Growing up, my cousin and sister would bring me to Centrepoint Shopping Centre and we would sometimes eat at a place called Noodle House. That seems to be the days before the Crystal Jade Group became the go-to Hong Kong-Chinese food place. I haven’t been to Centrepoint for some time, and apparently Noodle House has been renamed Noodle Place Restaurant. There has also been a recent seemingly positive review on IeatIshootIpost, which is why Su, Leo and I decided to try it. What’s my verdict?
We shared a roast platter comprising roast meat and charsiew. The roast meat tasted exactly like the ones my mother gets at our wet market, the sort people use for prayers especially. The charsiew was succulent and soft. Leo commented that it might be meat from the neck or shoulder, I’m not sure. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not as crisp on the outside as I like. I like my char siew with char. I’ve had better charsiew, one of my favourite is, again, from the adjoining hawker centre of my wet market.
Since the wanton noodles sounded good, Leo and I ordered. To our surprise, we were served this:
To be completely honest, I have never seen worse presentation than this. It’s basically skinny noodles in soup. I don’t even see my wanton. Only after digging around did the wantons surface.
These are shrimp wantons, not the normal pork-filled. The wanton filling has an overkill of pepper and marinade, totally masking the supposed sweetness of fresh prawns. The prawns are chewy as expected. The noodles are in fact skinnier than the usual ones we get outside, and somehow it’s cooked al dente, too hard for my liking. The alkaline taste was really strong, and it seeped into the soup. The soup has a very strong taste of salted fish (and the alkaline from the noodles), a taste I don’t quite enjoy. So this was a disappointing meal.
I recall I used to enjoy food from Noodle House when I was a child. I remember eating the congee there and I liked it. I don’t quite recall the noodle dishes though, which is ironic since they are after all, Noodle House.
This place does not warrant a return visit, unfortunately.
Noodle Place Restaurant
176 Orchard Road
Centrepoint #01-53/56
Tel: 67333171
