Prince Coffee House – Traditional Hainanese Western Cuisine at Beach Road

Uncle Jimmy holds fast to his passion for serving customers delicious Hainanese Western food with a wide smile, since 1977. At over 80 years old, he’s still strong as an ox, busying himself with the operations of the eatery with a strong sense of purpose. Prince Coffee House has a long and rich history of over 40 years. It was known as a popular hangout spot for Hong Kong opera singers in the 70s when it was located at Shaw Towers where the now-defunct Prince Cinema was.

He fondly remembers every director, actor and actress that came by in that era and how they all commended that the food at Prince Coffee House was good. During your visit, go ahead and ask him about the history of Prince Coffee House and its highlights. He’ll be more than glad to share these stories and memories with you. Over here, he was showing us a photo of him, back in the 70s.

Don’t be misled by the old school decorations and the connotation that old school = cheap, though it might just be me who thinks that way. The food here is rather pricey. But given its heritage and quality and taking into account other factors like inflation, overhead costs and the impact of Covid-19 on businesses, I think it’s not too bad. Of course, that is still subject to each person’s perception of value and price so come on down and find out for yourself!

We had the Prince’s Special Oxtail Stew ($30), Chicken Chop with Mushroom Sauce ($14.50), Beef Hor Fun ($7.80) and Hainanese Pork Chop with Rice ($7.80). After that, we had the Chicken Pie ($8) that Uncle Jimmy insisted that we dabao back home to try as it’s one of the best selling pastries.

There was a time in Singapore when Oxtail Stew was the in-thing and it has gone out of fashion since. For those who are hearing about this dish for the first time, it might be intriguing. As it’s my first time trying this part of the cow, I was apprehensive, but I came to enjoy every mouthful. Served with garden vegetables and potatoes, the oxtail meat was extremely tender and well marinated. Even the fatty parts were good! It felt like I was eating a piece of collagen jelly with oxtail stew sauce. According to a friend, this is a high-quality oxtail as the bone is not a super huge one that leaves you with very little meat. It was of a good proportion and very well cooked.

There aren’t a lot of places that sell this dish anymore as it’s a tedious one to prepare and the demand for it is low. So, here’s one place to keep in mind if you’re craving for a good oxtail stew.

The Chicken Chop was another dish that is a classic in the Hainanese Western cuisine. Take your pick between mushroom or black pepper sauce. We picked the mushroom sauce. The chicken chop comes with roasted potatoes and garden vegetables.

It may have been a more flavourful meal with the black pepper sauce instead as the mushroom sauce didn’t really have that strong mushroom taste. The chicken, on the other hand, was really tender and easy to cut through but it may be lacking in terms of the char-grilled aroma.

Moving on to a dish that leans more towards the Chinese part of this unique cuisine, the beef hor fun. You can choose to have it with bee hoon, hor fun or yellow noodles. The hor fun, however, is not the usual thick flat rice noodles in our zi char stalls. It’s the thinner version that is commonly used in Ipoh hor fun.

The portion was, again, very generous with many slices of beef found all over the plate. It didn’t have a strong wok hei but it is very well seasoned. I wished that they gave us more sauce to go around as the hor fun got quite dry as we were halfway through it.

Lastly, my favourite dish of this meal. The Hainanese Pork Chop with Rice. The sauce resembled sweet and sour sauce, but it could possibly be Worcestershire  sauce.

No matter what the sauce was, it was still delicious and had a pleasant sweet and tangy flavour! The pork chop was also crispy, as it was deep-fried before being cut up and drenched in the sauce. You can request for the sauce to be on the side if you’d like to keep your pork chop crispy for an extended period of time!

To conclude, I think that Prince Coffee House is a hidden gem that we might have walked past many times without stopping to give another look because of its old school looks and slightly faded signboards. While the chic and modern landscape surrounding it might be more attractive and eye-catching, may we be reminded that not all that glitters is gold. Let’s learn to slow down and appreciate the age-old traditions and heritage along the busy streets of Singapore.

MissTamChiak.com made an anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

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