B.K.T by Kong Kee

Last weekend, I was privileged to be invited by OpenRice for a food tasting at B.K.T by Kong Kee. This is a new restaurant, located near the CBD area and it was officially opened on 12th Dec, 2012. Very auspicious date. 

This is the standard menu:

This is the menu for us that day. The restaurant is so generous to let us try so many dishes. In fact, they kept asking if we needed to order more.

The first thing that caught my attention was the wide variety of Bak Kut Teh the restaurant offers. Most BKT restaurants one standard kind and some other side dishes to go with it. Kong Kee has 3 types - Klang Style, Teochew Style, Dry BKT

First up is the Teochew Style BKT. The most common one, with a pepper soup base.

The soup is flavourful, yet the pepper taste is not choking. It takes about an 1hour plus to prepare this soup.

I wouldn't say it is very spectacular as it is not difficult to find similar tasting ones elsewhere.

The Klang Style BKT is my favourite among the two soup ones. The herb taste is distinct, yet it is not overpowering. Those who do not like herbal soup would definitely enjoy this as well. According to the PR manager, Patricia,  this takes at least 2hours to brew and the quantity of herbs used is optimum such that they do not add water and continue brewing it when it finishes. A new pot is cooked and brewed from scratch. 

Patricia said that they would only refill the Teochew soup if customers purchase both the Klang and Teochew one. 

In my opinion, this was the highlight of the meal. Dry Bak Kut Teh. Served piping hot in a claypot, at first look I thought it resembles Gong Bao Ji Ding (Kung Po Chicken). The meat is soft and flavourful, yet not too chewy. I love such strong flavoured dishes. It is cooked with the Klang Style's soup till it dries. MUST TRY!

Tendon. I love all sorts of tendon cos of its jelly-like texture. And it is a great source of collagen (:

Pig's trotter. I prefer a stronger flavoured one and the meat could have been more tender.

Pig's ankle. The most common dish is the trotter and I thought that having this dish in their menu really makes them stand out! I prefer the ankle to the trotter because it is much more tender!

Tau Pok and Tau Kwa.

Tau Kee.

The 5 dishes above are drenched with the same braised sauce.

Salted Vegetables, which I really like because it is not too salty. The garlic and dried chilli also makes it very tasty.

Mee Sua, in the Teochew BKT's soup. Choice of Rice and Kway Teow is available as well!

Kai Lan and Lettuce. I thought the Kai Lan was pretty well-prepared because most places would serve the full piece of Kai Lan with the stalk and simple drizzle oyster sauce over it. Over here, the Kai Lan is chopped and the stalks were not present. 

The fried garlic sprinkled over the two vegetables made them really fragrant.

If you're looking for a good place for herbal bak kut teh, I would strongly recommend this place. Do order the dry Bak Kut Teh as well!
One plus point is that, this place does not charge GST and service charge even though they are GST registered. So the prices are really very reasonable for dining at a comfortable, air-conditioned place.
The location is very convenient, within walking distance from Chinatown and Raffles Place MRT!