MICHELIN Bib Gourmand CKT in Old Airport Road Food Centre that doesn’t quite hit the mark

Char kway teow stalls are in abundance in Singapore— you can easily find a hawker stall selling these delicious fried noodles anywhere you turn. However, Lao Fu Zi Fried Kway Teow piqued my interest despite its simple menu solely for one reason— it has been recommended by MICHELIN for 6 years straight.

The humble Lao Fu Zi Fried Kway Teow, located within Old Airport Road Food Centre, managed to land itself on the MICHELIN Guide Singapore, and was even awarded MICHELIN Bib Gourmand. The storefront proudly displays its accolades, including MICHELIN stickers from 2018 to 2023, as well as various other awards by local media companies.

Despite the numerous achievements attained by the stall, Lao Fu Zi Fried Kway Teow only has a 3.1 star rating on Google with over 270 ratings at the time of writing. I found the low ratings intriguing— how could a stall, which is lauded year after year by the prestigious MICHELIN company, receive such mediocre ratings? I decided to drop by to try out the stall’s char kway teow for myself.

What I tried at Lao Fu Zi Fried Kway Teow

Lao Fu Zi Fried Kway Teow sells its kway teow in 3 price points: S$5, S$8 and S$10. I opted for the S$5 portion and received a pretty standard amount of fried noodles tossed with black sauce, beansprouts, lap cheong, egg and green vegetables. While the portion wasn’t stingy, it wasn’t exactly generous either.

To preface, I am someone who prefers for my char kway teow to be rich, smokey and indulgent, with plenty of crunchy pork lard and charred bits scattered throughout. I love a plate of char kway teow with a heavy wok hei aroma— when it comes to this dish, “healthy” simply does not cut it for me.

Unfortunately, the char kway teow from Lao Fu Zi Fried Kway Teow did not manage to meet my expectations.

Armenian Street Char Kway Teow: Pork lard-laden plates of char kway teow by 2nd-gen hawker in Sengkang

The kway teow was not as saucy or rich as I would have liked. It tasted like any other regular plate of char kway teow, with a mild blend of savoury and sweet flavours that leaned a little heavier towards the savoury notes. The dish lacked wok hei, and there were no noticeable charred bits anywhere in the dish— great for health-conscious folk, not so much for me.

There was also not a lot of fried pork lard bits within, making the bulk of the dish pretty soft and silky. The only obvious textural contrast was from the beansprouts— I liked that the stall was generous in that aspect, at least.

There was an adequate amount of cockles within the dish, each of which were briny and pretty juicy. The pieces of lap cheong inside were firm and sweet, adding a nice pop of sweetness to the noodles.

In all other aspects, though, this plate of char kway teow tasted very ordinary. It was definitely not bad, by any means— it was simply a normal, less indulgent plate of char kway teow with a taste that you could probably easily find anywhere else.

Final thoughts

Though the char kway teow I had from Lao Fu Zi Fried Kway Teow was not my favourite kway teow I’ve had — that title still goes to Outram Park Fried Kway Teow Mee in Hong Lim Market and Food Centre — it was still pretty decent in satisfying my tastebuds and in filling me up.

Is it MICHELIN-worthy? Well, the MICHELIN team definitely thought so, but personally, I doubt I’d choose this stall as my go-to for my char kway teow fix.

A quick skim through the stall’s Google reviews reveal plenty of customers that sing praises about the char kway teow here, with an equal number of people criticising its relatively high price and supposed drop in quality. Hence, the verdict is up to you— why not give the stall a go and see where you stand?

Expected damage: S$5 – S$10 per pax

12 best char kway teow stalls in Singapore that will hit the sweet spot