Now helmed by 3rd-generation hawker Tony, the kitchen at Quan Ji has been churning out zi char fare for several decades now. It started as a street stall manned by Tony's grandfather along Hong Kong Street, not too far from where it is currently located. Tony has kept to the recipes of old over the years, hence maintaining the gu zao wei 古早味 that customers these days still yearn for.
We spot Tony in the thick of action in the open kitchen, and note that business is brisk on a Wednesday evening. The menu is kept simple and all of 2 pages. Orders are taken by an amiable Cantonese-speaking lady who scan the crowd and guides you to an available table in the stall's vicinity. She has an elephant's memory - no notes, no order chits - but all the dishes and portion sizes arrive at our table promptly and accurately.
The Food
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| Yellow Cloth Noodle with Prawns 黄布捞面 ($20) |
This used to be an off-menu item but it's probably the worst-kept secret around, as it was frequently doing the social media rounds and helped the stall bring in the novelty seeking crowd. Now, though, it's an item that's officially printed on the menu. There's just one serving size here - a $20 portion that's certainly good enough for 3 to 4 people (seeing that you'd likely be ordering several side dishes).
It's essentially blanched egg noodles tossed in oyster sauce and lard oil, with a mass of creamy eggs blanketed over the noodles (akin to a "yellow cloth" - hence its name). The key to the dish is how the eggs are fried quickly in lard oil so that it's still slightly runny and not overcooked. The original version comes with large prawns, but now you have an option of having it with beef, chicken or seafood (all at an additional $5). In fact, you can now even replace the egg noodles with hor fun, bee hoon or crispy noodles at no extra cost.
The whole combination comes together quite decently, but because it's a heady mix of lard-eggs-noodles, the flavours become monotonous after a while. I do feel pairing this with some sliced green chilli helps freshen things up a little as you navigate the dish.
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| Prawn Roll 虾枣 ($15) |
The prawn rolls here are not made in-stall and I felt they were lacking in prawn meat (some water chestnuts would have helped elevate the texture too). We were divided over this dish - some at the table liked it, whereas I personally felt that there was just a little too much flour binding the minced meat together.
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| Prawn Paste Chicken 虾酱鸡 ($15) |
This was my star of the night. I am quite particular about my prawn paste chicken and this checks a lot of boxes of what qualifies as a good har cheong gai. The mid-wings were of a good size, with an ultra-crisp batter enveloping juicy chicken meat that had been deeply-permeated by the prawn paste marinade.
I saw a neighboring table who ordered the large size (probably 18-20 wings on the plate), and commented to my buddy, "How are they going to finish that?" After digging in, I came to the realization that I was the ignorant one.
They were seriously that good.
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| Kai Lan with Garlic 蒜蓉芥兰 ($10) |
Our obligatory fibre came in the form of this kai lan with garlic. I will be nasty here and advise against ordering this. It was way too salty and oddly, there was a whiff of fishiness to the whole dish - we suspect the wok could have been used for a fish stir-fry and was not thoroughly cleansed through before our kai lan was thrown in.
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| Bittergourd with Fish Head in Bean Paste Sauce 苦瓜鱼头 ($20) |
I had lofty expectations of this - Quan Ji is, after all, a Cantonese-style zi char stall and bittergourd in bean paste is as Cantonese as you can get. But this was lacklustre and mediocre at best - the bittergourd was not stewed soft enough, while the gravy was watery and lacking in oomph.
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| Seafood Hor Fun 什锦河粉 ($6) |
This seafood hor fun had an old-school flavor to it - it's what I remember hor fun to be when I first had it as a kid years ago. The hor fun retained a chewy texture and you could tell that they had been well-tossed in the fiery wok to amass this mouthwatering, smoky aroma. The gravy is nicely viscous and light, complementing the strong-tasting hor fun well. Simple, but hearty.
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| Stir-fried Hor Fun with Beef 干炒牛河 ($16) |
This was an add-on order, and a result of an unfortunate miscommunication, Throughout our meal, we kept seeing the Beanpaste Beef Hor Fun being dished up and served to the surrounding tables. Looking at how everyone was slurping it up, we couldn't resist ordering it. But alas, my buddy inadvertently ordered the dry version instead. Still, this was quite good, although the hor fun was just a tad over-seared - instead of hints of wok hei, every mouthful had a burnt after-taste.
Check out the reel below for a closer look at the food:
Address: Amoy Street Food Centre #01-56/57
Opening Hours:
Wednesdays to Fridays 11am to 10.15pm
Saturdays & Sundays 3.30pm to 9.30pm
Wednesdays to Fridays 11am to 10.15pm
Saturdays & Sundays 3.30pm to 9.30pm
Closed on Mondays & Tuesdays
Date of Last Visit: 3rd May 2023
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