Review of Ye Lai Xiang Cheng Tng 夜来香清汤

Block 1, Bedok Road, Bedok Corner Food Centre, #01-31

Nearest Mass Rapid Transit Station: Tanah Merah MRT

Buses to Bedok Corner Food Centre: 10, 10E, 14, 45, 531

Opening Hours: 11:30 to 20:30 (Tuesday to Sunday, closed on Monday)

Queue: 5 to 10 people (Waiting Time: 5 to 10 minutes)

Service: Slow and unfriendly

Environment: Clean but crowded hawker centre

Reputation: Traditional Singapore Cheng Tng

Thoughts after eating: Expensive and plain tasting

Value for money: 60/100

Will I come back again in 6 months' time? No, there are better alternatives

My opinion:

Ye Lai Xiang is very famous in Bedok for its cheng tng (Stall 31) and cuttlefish (Stall 32). Both stalls receive so many accolades from the media. The food must be good, right? Wrong! The higher the expectations, the more disappointment you will get. I arrived at 19:30 (7.30 p.m) and was greeted by a queue of 5 people. The aunties were very slow to provide service and I had to wait 8 minutes before being served my dessert!

The auntie taking orders, was pressuring everyone on the queue to take the $2.50 portion instead of the $2.00 version advertised in front of the stall. This was dishonesty because you should not "seduce" people to queue up with a fake price tag. In the end, I had to pick the cold cheng tng as the hot version was sold out (cold version got more ice cubes).

The cheng tng was very "watered down" and lacked ingredients. It tasted almost like cold water with a bit of syrup. This is the most expensive hawker cheng tng I have tasted and judging from this poor experience, I will not visit this stall ever again unless some fire or plague wipe out all the dessert stalls in the same hawker centre.