[N]oodles

Hey Urbanites!

Time for yet another food review and today's theme is a staple in our everyday lives - noodles! Besides our other staple food which is rice, noodles are often considered the more "exciting" alternative. And this is evident in Singapore as well, with many trendy noodle hotspots popping up all over the island.

So today I'll be reviewing two unique noodle joints that serve great-tasting noodles in Singapore, namely Doodles and Shake Mee.

Doodles

Doodles is a small noodle kiosk tucked away in the basement of Tiong Bahru Plaza. This quaint noodle shop serves customers a truly unique dining concept. (Think slightly more atas economic rice, except the bases are all pasta and noodles). The key to enjoying Doodles' noodles here is to just "Zip. Shake. Eat." By combining cold noodles and fresh ingredients and sauces in a single bag, you mix it together, tear the bag open, and enjoy! Only takeaways are available currently, as the noodles are served and kept fresh in ziplock bags. As an added aesthetic bonus, it's really great that they put in effort into designing the bags (check out the cute green dino mascot!!). Much more attractive than the usual styrofoam containers, I say!

Ordering from Doodles is made super easy too. First off, choose from 4 different sets:

- Herbivore Set ($4): Base + 2 Veg

- Carnivore Set ($5): Base + 2 Protein

- Omnivore Set ($5): Base + 2 Veg + 1 Protein

- On-nom-nomnivore Set ($6): Base + 2 Veg + 2 Protein

After selecting a set, customers then choose from 3 noodle bases - angel hair pasta, soba and fusilli. After that, they proceed on to pick up to four different ingredients, including poke style salmon, smoked duck, jellyfish, edamame beans, juicy mushrooms. Rest assured you'll be spoilt for choice here :)

The quality of Doodles' ingredients are top-notch, so you won't have to worry about your belly feeling disatisfied. They are very generous with their portions as well, although the dino ziplock may look small at first glance. Fresh AND able to keep you full? We'll definitely say Bingo to that!

Shake Mee

Now moving along to the second noodle-themed dish of the day!! Shake Mee's selection of noodles are notably more Asian inspired as compared to what Doodles has to offer, but just as delicious. Located at the food court Cookhouse@JEM (opposite Cathay cinema), the stall serves up tantalising bowls of their take on Sarawak Kolo Mee - diet-sized! The brand is relatively new in the noodle market scene, and started operations only recently in March this year. But that hasn't stopped the lunch crowd from coming down to queue for the noodles here.

Similar to how you shake your Doodles, customers here are also encouraged to shake their bowl of Shake Mee noodles to mix all the ingredients together.

There are 4 flavours available, including the popular House Specialty and Prawn flavour which we tried. The House Specialty noodles were reminiscent of Bak Chor Mee - it was filled with minced meat, veggies, crispy ikan bilis and an ooey-gooey runny egg. This dish was really a pleasure to eat. The noodles were springy in texture and not bland at all. Even with the wet and runny egg, the noodles managed to stay chewy with every bite. The addition of the minced meat and ikan bilis contributed just the right amount of saltiness as well. We also heartily enjoyed the prawn noodles, which were also pleasantly springy and filled with juicy (but regrettably rather small) prawns. The gravy was also flavourful and not too salty - bonus points for that!

However, we felt that the portions here are a little too small if the intention is to have a filling lunch. You may want to consider ordering two portions if you're feeling famished. But at $3.90 per bowl + overall good and flavourful springy noodles, eating at Shake Mee is a steal indeed.

If you're also the kind of Urbanite that enjoys a contemporary touch in a bowl of noodles, then we highly recommend both Doodles and Shake Mee as go-to noodle shops!

Doodles

Address:

302 Tiong Bahru Road, #B1-111 Tiong Bahru Plaza, Singapore 168732 | Tel: 6702 4311 | Daily 10.30am – 9.30pm Rating: 4.5/5

Shake Mee

Address:

50 Jurong Gateway Road #05-01 Cookhouse by Koufu Singapore 608549

Tel: 9783 4183

Rating: 4.1/5

*Picture credits: Google Images and Shake Mee Facebook Page