Beauty World and Hillview: The allure of late-night dining and nature trails

Beauty World’s strongest draw is its stretch of eateries along Cheong Chin Nam Road. Home to an array of cuisines, the area attracts its largest crowd in the evenings. The buzz tapers off late into the night, but some shops open well into the wee hours to serve those still awake.

Among the noteworthy eats, Al-Azhar caters to those looking for halal Indian food, with a selection of prata, curry, tandoori sets, roti john, murtabak and briyani meals. It also offers a fun selection of Thai food, as well as fried noodles and mutton soup. Local beverages such as teh tarik, teh halia and lassi are also served.

An outlet of the Boon Tong Kee franchise occupies 18 Cheong Chin Nam Road. With an option of delivery, the restaurant offers, among others, chicken cooked in a variety of styles: its signature boiled chicken, crispy roasted chicken, and paper-wrapped chicken. The franchise’s history dates back to 1979, when founder Thian Boon Hua started a small stall in Chinatown serving Cantonese chicken rice. After it gained popularity, Thian and his family set up Boon Tong Kee’s first restaurant at Balestier Road in 1983. To date, it has seven outlets sprawled across Singapore.

Joo Seng, meanwhile, is famous for its Teochew porridge. This is plain rice porridge paired with a selection of Chinese side dishes, which includes steamed fish, braised duck meat, boiled squid, pork intestines, vegetables, tofu and fishcake.

Located along Chun Tin Road, Ng Kim Lee Confectionery sells a variety of sweet treats. This includes Portuguese egg tarts, mini muffins, kueh lapis and char siew rolls. Notably, its mini muffins are star-shaped and come in banana, lemon, chocolate and pandan flavours.

Meanwhile at Lorong Kilat, just behind the Hoover Park Estate of landed homes, two cafés stand out as the to-go brunch places in the Beauty World neighbourhood. Carpenter and Cook is an artisan bakery café selling fresh baked goods and confectionery. It also specialises in wedding treats or “baby’s first month” gifts. The cosy café is decorated with vintage furniture and knick-knacks, which are also up for sale.

Revelry, its next-door neighbour, specialises in waffles. The charming shop boasts elephant paintings on the walls, and whips up a mean waffle burger called the Revelry Signature Burffle. There is also Prawn N Cheese Waffle, with prawns and asparagus tossed in garlic butter and cheese, and Waffle Royale, comprising poached eggs, smoked salmon, baby spinach and Hollandaise sauce, among others.

Opposite the eateries along Cheong Chin Nam Road, three commercial properties serve the Beauty World neighbourhood: Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Beauty World Centre, and Beauty World Plaza.

Bukit Timah Shopping Centre comprises a majority of maid agencies, some eateries, hairdressing shops, and tuition centres. At Beauty World Centre, a 24-hour Giant supermarket caters to residents living nearby. Beauty World Plaza, on the other hand, has been launched for sale for the second time at a reserve price of $165 million ($2,189 psf per plot ratio). The tender will close on July 17. Beauty World Plaza occupies a site area of 24,817 sq ft, and is zoned for commercial and residential use under the 2014 Master Plan. It is right next to Beauty World MRT Station on the Downtown Line.

An integrated transport hub has been planned for Beauty World, as highlighted in the Draft Master Plan 2019 released by URA. Beside that, there are plans for a Bukit Timah Community Building which will occupy 218,600 sq ft. The one-stop integrated building will comprise a community club and redeveloped market and hawker centre. There will also be an indoor sports hall, community library and elderly facility.

Parts of the Beauty World locale are named after members of the Cheong family, who owned land and developed residential properties in the neighbourhood. These areas include Cheong Chin Nam Road and Chun Tin Road, as well as the adjacent byroads of Yuk Tong Avenue and Tham Soong Avenue.

Cheong Chun Tin, the family patriarch, was the first certified Chinese practitioner of dentistry in Singapore. He set up a dental practice on South Bridge Road in 1869, called Cheong Chun Tin and Co. Following his death in 1898, the practice was taken over by his sons, dentists Chin Nam and Chin Heng. Yuk Tong Avenue and Tham Soong Avenue were each named after Chin Nam’s two wives. In 1964, the brothers started Corlison, a dental product distribution business, which now manufactures the homegrown Pearlie White toothpaste.