Food Picks: $25.80++ weekday lunch buffet from Hey Kee HK Seafood

SINGAPORE – Guillemard Road restaurant Hey Kee HK Seafood cannot quite transport you to Hong Kong for lunch, but it tries to offer the next best thing.

The eatery serves up an earnest tribute to dai pai dong culture – the now-endangered Hong Kong experience of grabbing a bite at street stalls – as well as retro 1980s decor, complete with red folding chairs and green banquet tables. Not to mention value – lots of it too.  

On weekdays, it runs an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at $25.80++ a person. Diners can pick from over 30 Hong Kong-style dishes spanning appetisers, meats, vegetables, rice, noodles and desserts. 

There is also a premium selection, comprising, among others, hearty street-style shark’s fin soup; prawns crisped up with a hair dryer and smothered in white pepper; and Angus beef, tender, pink and flambeed with whiskey. Each table can order a maximum of one premium dish. 

But I would not be too bothered by that limitation. These dishes are good, but not so outstanding that I spend the rest of the meal ruing their absence. 

Plus, the other offerings are equally steeped in wok hei. For instance, the stir-fried pork collar with ginger and scallion – one of many stir-fried choices – and sauteed cabbage are wreathed in smoky fragrance and laden with aromatics that will have you fighting with your tablemates for the “paiseh piece”. 

The restaurant certainly does not stint on seasoning. In fact, it has the tendency to occasionally go overboard. The braised ee fu noodles, for one, are way too salty. 

Servings are small, which means you can sample and select to your heart’s content. Just beware the food waste charge of $5 an item and bear in mind that unfinished food cannot be taken away. 

Where: 01-01, 102 Guillemard Road
MRT: Mountbatten 
Open: 11.30am to 3pm, 5.30 to 10.30pm daily 
Info: @heykeesg on Instagram