I ate at Wee Nam Kee Serendra twice in a span of a couple of weeks. First with Irene and Lauren then with friends. It’s pretty full on Sundays so we had to wait a while both times. Lauren is quite a fan of Haiannese Chicken Rice so its been very easy going to Singaporean restaurants. She needs everything to be there, soup, rice and chicken before pronouncing it as good.
The Serendra branch, despite having a bit different style and look as the first store, still retains these bird cage lights I found alluring.
I’ll be sharing a mix of dishes from the two times we ate there. It’s fun to eat with a bigger group since its hard to order if only the three of us eat out.
Honey Crisp Squid (P230). This one was too saucy for me, I was expecting something else to arrive more similar to what I had in Singapore.
Roasted Chicken Noodle Soup (P215). The dish is actually semi dry egg noodles with chicken and vegetables on top, a cup of chicken soup is served on the side. Irene like this one, I quite enjoyed it also. We both love our egg noodles and this one is pretty good for local standards but still a far cry from HK ones.
Cereal Prawns (P375/4 pcs.). The prawns are fairly large sized, fried to a crisp where if you don’t mind biting the shell you can do so. There’s a fair amount of cereal, which you can coat the shrimp in, or just spoon into your mouth. It’s so hard to eat Singaporean food in Manila since each dish will inevitably be compared to what we’ve had there.
Hainanese Chicken (P888/ large). The large size order is approximately 1 whole chicken and good for 6-8 people. Irene, Lauren and I ate about 2/3 of the plate, the rest we had wrapped. Lauren liked it together with her rice and soup, finishing off 1 whole bowl of rice (P40) by herself.
Personal Set (P168/roasted,steamed or combination). A friend had this and I found the personal set’s serving to be quite substantial already. Take note that only the personal set comes with a bowl of rice. A tip we got from a taxi driver in Singapore is to eat the roasted chicken with the bones because the flavors go bone deep.
Fookien Noodles (P205). I can’t make heads or tails of the dish name which we ordered on a lark. It was a surprising hit among us adults, being the first dish to wiped clean. Its combination of meat, seafood and vegetables together with the savory sauced noodles was a comfort for our tastes.
Sambal Kangkong (P199). I had a bite only and found it too spicy for my tastes.
Wee Nam Kee Pork Chop Rice (P175). The kids of our companions had this, it looked unspectacular to me though but they seemed to like it considering their empty plates.
We decided to order Chili Crabs to satisfy our curiosity. The staff places water bowls with lemon as well as shell crackers on our table. A nice touch to wash away the inevitable mess you’ll make with your hands.
Fresh Barley Juice (P55) I ordered this primarily in preparation to counteract the spiciness of the chili crab. I found the drink weird years before until I tried it one time and found its flavors refreshing and also very healthy as a bonus.
Chili Crab (P1,120/700 grams). I’ve grown to like this dish over the many trips and meals in Singapore. The dish came out pretty nice with the scrambled egg pieces all over the sauce/gravy. The bright orange hue inviting to partake of its crustacean delight. The crab was around 700 grams, fairly decent sized although one of the claws was atrophied.I actually enjoyed this more than the couple of times we had the same dish in Tao Yuan Resorts World.
Fried Mantou. No chili crab meal is complete without these fried buns to sop up the sauce or gray as they call it in Singapore.
Wee Nam Kee in Manila is very very different from the super casual dining atmosphere in Singapore. The menu is also larger with lots of different items I’ve not seen there like the Chili crab. Service was very much improved in our 2nd visit with staff anticipating our needs, like refilling water and providing tissue and what not.
Wee Nam Kee
Serendra, McKinley ParkwayFort Bonifacio Global City
Taguig
822-7095
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