Hospital food usually gets a bad rap for being bland and subpar, but we’ve found an eatery at National University Hospital that sells more than decent nosh. Called Xin Yao, it’s a kopitiam of sorts with different stalls selling cai png, drinks and surprisingly good fish soup. The eatery is located at One@KentRidge, a very small mall that’s attached to the NUH Medical Centre.

At first glance, the eatery doesn’t look very enticing. The tables and chairs are wildly mismatched, there's still Christmas tinsel hanging, while the zi char stall has been converted to sell economical rice (the erstwhile zi char signboard menu sloppily covered over with CNY red paper).

But we did notice a fish soup stall tucked away in a corner, with a steady line of doctors and nurses in their scrubs queuing up to tapow food. Staff regulars? That’s a very good sign for a food stall.

The stall’s menu display is just as haphazard as the rest of the kopitiam — paper printouts pasted on the wall.

There are eight types of fish soup dishes available with batang fish (adorably spelled as ‘batam fish’ on the menu): Fried Fish Soup ($6), Sliced Batam Fish Soup ($6), Double Fish Soup ($6.50) with fried and sliced fish, Fried Fish Head Soup ($6), Batam Fish Porridge ($6) and Sliced Batam Fish U Mian Soup ($6).

Tub of pre-fried batang fish at the stall.

There’s also a Seafood Tom Yum Soup ($7) and Signature Mixed Seafood Soup (pictured, $8), which comes with fish, prawns and lala clams.

You can opt to have your fish soup with milk or without, and with your choice of bee hoon, rice, ee mian or mee sua. We chose rice so we could mix it with the soup to make pao fan. At $6 a bowl, this batang fish soup is comparable to the prices that famed hawker stall First Street Teochew Fish Soup charges.

The batang fish slices.

Our milky soup is excellent. By itself, the clear broth is clean and flavourful, and richer when spiked with evaporated milk. The bowl is crammed with springy slices of fresh fish, preserved vegetables, thinly-sliced ginger, chye sim, tomatoes and a smattering of fried egg floss à la the popular Blanco Court Fried Fish Soup. Very nourishing and soul-lifting fare.

The fish soup stall also offers home delivery via Oddle, but there’s a minimum order of $50 (or you pay the difference to make up a $50 bill), and a whopping $20 delivery fee.

Incidentally, the kopitiam (which opens at 6am daily) also has a drinks stall that sells very affordable and delish snack sets comprising Coffee/Tea with two mini tau sar or char siew baos ($2) and Coffee/Tea with Egg Tart & Tau Sar Piah ($3). Good pitstop for those who’re looking for a good meal to perk up in a hospital.

Xin Yao Fish Soup, #02-04/05/06 One@KentRidge (beside NUH Medical Centre), 1 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, S119082. Open daily 6am-7.30pm. For delivery, go to www.xinyao.oddle.me.

Photos: Yip Jieying