Adam Road Food Centre

C says:

Just like Maxwell Food Centre, this isn’t a place that you should go to on a Monday, because some of the stalls, like the Seafood BBQ and the dessert stalls, are closed, and the opening hours of some other stalls are quite erratic. When we went two Mondays ago with Y and J, King George Delights was open, but they went again yesterday and it was closed. And to make things worse, the prawn noodles that Y tried to order had no pork ribs, probably a consequence of the general rule that fish and meat purveyors tend to close on Mondays after a bustling weekend. Anyway moral is – if you have to go to Adam on a Monday, be prepared to be disappointed if some of your favourite stalls are closed.

We went for dinner on Tuesday, and after being unlucky twice with the tau suan from the dessert stall, third time was thankfully a charm for A. The bowl was piled high with you char kuay – very generous for just $1 – and the tau suan was really smooth and not at all starchy. It wasn’t too sweet either. Very good, considering that I’m not a big tau suan fan myself.

We usually come here after running and have the seafood barbeque (sambal stingray and kangkong), which is really quite delicious, but lately we’ve been feeling that it more than negates our hard work at the gym. Y introduced me to the sliced fish soup at King George Delights recently, and since then I must say I’m hooked (oh dear, in no way was that meant to be a pun). Besides feeling really healthy because its sliced fish slices and tofu in a clear soup (hopefully as low fat as hawker food can go), it’s actually really delicious to boot. For $4, they’re extremely generous with their ingredients – you get substantial slices of very fresh batang fish (mackerel), some cubes of tofu and a fair amount of vegetables. The fish is generously sliced, and is remarkably fresh and springy.


The soup is the clear sort, not the milky type that I usually prefer. This adds to the whole healthy feel of the dish though, and the soup here clearly doesn’t suffer from the lack of the milk element. It’s very flavourful, and you can tell it’s not through salt or MSG. It’s the real thing – a proper good fish stock. The soup is a little tangy and sour because of the addition of tomatoes, tamarind (assam/sour plum) and julienned (heh) Szechuan vegetables. This is now my favourite dish at Adam.

King George does a mean fried rice as well. A had this on Tuesday night because too much roti john and nasi lemak isn’t the best for cholesterol levels. The fried rice, which came topped with an egg, had a good wok hei aroma, and the little bits of fried silverfish added some serious flavour shots as well.

I’m glad we’ve found some stuff to eat at Adam that’s remotely healthy, since almost everything else there will pretty much add 5 times the number of calories we burned during our workout before dinner there. Thanks to Y & J for introducing King George, and for ensuring that we stick to our diet, heh.

A says:

I’ve been coming here for years and until recently, only liked the teh tarik and seafood barbeque. Here’s a quick rundown of good stuff there:

King George – First time I tried it and I liked the added oomph with the salty silverfish.

Adam Seafood BBQ – Still one of the best in Singapore although the size of the stingrays has shrunk over the years (damn over-fishing, pollution, global warming, etc…)

Number 1 Nasi Lemak (Stall No.2) – Supposedly where the Sultan of Brunei gets his Nasi Lemak when he’s in town. It’s not bad, but definitely not worth the wait from the long queues that usually form there.

Sup Tulang – See previous review.

Taj Mahal – One of the better teh halia stores among the many there.

Fruit Juice Stalls – The feud between the two fruit juice stalls has toned down from the days when they used to hurl insults at each other in front of you. I find the one with the loud woman has some interesting stuff (like the mysterious “House Special”) and are generally friendlier. Ordered from the constantly depressed looking guy the last time and was surprised by how nice and sweet his juice was. (Yes I realize how gay that last line sounds!)

Dessert Stall – Very good. For iced cheng teng and especially the tau suan. Will try their ice kachang there soon.