Star Western: Western food from $9 with monster portions

Another day, another Western food stall. After seeing multiple reels, videos and posts about it, I resolved to head down to Star Western to give them a shot. Their main selling point is their reasonable price point with a hefty amount of food, as well as S$1 chicken wings and a loaded baked potato. 

Star Western is located a short walk from Kovan MRT Station in a tiny coffee shop. It’s quite cramped and very dark inside, and almost every table has their menu pasted onto the surface. 

Prices seem to start from S$9. Even though the menus on the tables still say the chicken wings are S$1 each, they’re not as I found out later. (The price went up. Woop.)

Also, if you have a spare S$99,999, you can buy some love from the owner in the form of Edwin 的爱心 (Edwin’s love hearts). I guess whoever said money can’t buy you love probably hasn’t patronised Star Western yet.

Ordering is done via a small touchscreen in the front of the stall. Interestingly, they used to be called The Breakfast Club, but have now rebranded to focus on old-style Western food. 

What I tried at Star Western

I decided to order 3 items: Fish & Cheaps (S$9), Baked Russet Potato (S$3) and Chicken Wing (S$1.50 each, minimum 2 pieces). Unfortunately, the much talked about chicken wings are now 50 cents more. I pay at the kiosk and am given a buzzer.

It takes about 15 minutes, give or take, for my food to be ready. Everything was served on metal plates, and at first glance, everything looks massive. After some poking, I realised it was because the fried fish was heaped on top of a pile of fries. (I thought it was 2 fillets, but nay, it was swimming solo.) The fish and chips here uses the breadcrumb style of coating as opposed to being battered.

The Baked Russet Potato and Chicken Wings were served atop a paper lining that still said “Breakfast Club” on it.

I try the fish first without any sauce or lemon. It’s about what you’d expect – a normal dory fillet, breaded and deep-fried. It’s nothing special, but it’s not overcooked and the fish isn’t stinky. Adding lemon jazzed up the flavour a notch, and I’m quite pleased that Star Western serves tartar sauce on the side. It’s becoming increasingly rare for me to get that with my fish and chips.

The fries have a rugged exterior, reminiscent of the type that’s dredged in batter and then fried. They’re not quite as craggy as a proper battered fry, but they’re well seasoned, crispy and get the job done.

The baked beans aren’t the kind you just dump out of a can and serve. They’ve been stewed in a sauce that tastes a lot like tomato-y barbecue sauce with a good whack of Italian seasoning. 

The coleslaw is, well… it’s coleslaw. Sadly, not as good as it could be, and the carrots aren’t shredded and served as large chunks. A bit odd, if you ask me.

The other sides included a slice of garlic toast, which was actually quite nice. It could’ve been more garlicky, but otherwise was fine. The sunny-side up egg was overcooked and very rubbery and I wanted nothing to do with it.

I looked at the Baked Russet Potato next. Upon closer inspection, I realised that there was an absolutely bonkers amount of sour cream piped into it. 

The potato itself was baked to a good consistency – cooked enough to be easy to slice through, but also not so soft that it lost all its integrity when you bit into it. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of sour cream overpowered almost everything else, and there weren’t enough spring onions or bacon bits to add any variation in flavour.

In an ideal scenario, a baked potato would be like this:

Note the bacon bits and spring onion ratio – very important. Also, the sour cream should blanket the potato and support it like a good friend, not take over its identity. Obviously, opinions will vary. But this is my ideal potato. 

Moving on…

The Chicken Wings were freshly fried, and the skin was nice and crisp. It crackled satisfyingly as I pried the wings apart.

This is a competent chicken wing. The insides are moist and the meat is tender, and while I find the seasoning to be on the lighter side, I don’t mind it since it works well with the natural taste of the chicken.

Final thoughts

Honestly, I wasn’t fully sure what to expect. Online reviews criticised the food, saying it was burnt, too salty, under-seasoned, and not worth the trip down. 

Personally? It’s okay. Is it the best thing I’ve ever had? No, but I got a lot of decent grub for a reasonable price. Plus, this place is open 24 hours and if you needed a fix after a night of partying, you could do much worse than Star Western.

Expected damage: S$5.90 – S$15.90 per pax

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