The best laksa I've tasted was at the top floor Beauty World food centre. Not 'authentic' Katong style, but that's okay.
Big bowl. Many cockles. A large slab of chicken meat. One half of an egg. Excellent chilli sauce. Some slices of crispy fried fish skin(?). A sprinkle of mint leaves.
All that for $3. In the late 1990s.
Refer to the picture from Bukit Indah's 'Pontian' wanton mee restaurant. Something like this, but with chicken meat.