Restaurant in Singapore, Singapore
Top-ranked casual seafood, hawker prices.
Ranked #4 in OAD Casual Asia for two consecutive years and holding a Michelin Plate since 2024, Keng Eng Kee Seafood is among Singapore's most critically validated zi char restaurants at the $ price tier. The Bukit Merah location is a short MRT ride from the centre, and the communal seafood format rewards groups of four or more. Easy to book, hard to fault on value.
Keng Eng Kee Seafood earns a direct recommendation for any visitor or local who wants serious Singaporean-Chinese seafood without the fine-dining price tag. Ranked #4 in Opinionated About Dining's Casual Asia list for two consecutive years (2023 and 2024) before moving to #6 in 2025, and holding a Michelin Plate since 2024, this is a hawker-adjacent zi char restaurant that has been consistently validated by two of the most credible food ranking systems operating in Asia. Booking is easy — walk-ins are welcomed and the format suits spontaneous visits — but the reputation means peak dinner slots fill faster than you might expect.
Keng Eng Kee operates out of a ground-floor unit in a Bukit Merah HDB estate at 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1. The setting is utilitarian in the way Singapore's leading zi char restaurants often are: open-air or semi-covered tables, functional lighting, the kind of visual environment where the food does all the persuading. Don't arrive expecting a designed dining room. Arrive expecting the controlled chaos of a busy family-run Chinese seafood kitchen operating at the leading of its category.
The zi char format , a Singaporean Chinese style of cooked-to-order communal eating , is built around sharing. Tables of two can make it work, but this is a restaurant where groups of four or more will extract considerably more value from the menu. The price point sits firmly at $ (single dollar sign), meaning a full shared meal for a group lands well below what you'd spend at a mid-range Orchard Road restaurant. For food that carries back-to-back OAD Casual Asia top-five rankings, that remains a significant value gap relative to virtually anything else in Singapore's award-recognised dining scene.
Chef Liew Choy leads the kitchen. The OAD rankings, which are compiled from votes by serious diners and food professionals across Asia, reflect consistent kitchen output rather than a single exceptional visit. A Michelin Plate , awarded for good cooking rather than the star-level complexity of, say, Odette or Les Amis , is the right register for what Keng Eng Kee does: technically reliable, ingredient-led Singaporean-Chinese cooking at a price that makes repetitive visits entirely reasonable.
The sourcing logic behind a well-run zi char kitchen is worth understanding if you're coming with a food-focused mindset. Singapore's leading seafood restaurants at this price tier succeed or fail on the freshness and quality of their raw materials: live or same-day seafood, produce sourced from wet markets rather than wholesale distributors, and the kind of supply relationships that a long-running family operation tends to build over years. Keng Eng Kee's consistent OAD placement across three years suggests the kitchen has maintained sourcing discipline, which at the $ price point is harder to sustain than it looks. Compare that to higher-spending zi char operations in the central city, where ingredient costs are offset by table turnover and tourist pricing. The Bukit Merah location keeps overhead low and allows the kitchen to direct spend toward what's on the plate.
Google Reviews data (4.3 across 4,922 reviews) confirms broad diner satisfaction rather than a niche following. A restaurant this decorated by specialist critics that also maintains a 4.3 across nearly 5,000 reviews is not polarising , it's consistently delivering. That is unusual in a category where critical acclaim and popular appeal often diverge.
The restaurant is open seven days a week, split across lunch (11am–2pm) and dinner (5–10pm) sessions. For the most manageable experience, arrive at opening for either session. The dinner service on Friday and Saturday draws the largest crowds given local weekend dining patterns, so Tuesday through Thursday dinner is your lower-friction window if you're flexible. Lunch on weekdays tends to be quieter than dinner across the week. There's no dress code applicable to this format , come as you are. The address places you in Bukit Merah, a residential precinct in the southern part of central Singapore, accessible by MRT (Redhill station is the closest) with the short walk or taxi ride fitting naturally into a broader neighbourhood exploration. If you're building a Singapore dining itinerary that spans price ranges, Keng Eng Kee pairs logically with a drinks stop or a later dessert rather than a second formal meal , the price point leaves plenty of budget for the rest of the evening.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Keng Eng Kee Seafood | $ | — |
| Zén | $$$$ | — |
| Jaan by Kirk Westaway | $$$ | — |
| Summer Pavilion | $$ | — |
| Burnt Ends | $$$ | — |
| Seroja | $$$ | — |
Comparing your options in Singapore for this tier.
Solo diners can eat here, but the format works against you. Singaporean-Chinese seafood at KEK is designed for sharing across multiple dishes, so a solo visit limits how much of the menu you can cover. If you're alone, aim for lunch when the crowd is thinner and ordering one or two dishes feels less awkward. For solo dining in Singapore, a hawker centre or a ramen counter will serve you more naturally.
Book at least a few days ahead for weekday dinner, and a week or more for weekends. KEK's OAD Casual Asia ranking (currently #6 for 2025) means it draws both locals and destination diners, and weekend tables fill quickly. Lunch sessions tend to be more accessible if you're flexible on timing.
KEK operates out of a ground-floor HDB estate unit at 124 Bukit Merah Lane 1 — there is no bar. This is a utilitarian, table-service casual seafood restaurant, not a cocktail venue. Seating is communal in style, consistent with the hawker-adjacent format.
Yes, by a clear margin. KEK carries a Michelin Plate (2024) and has ranked in OAD's Casual Asia top six for three consecutive years, all at single-dollar ($) price range. For serious Singaporean-Chinese seafood at hawker-adjacent prices, few restaurants in the city have this level of documented recognition at this cost.
KEK does not operate a tasting menu format. It is an à la carte casual seafood restaurant in a Bukit Merah HDB estate. If a structured tasting progression is what you're after, Summer Pavilion or Zén are the appropriate alternatives in Singapore.
Not if the occasion calls for a formal setting or private dining. The environment is deliberately casual, which is part of the draw, but it does not suit milestone dinners that require atmosphere or ceremony. For a birthday or anniversary where the food is the point and the room is secondary, it works — especially if your group appreciates that KEK's OAD and Michelin credentials come with a $ price tag.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
