Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee 大食家大大大虾面 – Famous Prawn Noodles Restaurant More Hype Than Substance?

I often see Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee being featured on social media and food blogs, so I decided to give it a try recently. Unfortunately, I was left underwhelmed.

Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee

Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee 大食家大大大虾面 is a well-known prawn noodles restaurant located on Killiney road, near Somerset MRT Station.

The restaurant was founded by Mr Seth Sim in 2018. It is part of the Big Eater Seafood Restaurant group, a zi char chain owned by Seth’s father.

Da Shi Jia exudes an old school charm with its unadorned wooden furnishings and lovely oriental floor tiles, complete with a striking Eight Immortals Chinese artwork greeting customers as they enter the air-conditioned restaurant.

The restaurant was only half-filled when I arrived at 7pm on a Saturday. The staff were generally quite polite but I had to wait around 15 minutes for my noodles to arrive.

Menu (click to enlarge)

The prawn noodles are priced from $5.80 to $16.80, depending on the size and number of prawns. There is a dry version too. The noodles available include the standard yellow noodles, thin bee hoon, and kway teow.

Their signature dish is the Da Shi Jia Wok-Fried Big Prawn White Bee Hoon, which costs $16.80 or $19.80 depending on the prawn size.

The menu also offers a small selection of sides such as the Beancurd Skin Prawn Roll ($5.80), Crispy Spicy Winglets ($6.80/$10.80), etc.

Wok-Fried Big Prawn White Bee Hoon

I ordered the Big Prawn White Bee Hoon ($19.80) because the $16.80 size prawns were already sold out.

Unlike the typical seafood white bee hoon which uses chicken or pork stock, Da Shi Jia’s version is cooked with prawn soup instead, which gives the bee hoon its distinctive orange hue.

I found the wok-fried bee hoon to be moist and tasty, with good wok hei and a pleasant umami flavour from the prawn stock.

The shallots, kang kong, pork slices and lard were quite delicious too, having absorbed the prawn stock’s rich flavours.

My $19.80 prawns were indeed really big, and I was happy to see that the shells were already partially peeled. However, I felt that they were not as fresh or “QQ” (to use the Taiwanese parlance) as I would have liked.

On the whole this was quite a satisfying zi char dish, but it was nothing to shout about.

Prawn Noodles

The wife ordered the Prawn Noodles ($9.80) with yellow noodles and thin bee hoon.

Personally, I felt that the broth was bland and lacking in flavour. And notwithstanding their large size the prawns were not really very QQ or tasty.

I followed the menu’s recommendation to add sambal chili in the broth, but it didn’t do much other than giving the soup base an unappealing tangy taste.

But at least the restaurant was considerate enough to provide a brown piece of paper for our prawn shells.

Green Apple Juice with Sour Plum

I actually enjoyed the Green Apple Juice with Sour Plum ($3.80) the most for this meal. It was very refreshing with a pleasant tangy flavour. I also liked that it wasn’t overly sour.

Conclusion

Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee generated significant social media hype when it launched in 2018, and till today it still has many online raves. However, I failed to see why it is so popular – the white bee hoon was only just decent, and the prawn noodles left me underwhelmed. Perhaps my expectations were unrealistically high due to the premium pricing and all the online hype.

Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee 大食家大大大虾面
Address: 89 Killiney Road, Singapore 239534
Directions: Da Shi Jia Big Prawn Mee on Google maps
Phone Number: +65 67321085
Opening Hours: Daily 10.30am to 12am