We were standing around in a shopping mall on a weekend evening deciding where to go for dinner when someone recommended there is this zi char place at Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park, so we ended up at Kian Seng. Considering it was peak dinner time and we could still manage to get a seat without reservations, we were considered very lucky. The place is pretty crowded and the restaurant is lit by colourful florescent lamps. But what we were surprised was the food was also served pretty fast. So dinner seems to be off to a good start

Homemade Prawn Roll $8

Seems like a popular dish to order, the prawn rolls were pretty decent. It has a nice crisp layer with bits of prawns and chestnuts in them, though the taste is a little on the lighter end

Spinach w Superior Stock $12

Deep Fried Marinated Pork $12

Thinly slice of pork that is deep fried with a crispy texture packed with a nice blend of seasoning on the batter. You can taste the oiliness of the meat when you chew

Deep Fried Frog with Ginger Slices, $8 each; min 2 frogs

More dough than the frog leg, I was contemplating if we had ordered fried flour instead. That aside, the frog leg was marinated with ginger slices before frying it altogether so when you bite into each piece, there was an explosion of ginger taste alongside the tenderness of the meat

Golden Cereal Prawns (without shell) $20

We were rarely asked if we wanted cereal prawns without shell but since we had the option, we took it instead. But we realised cereal prawns with shell probably would have tasted better. The cereal had the buttery fragrance but I think the lack of seasoning on the prawns failed to bring out the beauty of the dish

Nonya Style Steamed Fish Head Curry $24

Which probably saves it all, except that they was no brinjal in the dish. I would probably have appreciated if there were more vegetables in it, but given the price, I think I would make do with it. I love the nonya sauce – thick, savoury and impactful. You could probably finish one bowl of rice with it, if not more

To be truthful, we had actually wanted to go to Yew Yuan Goh Kee Restaurant but given Kian Seng seems to be more popular, we ended up here instead. I thought the zi char here is pretty normal. Unless you needed somewhere that isn’t too crowded and able to find a place without reservations, I probably wouldn’t come down all the way for zi char

Kian Seng Seafood Restaurant

Blk 4013 Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 1,

#01-450, S(569629)