Introduction
When a restaurant sells 3.3 million bowls of a single dish in one year, expectations naturally run high. Keming Bing Sat, the Hong Kong cha chaan teng phenomenon with 140 locations across Hong Kong and mainland China, has finally arrived in Singapore at Plaza Singapura. But does this award-winning chain translate its success to our local palate? I ventured to their pre-opening to dissect each dish, layer by layer.
The restaurant earned an 8/10 rating, with the reviewer noting that while dishes weren’t “mindblowingly good,” they offered “solid bang for our buck” and were “simple yet delicious.”
What Makes It Worth Visiting
The Star Dish: The Char Siew Rice ($10.90++) lives up to its hype. Despite being dubbed “No. 1 Best-Selling Char Siew Rice in China,” it’s affordably priced and features seven thick-cut pieces of tender char siew with the right amount of char, two sunny-side-up eggs, and kai lan over rice.
Strong Drinks Menu: Their viral Little Bear Iced Lemon Tea and Hong Kong Milk Tea (both $4.90++) received particular praise—the milk tea uses a traditional high pour and low draw brewing method, while the lemon tea was less sweet than typical versions elsewhere.
Good Value: Prices are reasonable for the portion sizes and quality, with most mains under $15.
Convenient Location: Located at Plaza Singapura’s basement, directly connected to Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station.
The Caveats
The Happiness Lava Egg Waffles were described as mediocre, and overall, the food was characterized as “decent but not exceptionally good.” So manage your expectations—this is solid comfort food rather than a groundbreaking culinary experience.
Recommended order: Char Siew Rice, Little Bear Iced Hong Kong Milk Tea, and Little Bear Iced Lemon Tea.
The Centerpiece: Char Siew Rice ($10.90++)
First Impressions
The presentation is deceptively humble. Seven thick-cut slabs of char siew lay arranged across a white oval plate, their mahogany surfaces glistening with caramelization. Two sunny-side-up eggs nestle between the meat, their yolks still trembling with viscous promise. Two stalks of kai lan provide the obligatory greenery, while beneath it all, a foundation of Wuchang rice waits to anchor the composition.
The Char Siew: A Textural Journey
The char siew reveals its complexity through careful examination. The exterior presents a lacquered finish, the result of precise caramelization that creates a sticky-sweet glaze without crossing into burnt territory. This outer layer provides initial resistance before yielding to the bite.
Beneath the surface lies the heart of the matter: alternating bands of lean meat and ivory-white fat. The fat content is substantial enough to create that coveted melt-in-your-mouth quality, yet restrained enough to avoid greasiness. Each piece demonstrates a delicate balance—the meat remains tender without falling apart, maintaining enough structural integrity to hold its shape on the chopsticks.
The flavor profile eschews the cloying sweetness that plagues lesser char siew. Instead, you encounter a nuanced sweetness tempered by savory notes, with char adding depth through its subtle bitterness. The meat carries the essence of its marinade throughout, not merely on the surface.
The Supporting Cast
The sunny-side-up eggs serve both functional and textural purposes. Their whites have set firm with lightly crisped edges, while the yolks remain gloriously runny. When broken, they cascade across the rice, creating an impromptu sauce that enriches each grain with golden richness.
The Wuchang rice deserves mention for its quality. Each grain maintains distinct separation, avoiding the mushiness that often afflicts cha chaan teng rice. However, here lies the dish’s singular flaw: insufficient soy sauce. The rice yearns for more seasoning, for that dark, salty-sweet liquid that would tie all elements together into a cohesive whole.
The kai lan provides textural contrast with its crisp stems and tender leaves, though it functions more as garnish than essential component.
The Complete Experience
When consumed as intended—a forkful combining rice enriched with egg yolk, a morsel of char siew, and perhaps a fragment of kai lan—the dish achieves harmony. The fat from the char siew lubricates the rice, the egg yolk adds silken richness, and the vegetables offer brief vegetal relief. It’s comfort food elevated through quality ingredients and proper execution.
Scallion Oil Chicken Chop on Hot Plate ($13.90++)
Presentation and Theater
This dish arrives with drama. The hot plate still sizzles, releasing wisps of steam that carry the perfume of scallion oil skyward. The composition is carefully arranged: a substantial chicken fillet dominates the plate, its surface crowned with a generous mound of spring onions glistening in scallion oil. A sunny-side-up egg provides familiar comfort, while purple lettuce adds visual contrast with its deep violet leaves.
Deconstructing the Chicken
The chicken fillet showcases precise grilling technique. Its exterior bears the hallmarks of proper heat application: a light brown crust that provides textural contrast without desiccating the interior. The meat beneath remains remarkably tender and moist, each fiber retaining its juiciness despite the high-heat cooking method.
The thickness of the cut is significant—this is no thin, flattened schnitzel, but a substantial piece of chicken that requires proper chewing. The meatiness is pronounced, offering genuine satisfaction with each bite.
The Scallion Oil Element
The scallion oil treatment elevates what could be simple grilled chicken into something more aromatic and complex. The spring onions, having been briefly bathed in hot oil, release their essential oils while softening their bite. They contribute a subtle oniony fragrance that perfumes each mouthful without overwhelming the chicken’s natural flavor.
The oil itself serves multiple purposes: it adds richness, carries aromatics, and provides moisture to the lean chicken breast. However, the dish reveals a gap in its conception—the absence of a dipping sauce. While the scallion oil provides lubrication, it lacks the flavor complexity that a well-crafted sauce could bring. A ginger-scallion sauce, or perhaps something with soy and sesame, would transform this from good to exceptional.
The Rice and Accompaniments
Beneath the chicken lies rice studded with caramelized chopped onions. These golden fragments provide pockets of concentrated sweetness, their sugars having undergone the Maillard reaction during cooking. They’re a delightful discovery, though their distribution is uneven—more would be welcome.
The purple lettuce serves primarily as textural counterpoint, its crisp leaves and slight bitterness providing relief from the richness of oil and meat.
Signature Snack Platter ($8.80++)
This quartet of Hong Kong street food classics demonstrates range, though with varying degrees of success.
The Ngoh Hiang
The clear standout, these rolls exhibit textural mastery. The wrapper achieves that elusive balance: genuinely crispy and crackling on the outside, yet the filling within remains soft and yielding. The Thai sweet chili sauce provides a sweet-spicy glaze that complements without overwhelming. Each bite offers the satisfying contrast between brittle shell and tender interior, creating an almost addictive quality.
Curry Fishballs
These spheres of processed fish paste carry the distinctive bounce that defines quality fishballs. The curry sauce clings to their surface, providing warmth and spice. They’re exactly what one expects—no more, no less.
Chee Cheong Fun
The rice noodle rolls arrive doused in savory peanut sauce. The rice sheets themselves are silky and slippery, their neutral flavor serving as canvas for the nutty, salty sauce. The texture is pleasant, though the dish plays a supporting role in this ensemble.
Chicken Wing Tips
These small, bony morsels offer more effort than reward, though their crispy coating provides satisfying crunch for those willing to navigate the bones.
Happiness Lava Egg Waffles ($6.90++ for four)
These egg-shaped waffles promise more than they deliver. The exterior achieves pleasing lightness, with a fluffy interior crumb that demonstrates proper batter hydration and cooking technique. The cheese filling, however, proves disappointingly restrained. While this prevents messiness, it also prevents excitement. The filling barely registers, leaving these as pleasant but unremarkable vehicles for Instagram documentation rather than genuine culinary satisfaction.
The waffle itself is well-executed—airy pockets throughout, good rise, and even browning. But the “lava” component fails to live up to its name, trickling rather than flowing.
Lava Ovaltine Toast ($7.90++)
This dessert demonstrates Hong Kong’s penchant for playful textures and nostalgic flavors.
The Construction
A thick-cut piece of white bread has been hollowed and toasted to golden-brown crispness. Within this edible vessel resides a pool of sweetened milk, its surface dusted with Ovaltine powder and Oreo crumbs.
The Textural Interplay
The genius lies in the contrast. The toast exterior maintains its structural integrity, providing crispy, crunchy walls that resist the milk’s moisture—at least initially. As you eat, the toast gradually absorbs the liquid, creating zones of varying texture: from crisp-dry edges to milk-softened center.
The recommended technique—dunking the crispy edges into the pooled milk and Oreo crumbs—creates moments of textural complexity: the crunch of toast meeting the smooth sweetness of milk, punctuated by Oreo fragments that add chocolate notes and additional crunch.
The Milk Component
The sweetened milk proves refreshingly light. Unlike condensed milk-based desserts that can overwhelm with cloying sweetness, this milk maintains drinkable consistency and moderate sugar levels. Even toward the end, when you’ve consumed multiple toast-and-milk combinations, the sweetness never becomes oppressive.
The Ovaltine contributes its characteristic malty flavor, adding nostalgic depth, while Oreo crumbs provide chocolate notes and welcome textural variety.
The Beverages: Hong Kong Tea Mastery
Little Bear Iced Hong Kong Milk Tea ($4.90++)
This represents traditional Hong Kong milk tea crafted with proper technique. The high pour and low draw method—repeatedly pouring tea from height to aerate it—creates the signature velvety texture that distinguishes Hong Kong milk tea from ordinary versions.
The texture is notably thick, almost creamy in consistency. The tea base maintains strong presence, its robustness not buried beneath milk. As the bear-shaped ice cube melts, the drink gradually lightens, allowing those who prefer less intensity to simply wait.
The balance between tea and milk demonstrates expertise. Neither element dominates; instead, they merge into something greater than their parts. This is milk tea as it should be: substantial, flavorful, and satisfying.
Little Bear Iced Lemon Tea ($4.90++)
The viral status of this drink is well-earned. Using fragrant Ceylon black tea leaves, the tea undergoes repeated pulling to intensify its aromatic qualities. This process oxygenates the tea while ensuring even flavor distribution.
The resulting beverage showcases pronounced tea fragrance without excessive bitterness. The lemon provides bright acidity and citrus perfume, while the sweetness level demonstrates admirable restraint. Where most iced lemon teas veer toward syrupy sweetness, this version maintains balance, allowing the tea’s natural character to shine through.
The drink refreshes rather than cloying, making it an ideal accompaniment to the richness of the savory dishes.
The Soda Options
The Pink Bear Soda and Dreamy Blue Bear Soda (both $5.90++) offer Instagram-friendly refreshment. The guava-flavored pink version provides tropical sweetness, while the blue variant adds visual novelty. These are pleasant but unremarkable, serving primarily as photogenic alternatives for those avoiding tea or seeking fruity sweetness.
Ambience and Context
The 50-seat space captures cha chaan teng atmosphere without resorting to kitsch. Wooden fixtures and neutral tones create warmth, while lighting levels strike a balance between visibility and coziness. The Mong Kok cafe aesthetic translates surprisingly well to Plaza Singapura’s basement, creating a space that feels transported rather than replicated.
The location proves ideal for accessibility, with direct connection to Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station ensuring easy access for both office workers seeking lunch and shoppers needing refueling.
Final Analysis
Keming Bing Sat delivers exactly what it promises: solid, satisfying Hong Kong comfort food at reasonable prices. The char siew rice justifies its bestseller status through quality execution and value proposition. The beverages demonstrate proper technique and traditional methods. The supporting dishes range from good to adequate.
What the restaurant doesn’t attempt is culinary innovation or groundbreaking excellence. This is comfort food prepared competently, priced fairly, and served in pleasant surroundings. For those seeking authentic Hong Kong cha chaan teng experience in central Singapore, it succeeds admirably.
The 8/10 rating reflects this reality: very good at what it does, without claiming to be more. Sometimes, that’s precisely what you want.
Recommendations
Must-Order: Char Siew Rice, Little Bear Iced Hong Kong Milk Tea, Little Bear Iced Lemon Tea
Worth Trying: Scallion Oil Chicken Chop (despite missing sauce), Signature Snack Platter (particularly the ngoh hiang), Lava Ovaltine Toast
Skip: Happiness Lava Egg Waffles (unless you prioritize aesthetics over flavor)
Overall Rating: 8/10 – Delivers solid comfort food with excellent value in a convenient location.