Australian man based in S’pore brings foreign friend to try zi char, prawn-paste chicken gets high praise
An Australian man living in Singapore brought his friend to try zi char at a Kembangan coffee shop, with their prawn paste chicken dish getting her stamp of approval.
Arlen Lim, a 24-year-old Australian working as a model in Singapore for three months, told Stomp that he introduced his friend to Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup — a zi char eatery in Kembangan — when she visited the country for the first time in 12 years.
The late-night spot was one that Lim frequented back in 2025, when he was working in Singapore for another three-month stint.
“It is constantly busy with locals so I wanted to try it and once I did, I fell in love with the food and the people there,” he explained, adding that it was his “go-to” spot after work or clubbing.
He shared his friend’s first encounter with zi char in a viral TikTok post on Sept 4, joking: “She’d better like it, otherwise we’re not friends anymore.”
The pair ends up ordering dishes such as crispy pan-fried beehoon, fried rice with deep-fried pork belly, prawn paste chicken, fried sotong with salted egg, and coffee pork ribs.
Lim’s friend was a fan of the prawn paste chicken, describing it as “good” in the video. Speaking to Stomp, Lim said her friend thought it was the “best chicken wing she had”.
She also described the salted egg sotong dish as “kinda sweet” while the other dishes got her stamp of approval as well.
In the next clip, the camera pans across empty plates.
“The experience is always so good because the atmosphere is always vibrant and the food is always 10/10, my friend loved trying all the dishes and the all the food was very new to her since we don’t have a lot of that style in Australia,” Lim told Stomp.
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