Yong He Eating House – May Close Down By The End Of The Year

Updated: The famous Yong He dough fritters which used to be many Singaporeans’ favourite supper place may close down end of 2012. According to its owner, business has been very bad and a group of 4 will only spend S$12 instead of only S$20. He has already retrenched 10 workers. He now currently has 30 left.

If Yong He cannot find a new place with cheaper rent, it will be closed at the end of the year.

Just a few years back at Geylang Lor 9, the beef horfun, frog porridge and Yong He’s beancurd enjoyed a ‘tripartite’ relationship, almost a formidable force for a great night’s supper. Now that the old Yong He location had gave way to a clothing store and they moved to a bigger location at Lor 27A, the usual fanfare and taste was apparently missing.

Last week I was on my Taiwanese food craving again, and jio-ed some supper mates over to a very congested and ‘colourful’ Geylang. (There’s now a ‘China’ supermarket with 3 shopfronts near the present Yong He – very interesting.)

Yong He had expanded its food repertoire to include more Taiwanese street delights from Braised Meat Rice, Taiwanese Meat Dumplings, and Stewed Pork Buns.

The aunties were champions for speed. Right after I ordered, the food came within 45 seconds. Amazing. I was just on my way to wiping the chopsticks.

Major mistake number 1: The dough fritters were COLD.
Major mistake number 2: The fried guotie was COLD.

With the fried items tasting a little more rubbery than crispy, along with an old taste of oil and a clammy texture, my favourite dough sticks had dropped the ranks right to the bottom of the supper chart. No wonder the items came so fast, they must had been prepared way before hand. Wasn’t freshness the key?

The other items had nothing to shout about. A more peppery than usual Mee Sua, and a very small portion and thus pricey braised meat rice … it made me wonder what happened to it’s formal glory.

At least the soya bean milk was still very tasty. And I even tabao-ed some back home. My only consolation. Sigh…

As to why Yong He would close, my rationale is a combination of
a) Its relocation to a less popular spot instead of Lor 9
b) Geylang becoming a really messy place with impossible parking
c) Its food standard dropping (cold and unappetizing looking food)
d) Rude staff (instead of the friendlier aunties in the past) who couldn’t care less

It is sad. And let’s just hope that this is not the route other popular but declining supper spots would take.

517 Geylang Road (Near Lorong 27A) Tel: Tel: +65 6745 5682
Opening Hours: 24 hours Daily

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