#5 Laksa

328 Katong Laksa

51 East Coast Road

Katong / Nyonya Former Michelin Bib Gourmand (2016-2017) Est. 1998
82
Google 3.9★

About

328 Katong Laksa was founded in 1998 by Nancy Koh at 49 East Coast Road, moving to the current shophouse at 51 East Coast Road in 1999. The stall earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2016 and 2017, though it has not appeared on the list since 2018.

The international breakout came in 2013 when founder Nancy Koh and her son Ryan Goh beat Gordon Ramsay in a Singtel Hawker Heroes laksa cook-off. That put the stall on every tourist's list. The broth is rich coconut curry with a dried shrimp (hae bee) sweetness. Noodles are cut short, Katong style, so you eat everything with a spoon. Cockles, prawns, fish cake, and tau pok come standard.

Google ratings sit at 3.9, which is lower than you might expect for a stall this famous. Reviews are polarised: tourists rate it higher, locals are split. Some feel quality has not kept up with the price increases (now $7.80+ from $5.50 a few years ago). The air-conditioned shophouse is a plus in Singapore's heat. Open daily, roughly 9am to 9:30pm.

ShiokScore Breakdown

Scored across 5 dimensions specific to laksa. Learn what each means →

Broth 84

Coconut richness, spice depth, and lemak (fatty richness). A good laksa broth coats the spoon. Too thin means the rempah was stretched. Too thick and it becomes cloying.

Noodles 82

Thick bee hoon, yellow noodles, or both. Katong-style cuts them into spoon-sized pieces. Texture should be springy, not mushy or clumped together.

Toppings 80

Cockles, prawns, fish cake, tau pok (fried tofu puffs), beansprouts. Freshness matters. Rubbery prawns or limp beansprouts drag the whole bowl down.

Rempah 86

The spice paste that defines the laksa. Dried shrimp, chilli, lemongrass, galangal, candlenut, belacan. Should taste layered and complex, not just hot.

Value 72

Portion size, topping generosity, and price relative to hawker norms. A $5 bowl with three prawns and a thin broth is bad value no matter how it tastes.

Style: Katong / Nyonya

The signature Singapore laksa. Rich coconut curry broth. Noodles cut into short pieces so you eat the whole thing with a spoon, no chopsticks needed. Peranakan origin, from the Katong/Joo Chiat area.