Victor Veggie - MacPherson

We all know Circuit Road is a hotbed for vegetarian food, with numerous 100% veg stalls located within block 79A.  I've often found Circuit Road to be a tad overrated - Yes, it is great so many vegetarian stalls are running there, but in general most of the stalls pretty mediocre, in terms of quality.  The focus for this review will be Victor Veggie.  This stall should not be confused with the famous satay/otah stall Victor's Vegetarian Food, which is located inside the same block.


 
Victor Veggie
Location: 79A, Circuit Road, #01-92
Contact: Unknown
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 2.30pm-11.00pm.  Closed Sunday


This stall deals almost exclusively with yong tau foo.  For those unfamiliar with this style of dish, let me briefly explain.  For yong tau foo, customers are required to select whatever tofu, vegetables, stuffed beancurd, mock meat and other items are available and place them into a bowl.  After which, these items are boiled in a clear soup, usually with noodles added and served.  This style of eating has been around for over 40 years, and can be found not only in Singapore, but also in China, Malaysia and Thailand.  The name yong tau foo literally means 'stuffed beancurd', which was the original ingredient used when this dish was first concocted.  There is a 'dry' version of yong tau foo also, where the ingredients are re-fried and served to the customer with sweet sauce.
Personally, yong tau foo is a dish I've seldom eaten in Singapore, mainly due to my skepticism of the hygiene of the food.  The food items are usually left out in the open for many hours, often exposed to the uneducated manners of the general public.  This fear is quite misplaced though, and it is important to remember that when the items are cooked in the high temperature of the clear soup (or re-fried), then almost all the bacteria accumulated from the hours of dormancy is wiped out - At least I hope.


So here it is, Yong Tau Foo (Wet).  As I mentioned earlier, everything is customizable for this dish, you can even choose the type of noodles you want (I chose bee hoon).  At Victor you can choose six ingredients for $3.00 (plus $0.50 extra for noodles or rice).  There is quite a lot of variety available for the ingredients.  I chose eggplant, stuffed bittergourd, bok choy, enoki mushrooms, tofu and others.  I particularly liked the dark sauce, which customers can pour for themselves.  The soup itself is not as bland as I thought, and all the ingredients matched pretty well together.

Price: $3.50.     7/10


Conclusion - Yong tau foo soup is a perfect meal for colder evenings in Singapore.  Before ordering this dish, I did have quite a low opinion on this style of food, but Victor Veggie did change my opinion somewhat.  If you're someone who enjoys yong tau foo, then Victor is definitely a place you should check out.

Overall Rating
Food - 6/10
Ambiance- 7/10
Service - 7/10
Value - 6/10