Outram Park Ya Hua Rou Gu Char

I haven't visited Ya Hua since I was a kid and the last time I tried their bak kut teh, Ya Hua was still situated around the Outram area. In fact, I didn't even know they moved to Keppel until my best friend told me about it a long time back. I've been wanting to come here and try this bak kut teh which I ate so often as a child and finally this opportunity presented itself.

We wanted to visit the KTM train station before the last train pulled out of the station at the end of the month so we came by for bak kut teh first. The crowd was large! I can't tell whether it was filled with like-minded people who came by to take one last look at the train station as well or the saturday crowd was always this immense. Anyway it took us a long while to get a table and we are very grateful to the young couple who kindly gave up their seats to us promptly after they finished eating.

After we sat down, we had to fill in this order form first and pass it to the staff walking around. Both of us ordered the lean pork ribs bak kut teh, salted vegetable (which to me is always cai bei), you tiao and a cup of cold barley each. As you can see below, there is a large variety of food items you can order to go with your bak kut teh.

We waited for a very long while.... which was quite all right since we whiled the time away by chatting and catching up. The large crowd definitely did slow them down and it was understandable that it took awhile before our bak kut teh arrived. When it finally did, I could hardly contain my joy.

The bak kut teh at Ya Hua is the white kind. Some people enjoy the black bak kut teh soup while others prefer the white ones. I personally like the white ones better and the soup at Ya Hua is peppery and delicious. The pork ribs had lots of lean meat which was such a joy to bite into. Some bak kut teh stores tend to give you ribs which are really just that ie ribs with no meat at all. Definitely not at Ya Hua. There was sufficient meat attached to the ribs to keep me happy. The pork ribs were fresh with no porky taste (thank goodness!) The salted vegetable was braised till its soft and nice. I love soft salted vegetables! I know some stores tend to serve the hard crunchy kind but I personally like the soft types better.  
The soup can be refilled! We each refilled our bowls thrice.

Ya Hua operates on a spilt shift basis which means they rest in the late afternoon (as seen on the menu above). So you can come by either for lunch, dinner or supper since they are opened till late. It's not super convenient for me because it's a distance away from the MRT station but there is a bus stop located just a short walk away from Ya Hua. Bus 30 stops there! That's what we took from our side down to Ya Hua.

Oh and it's quite hot sitting there eating piping hot bak kut teh with no fans blowing so dont wear jeans like I did. I felt like an idiot but who cares? I got to eat nice bak kut teh!

7 Keppel Road, #01-05/07 Tanjong Pagar Complex, Singapore