Katong Laksa

Katong Laksa is famous in its own right...including many soap opera style wars amongst family, friends because of the laksa...which caused a proliferation of so many stalls calling themselves Katong Laksa, its confusing. I don't know who is who, but settled on one to eat...having been advised by many foodie friends that they are more or less the same.

I added a piece of fish otak. The broth was very rich, thick, flavourful. Chilli is added on your own to your taste...but I find the chilli too sweet and not punchy enough. The noodles were smooth, slippery and soft...with an interesting mouthfeel. The cockles were nice and plump. I rather enjoyed this bowl of laksa more than I imagined I would have before sitting down for the meal. Two thumbs up. 49 Katong Laksa
49 East Coast Road

Now for a rant...

While I was in the Katong area, and riding around in my bike...I later went to Big Splash Mr. Teh Tarik and had an iced tea, and my riding companion had a hot tea. Iced tea was $2, and hot tea was $1.60, but the total bill came up to $4! Why? Service charge of 10% was levied, and rounded up to 40cents. This is rediculous! This is Mr. Teh Tarik, not some fancy hotel. I asked the server...if I went to the counter and served myself, if I would be levied this service charge...the response was yes. Was there any situation where the charge would not be applicable...no. Then why the service charge? Is this an effort to try and make the price of the tea seem less, and increase profits by adding a 10% on top of it? While 40 cents may seem little and trivial, but for a shop, this is 10% direct to the bottomline, without having to adjust prices or doing anything! This is an outrage.