Opened since 1996 in Sham Shui Po Hong Kong, Tamjai Samgor mixian has been in the business for a good 20 over years and is considered one of the more famous mixian shop in Hong Kong. Getting their first “Bib Gourmand” restaurant by the MICHELIN Guide in 2011, they successfully held onto the award for another 2 consecutive years from 2012 to 2013 and have over 60 outlets just in Hong Kong. Strangely, I have never really heard about this store in my multiple visits to Hong Kong, probably because I am not a big fan of the mixian kind of noodles.
Tamjai Samgor opened their first International outlet in Singapore’s Bedok mall in Oct last year followed by 2 other outlets in VivoCity and Chinatown Point. With every new restaurant joining the local scene, there is always great interest generated with long queues so I decided to join them to try out the noodles
Located within the basement 2 space, Tamjai Samgor Mixian is nestled along the row of restaurants and snack counters with rather limited seating areas.
To prevent long queues outside the restaurant, they adopted a QR code queue system where customers can scan to get a queue number and SMS notifications when a table is ready for your group size.
Mixian is basically a kind of rice vermicelli noodles just like the usual bee hoon but thicker in width and slightly tougher and chewier in texture and originated from Yunan, China. It is made from ordinary non-glutinous rice, and it is generally sold fresh rather than dried. The ones used at Tanjai Samgor is gluten free and can be paired with 7 types of soup bases.
Ordering can be quite an intimidating process with the long list of ingredients and items to choose from so first, you choose the topping for your basic bowl. Each topping category is priced differently. Topping A is priced at SGD 6.50 and any additional priced at SGD 1.20 each while B is at SGD 7 and any additional item at SGD 1.70 each. Topping C is the most expensive at 7.80 and any additional at SGD 2.50 each. Each bowl comes with a basic topping of chives, beansprouts and bean curd skin which can be removed if you inform the staff upon ordering.
Next, you choose the soup bases from the 7 types available. Only the clear soup is free and other bases are available with a top up of between 50 cents to SGD 1. The last step will be to choose the spiciness level for your bowl.
For example: If I choose a pork + cuttlefish ball with Mala soup, it will be a total of SGD 6.50+ 2.50 + 0.50 = SGD 9.50 for my bowl of noodles.
Other than the customisable noodles, there are also noodle options with fixed toppings like the Guo Qiao Mi Xian ( Mixian over the bridge) which includes 16 types of toppings as well as other snacks for sharing.
I ordered the pork in tomato soup base even though their signature is the mala soup since I don’t really enjoy mala noodles. I had high expectations of the soup since most HK restaurants offered good tomato soup base noodles. At first glance, the serving was pretty decent for a bowl of under SGD 10 noodles.
The mixian had a nice spring and chew to it and had no raw rice taste. It was surprisingly smooth and went very well with the tomato broth. The broth itself is quite refreshing, light and tangy with a slight natural sweetness from the tomatoes unlike the HDL one which is overly oily. I would have loved that the broth was thicker in consistency but this was still acceptable.
The meat toppings however were a little on the meager side with a few thinly sliced pork meat while others like bean sprouts, chives and bean curd skin was aplenty. The noodles were served piping hot which is a plus point for any noodles establishment.
We ordered other sides like the century egg with pepper tipped sauce which is actually chopped up peppers and garlic. Personally, I did not like the combination of the sauce with the century egg as they did not complement it each. The peppers had this numbing taste which was weird with the creamy century eggs.
The other item we had was the smashed garlic with sliced pork. This dish was a little disappointing as it was served with just a huge lump of minced garlic in the middle of the sliced pork and soy and chili oil was just splashed on top of it. I felt that the condiments and the pork did not get to be mixed properly to complement each other. Instead, you either get very strong garlic flavours or just salty pork. It was also difficult to be mixing the flavours for customers as it was served in a small dish.
Lastly, this dish came highly recommended in the menu and many tables also ordered them so we decided to order a small portion of 3 pieces to try. The mid joint wings came looking rather pale with only a nice char colour on the top. Once I bite into the wing, I realised that there was quite a high amount of cumin used in making this dish which instantly reminded me of meals in the middle east. Personally, I am not a fan of cumin so I couldn’t enjoy the chicken wings.
Overall, for those who love mixian, there is a nice yet different option to try out as their noodles are not too bad even though it is not perfect. It could be a suitable place to bring a picky customer who likes to customise their noodles down to each ingredients.
Address: 1 HarbourFront Walk, #B2-28, Singapore 098585
Operating hours : 10 am to 10 pm
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