MELAKA, Oct 11 — There’s something quietly reassuring about noodles. Perhaps it’s the way they coil around the chopsticks — obedient yet playful — or how the steam rises, fragrant and familiar, to remind us that hunger can sometimes be an act of nostalgia. 

Whether slicked with sauce or swimming in broth, a bowl of noodles feels like an embrace. 

We eat not merely to fill the stomach, but to remember — the taste of home-cooked simplicity, the hum of kopitiam chatter in the morning.

Such is the feast of noodles, soup and hot kopi that awaited us at Crave Noodle, a noodle shop in Melaka. 

Located in the heart of the Kota Laksamana suburbs and tucked away from the bustle of Jonker Street, you can’t miss it: the shop has a decidedly vibrant décor and colour scheme.

(Note that the exterior signboard says “The Craving Foodies” but don’t fret; you’ve come to the right place. The Chinese name of the shop is the same — 馋面坊 — and the mural inside confirms that it is indeed Crave Noodle.)

The regulars come early: families with children in tow, office workers in neat shirts. There’s a fuss-free, efficient rhythm to the place.

We began with a simple bowl of Pork Noodle Soup. The broth is clear but deep in flavour — the result of bones simmered long enough to whisper their secrets. Thin slices of pork, bouncy meatballs and a tumble of minced meat — each mouthful is reassuring.

The Premium Signature Noodles arrive next, and this is the highlight, something a local friend insisted we try. I opt for the dry version — sauce and oil clinging to each strand in a glossy sheen. 

The accompanying soup, however, is the quiet star. It’s filled to the brim with sliced pork, minced pork, meatballs, yong tau foo (both stuffed tofu and bitter gourd), fried tau pok, soft tofu, and greens.

But what truly sets it apart is the 12-year-old Huadiao wine added in place of the usual rice wine. It lends the broth a richer, more rounded note — a little warmth, a little perfume, something both familiar yet precious.

Each spoonful feels considered, as though memory itself had been ladled into the bowl. Consider us well-sated, beyond our initial expectations.

We return on another visit — because that’s what happens with places like this. You find yourself craving the quiet, the comfort, the consistency. 

This time the Shrimp Paste Chicken Cutlet Noodles proves a pleasant surprise. The noodles — Hakka-style, sauce-dark and savoury — arrive topped with a karaage-like chicken cutlet. 

The shrimp paste marinade is aromatic, assertive but not overwhelming; the crust crackles just so, the meat within is juicy and hot. A halved hard-boiled egg and a scattering of fresh lettuce complete the picture. 

It’s a dish that manages to be both hearty and balanced — indulgent, yet somehow restrained.

Then comes the Ginger Wine Pork Soup with Lard Rice, a dish that tastes like comfort. The broth glows gold, the ginger sharp and the wine generous. It’s warming in the way of old remedies, but there’s pleasure here too: the kind of heat that seeps into your bones. 

The accompanying rice, drizzled with rendered lard and topped with croutons of fried lard, glistens under the light — humble grains made opulent by simplicity. I could have bowls of this lard rice alone, quite honestly!

And because no meal in a proper kopitiam ends without toast, we order two. (Who needs dessert when you can have roti bakar?)

The Crunchy Peanut Butter Toast comes with thick Hainanese bread, crisped at the edges, layered with chunky peanut butter and crowned with roasted peanuts. Two cold slabs of butter melt lazily atop it, mingling into something indecently good. 

You might say the Pandan Kaya Butter Toast is plainer by comparison — of course, it is! — yet it offers a gentler pleasure. Smooth, fragrant and just sweet enough to make you linger a little longer over your coffee.

Perhaps that’s why it’s easy to return to Crave Noodle. Not for novelty, but for comfort and familiarity. For gentle pleasures, for sweetness, for lingering just a little bit longer.

Crave Noodle  馋面坊

No. 39, Jalan KPKS 3, 

Kompleks Perniagaan Kota Syahbandar, Melaka.

Open Thu-Tue 8am-8pm, Wed closed

Phone: 011-2641 1050

*This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.

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