Malaysian Food: Bugis Street Birmingham

I had dinner at Bugis Street a few weeks ago. The restaurant is part of Copthorne Hotel, however, non guests of the hotel are also welcome. Although it advertises itself as Singaporean food, the chef is actually Malaysian and so are a few of the members of the staff. Quite a lot of the food served here is also distinctly Malaysian. However as I have not been to Singapore myself, it is possible that similar dishes are available in Singapore. I've been here a few times before and I wish I found out about it earlier! I've only had good experience here so far, so it seems fit that I should blog about it.

I ordered a Fried Hokkien Mee. This is actually a Southern Malaysian dish, if you order a Hokkien Mee when you're in the Northern States where I'm from, you'll get noodles in a prawn-flavoured broth instead.

This was really good! Fried Hokkien mee is essentially yellow egg noodles stir fried with an assortment of fresh ingredients in a sauce made of dark soya sauce. Bugis Street's version had some seafood (prawns and squid) and some thin slices of pork. The 'wok hei' was strong, lending a very good smoky flavour to the dish. It also had some small crunchy pieces of fried pork lard- warning, this is very unhealthy, but really delicious in this dish.

Fried Hokkien Mee

My dining companion Z ordered the Seafood Laksa. Again, if you order Laksa in different states in Malaysia, you will find that each state has their own version of laksa. Laksa is typically noodles (sometimes yellow egg noodles, rice vermicelli or rice noodles) in a broth. Where I'm from, the Laksa is rice noodles served in a piquant fish based stock and sliced bird eyes chillies.

Bugis Street's version is more like Kari Laksa (translated to Laksa in curry); yellow egg noodles served in a bowl of curry topped with seafood and a hard boiled egg cut into half. This dish again didn't disappoint. The curry was absolutely drinkable, it wasn't too spicy, it was creamy and had a slight tang to it.

Seafood Laksa

Overall dinner was absolutely delicious! The portions were good-sized, and the price of both the dishes were in the region of 7-8 pounds. Good value, and I have to say, pretty authentic. I would say go for the dishes under the 'Singaporean/Malaysian Specialities' section, as these tend to be pretty authentic. 

Bugis Street

The Copthorne Hotel 

Paradise Circus, Birmingham B3 3HJ, England

Disclaimer: This entry was not a sponsored post, and is entirely based on my personal tastebuds. I have not received any monetary or non-monetary payment to write this post.