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Two-Hour Wait At Song Kee Fishball Noodle A Day After It Reopens

The traffic police dropped by — but all’s good as safe distancing measures were in place.

The traffic police dropped by — but all’s good as safe distancing measures were in place.

The traffic police dropped by — but all’s good as safe distancing measures were in place.

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Fans of well-loved kopitiam eatery Song Kee Fishball Noodle were excited to hear of its recent reopening — originally from Upper Serangoon, it relocated to Joo Chiat in 2017 before moving again, this time to Yio Chu Kang Road. The new shop opened yesterday (May 18).

1 of 3 There was a well-spaced queue

8 Days photographer Alvin Teo, who passed by the eatery today (May 19) at around 12.45pm, reported seeing a line of cars gradually forming outside Song Kee, with drivers presumably hoping to tapow Song Kee’s noodles. He added that the traffic police arrived about 10 minutes later to usher the cars away, as “they were blocking the traffic a little”. Outside the shop, there were pockets of people, all sufficiently spread out in the open area and wearing masks while waiting for their food. The only queue is the one with customers waiting to place their orders and pay, with red tape markings on the floor to clearly demarcate where they should stand. They are also handed a buzzer after ordering, which allows them to wait a distance away from the shop and other customers.

2 of 3 Waiting time: up to two hours

Despite the deceptively sparse crowd at first glance, it was a long wait for the food. Song Kee fan Clement Chua, 28, queued for almost half an hour during lunchtime just to place his order. He tells 8days.sg, “I was advised [that there is] at least an hour’s wait thereafter for the food. All in all, my total queue time was about one-and-a-half hours.” He chose to find a parking spot and wait in his car, but he observed that there was “adequate safe distancing with regards to the queue” and that “people were also conscious of the [rules]”.

Song Kee’s lady boss, Candy Chua, tells us the current waiting time is up to two hours. “Most of the people here buy five packets at one go,” she adds, which contributes to the long wait. She also shares that it's “very hot” to work with a mask on in the sweltering weather, as the sparsely-furnished eatery has no air-conditioning. When our photographer Alvin returned to the shop at around 5.30pm, there were only four customers hanging around, though the wait for food is still about an hour-long.

  • 3 of 3 Is the food at the new shop still good?

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