Miss Mee? Famous Lavender wonton mee stall to move

SINGAPORE - This wonton noodle stall is no stranger to long queues.

During lunch hours, the wait for a bowl of noodles at Kok Kee Wanton Noodles can last up to 45 minutes.

With Lavender Food Square ceasing operations on Sept 30, more than half of the stalls at the food centre were closed on their last day.

Some, such as Kok Kee Wanton Noodles, remained open. Business there was still brisk.

When The New Paper was there from 1.30pm to 4pm, there were at least 10 customers in the queue, each with a waiting time of about 25 minutes.

One women TNP spoke to yesterday was visiting the stall for the first time on Tuesday after learning that the hawker centre was going to close.

"I wanted to try the famous noodles before it closed," she said.

She was there with her friend Martha Chaudhry, 48, who was taking pictures to document the last day of the food centre.

For patrons who think that they have missed their last chance to eat at the stall, fret not. It looks like Kok Kee Wanton Noodles will be relocating to a nearby coffee shop.

When TNP approached the stall's hawkers, they declined to say anything.

But the Kok Kee Wanton Noodles stall name was listed as one of the upcoming tenants at the newly-opened coffee shop Lavender Food Hub @ Zhuge Liang.

The coffee shop is on the ground floor of Hoa Nam Building, located next to Lavender Food Square.

Another regular customer of Kok Kee Wanton Noodles is distributor Nancy Lim, 62.

Although she had heard that the stall would not be closed for good, she was there yesterday to have a bowl of noodles.

She has frequented Lavender Food Square at least once a month for the past 20 years.

She said: "All the stall owners are very friendly."

Mr Foo Kia Jong, 55, owner of G.I. 100 per cent Fresh Fruit Juice, said he does not plan to reopen elsewhere.

He said: "It will be hard to find another open air food centre like this in other parts of Singapore."

Lavender Food Square will be demolished to make way for a 16-storey freehold development called ARC 380, slated to be ready by 2018.

choomf@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on October 1, 2014.
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