded in 1978 by Madam Yap Sor Khim and still run by the same family, Sin Hoi Sai sits at the foot of an HDB block on Tiong Bahru Road, where tanks of live fish and shellfish line the entrance and diners pick their crab before it goes to the wok. The MICHELIN Guide lists the restaurant, noting that it serves live seafood only and singling out the chilli crab and black pepper crab. Beyond the crab, the kitchen keeps up a long zi char menu that includes several dishes now rarely seen in Singapore, cooked to order across a bank of gas burners and carried out to tables that spill onto the open-air terrace.

Chilli Crab

The crab is selected live from the tanks and priced by weight, which is why no fixed figure appears on the menu. Sri Lankan mud crab is the usual choice here, chopped through the shell and finished in a sauce built on tomato and chilli, thickened and streaked with beaten egg so it clings to every joint. The sauce is what regulars order extra rice for, and deep-fried mantou buns are the standard partner, split open and pressed into the gravy. Gloves are provided at the table.

Black Pepper Crab

The drier counterpart to the chilli crab, and the dish the MICHELIN Guide names alongside it. Crab pieces are tossed hard in a wok with coarsely cracked black pepper, butter and curry leaf until the shells take on a dark, almost lacquered coating. There is no gravy to speak of; the pepper is meant to sit directly on the shell, so the heat arrives on the fingers before the flesh. Sizes run from small to large, and the same weight-based pricing applies.

Moonlight Hor Fun

Flat rice noodles fried over high heat, plated, then crowned with a raw egg yolk that arrives intact at the table for diners to break and fold through themselves. The residual heat of the noodles cooks the yolk just enough to coat the strands. It is a dish that depends entirely on wok control, since the noodles must carry enough smoke and char to stand up to the egg without turning greasy, and it is one of the most frequently ordered plates at the restaurant.

Prawn Paste Chicken

Har cheong gai, marinated in fermented prawn paste before frying. The paste does the seasoning work on its own, lending a salty, faintly funky depth that ordinary batter cannot reach, and the coating fries up thin rather than heavy. Sin Hoi Sai serves a mix of cuts rather than wings alone, which gives the plate a range of textures from the drumette through to the joint.

Guinness Pork Ribs

Pork ribs braised and glazed in a reduction built on stout, which cooks down to a dark, faintly bitter sweetness that plays against the fat in the meat. It belongs to the same family as coffee ribs and marmite ribs, both of which also appear on the menu, but the stout version is the one the kitchen is known for. The ribs come coated rather than sauced, so the glaze sets on the surface.

Pig Trotters Bee Hoon

A dish that has quietly disappeared from most zi char menus, and one of the stronger reasons to order beyond the crab. Braised pig trotter is served over rice vermicelli, and Sin Hoi Sai makes a noticeably saucier version than the standard, letting the collagen-rich braising liquid soak into the noodles rather than keeping the two components separate. The trotter is cooked until the skin gives way under a spoon.

Cereal Prawns

Prawns fried in their shells, then tossed with buttered cereal, curry leaves and cut chilli until the cereal clumps into a crisp, savoury-sweet crumb. The shells are left on so the flesh stays plump through the second toss in the wok. This is a long-standing order among regulars and one of the dishes that turns up most often on shared tables.

Deep-Fried Yam Ring

Mashed yam is shaped into a ring, deep-fried until the outer wall crisps into a honeycomb shell, then filled with a stir-fry of diced meat, vegetables, cashews and dried chilli. The contrast between the soft, faintly sweet yam and the savoury filling is the point of the dish, and it is built to be broken apart and shared. It also happens to be a piece of banquet cooking that fewer kitchens still bother to make from scratch.

Hotplate Deer Venison

Venison sliced thin and served on a cast-iron plate that keeps sizzling at the table, finished with onions and a dark, slightly sweet sauce. Game meat is uncommon on Singapore zi char menus, and its presence here is a reminder that the menu was written in an earlier era of local Chinese restaurant cooking. The hotplate continues to cook the meat after it lands, so it is a dish to start on early.

Sambal Stingray

A stingray wing laid over banana leaf and cooked under direct heat, then finished with a thick sambal built on belacan, shallots and chilli that is spread across the surface rather than served alongside. The flesh of the wing pulls away from the cartilage in ribbons, which is what makes it a sharing dish, and the banana leaf scorches underneath and perfumes the fish as it cooks. Calamansi and raw sliced onion come with it to cut through the sambal.

Sin Hoi Sai has been serving the same neighbourhood for close to five decades, and the combination of live tanks, an open-air terrace and a zi char menu that still carries pig trotters bee hoon and hotplate venison makes it a useful stop for anyone tracing older Singapore Chinese cooking. Come with a group, order a crab by weight, and fill the rest of the table from the zi char list.

55 Tiong Bahru Road, #01-59, Singapore 160055
Opening Hours: 4:00pm – 1:00am, daily
Tel: +65 6223 0810
Reservations: managed directly by the restaurant by phone; also listed on Chope