Ah Ter Bak Chor Mee – Famous Amoy Noodles Stall Opens New Branch In Orchard, With Islandwide Delivery

Ah Ter Fishball Noodles is one of my favourite comfort food in Amoy Street Food Centre, so I was happy to find out that they had opened a new branch – Ah Ter Bak Chor Mee – at 313@somerset. Unlike the Amoy branch, this stall opens on weekends too, and the convenient location makes it easy for me to check out their delicious noodles. Best of all, it is air-conditioned! Update (04 June): Ah Ter now provides islandwide delivery. Order via https://ahter.ezQR.sg.

Ah Ter Bak Chor Mee

Ah Ter Bak Chor Mee is a new fishball noodles stall at Food Republic (level 5) in 313@somerset. It opened in February 2020.

It is the second outlet of “Ah Ter Teochew Fishball Noodles”, a well-known fishball noodles stall at Amoy Street Food Centre run by hawker hunk Mr Gilbert Lim.

This handsome hawker was even voted as the “Most Handsome Hawker” in 2005 by The Straits Times!

Pioneers of Hawker Cuisine

Handsome Gilbert

Ah Ter’s history can be traced back to the 1950s, when Gilbert’s grandfather (林猪乳) came to Singapore as an immigrant seeking a better life.

He started making a living by selling handmade fishballs, before saving enough money to open a fishball noodle stall (亚猪鱼圆肉脞面) at Maxwell Food Centre in 1958.

Gilbert’s father, Mr Lim Ter Nee, helped out at this stall for several years before taking over the reins.

The business did well enough for Mr Lim to open a coffeeshop in Bukit Merah in the 1980s, but he was forced to close the shop in 1997 due to the financial crisis. After that, Mr Lim spent a few years selling fishball noodles in various locations.

In 2003, Gilbert decided to continue the family business by opening a fishball noodles stall under his father’s name (Ah Ter) at Amoy Street Food Centre.

In February 2020, Gilbert opened his second fishball noodles branch, Ah Ter Bak Chor Mee, at the food court in 313@somerset.

Interestingly, if you take a closer look at the logo on the menu, you will see that it corporates the Chinese character “猪”; this is probably Gilbert paying homage to his grandfather 林猪乳. Much respect to this filial man!

Menu (click to enlarge)

The somerset branch menu offers a variety of noodle dishes like Bak Chor Mee ($5.80), Fishball Noodle ($4.80), Abalone Noodle ($15.50), Pork Liver Bak Chor Mee ($7.50) and Pork Belly Noodle ($7.50).

There is a full range of noodle types available: mee pok, mee kia, kway teow, yellow noodles, mee sua, bee hoon, and mee tai mak.

The 313@somerset branch also serves savoury soups like Fishball Soup ($6), Meatball Soup ($6), Fish Dumpling Soup ($6), and even Pork Liver Soup ($6).

Side dishes include Fried Fishballs ($6), Pork Belly ($10), Ngoh Hiong ($12), etc.

You can top up $1 to get a Liang Teh (herbal tea) or $3 to get Liang Teh and one side dish.

Pleasant Ambience and Good Service

The Ah Ter Bak Chor Mee specialty stall at 313@somerset is bright and welcoming. It offers bar seating with elegant wooden counters, and the space is very clean.

The staff was also very friendly and polite. Most importantly, unlike the super hot Amoy Street Food Centre, the air-conditioned food court is cool and spacious.

Ah Ter Signature Noodle

I ordered the Ah Ter Signature Noodle ($9.50) with mee kia. Similar to the version served at Amoy, it comes with a bowl of soup filled with tasty ingredients like minced pork, pork liver slices, fish balls, meat balls, etc.

The secret to this dish, lies in their delicious noodle sauce.

First, they prepare their signature chilli by stir-frying 7 ingredients (dried shrimps, shrimp paste, onions, etc) for 6 hours.

After that, freshly made pork lard and fried shallots are added to the chilli to make the basic sauce.

Finally, tomato ketchup is added to sweeten the sauce, and a pinch of black vinegar is added for tartness.

Now that’s one awesome noodle sauce! It was super satisfying to eat the springy mee kia with this delicious sweet and sour chilli paste.

The sumptuous bowl of soup is prepared with a lot of attention to detail too. First, the soup base is stewed with pork ribs for a long period.

After that, it is cooked with a variety of ingredients such as minced pork, pork liver slices, fish cake slices, fish balls and meat balls.

As you can imagine, this cooking process gives the soup a rich, savoury, sweet, and very addictive flavour – one of the best soups I’ve ever tried.

The minced meat, meat balls, and liver slices were all very fresh and QQ, unlike other fishball noodles which can sometimes be a bit stale.

I found the fishballs to be especially succulent and delicious. They are handmade using fresh saury fish, in keeping with the family’s tradition of producing quality Teochew food.

Fishball Bak Chor Mee

The wife ordered the Fishball Bak Chor Mee ($6.50) with mee kia, which comes with a bowl of plain soup.

The dry noodles are topped with fish cake slices, minced meat, meat balls, meat slices, and fishballs.

The noodles tasted great with the delicious chilli paste. The toppings were fresh and delicious too.

However, I definitely preferred the Ah Ter Signature Noodle because for a small premium, I get to enjoy a sumptuous bowl of soup with generous amounts of delicious ingredients inside.

Conclusion

I visited Ah Ter Bak Chor Mee in 313@somerset with very high expectations, and I’m glad to say I was not disappointed. This branch has managed to maintain the same standard as the Amoy Street Food Centre stall. The prices are slightly more expensive due to the location, but I feel it’s still very reasonable.

Ah Ter Bak Chor Mee
Address: Stall 25 Food Republic (Level 5), 313@somerset, 313 Orchard Rd Singapore 238895
Opening Hours: Daily 10am to 10pm

Note that there used to be another Ah Ter branch at Boat Quay (“Ah Ter Fishball Noodle Bar”) which opened in September 2018, but it has closed down permanently.