I was bunking at Bunc@Radius, in Little India district, I thought that I might as well try out some of the much raved about food places here in this region. And one of the eateries which I’ve yet to check out is Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant ( 瑞春点心餐厅) that offers Shanghai and Hong Kong Dim sums.
It’s not your typical kind of Chinese restaurant where it’s fully air-conditioned with servers dressed in their uniforms to serve you. To me, it’s more like an eatery which has expanded in size due to the high traffic of customers streaming in to try their popular dim sum dishes. Their seating area is extended all the way to the back of their restaurant, along the back alley. But even with the expanded seating area, they still have a stream of customers queuing outside, eagerly waiting to get in. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the waiting time is long because the turnover rate here is quite fast. My friend and I waited for about 10 minutes before they called us in. And during this 10 precious minutes, they gave us a menu so that we could start pondering over which dishes to order. I can be really indecisive when it comes to ordering so that waiting time was well-spent.
Remember to get a queue number upon entering the restaurant and they will hand you a menu card with an order sheet and a pencil. Do take not that they only accept cash and netts for payments.
There are chairs placed along the pavement right outside the restaurant for people to sit and wait while waiting for their queue number to be called.
They do charge for the wet tissue packets and the sides.
After googling some Swee Choon food reviews online, we decide to order the following dishes based on the online recommendations:
Har Kow
虾饺
Shanghai Xiao Long Bao
上海小笼包
Sichuan Oil Chilli Wanton
四川红油抄手
Fried Golden Doufu
黄金豆腐
Swee Choon Mee-Suah Kueh
面线粿
Salted Egg Yolk Custard Bun
奶黄流沙包
We ordered some chinese tea to go along with the Dim sum dishes. Since some of the dim sums can be quite oily, drinking tea helps to ‘cool’ down your body after chomping down the ‘heaty’ food.
The Chinese tea is served in small individual metal tea pots that comes along with a Chinese tea cup. Esther had Pu-erh tea while I ordered Jasmine tea. And the tea is very fragrant.
We both knew that the Xiao Long Bao ( or steamed buns) here isn’t that stellar but the waitress highly recommended this dish so we decided to try it. It was delicious and though it’s not one of the best in Singapore but it’s up to standard. As long as it’s yummy, I am satisfied.
Shanghai Xiao Long Bao
上海小笼包
Sichuan Oil Chilli Wanton
四川红油抄手
This is very spicy even for me who love take to spicy food. But it’s very appetizing and delicious. If only there’s a hot bowl of soup to go along with it…
Fried Golden Doufu
黄金豆腐
I know it’s just fried toufu topped with pork floss but I personally think that this is one of the must-try dishes in Swee Choon. This not-so-spectacular dish turns out to be really good as the toufu cooked to perfection with an outer thin layer of crisp and a super soft yet warm silk toufu on the inside. The golden toufu is topped with pork floss that adds flavour to the otherwise bland toufu. I would say it’s a perfect combination with the toufu is paired up with the pork floss!
Because it requires years of skills and experience to prepare this golden toufu which tasted unexpectedly good, I had to give this a thumbs-up.
Swee Choon Mee-Suah Kueh
面线粿
I’m not a fan of noodles but when Mee Suah ( a type of Chinese noodles) is fried till it turned brown and crisp on the outside, it can be quite tantalizing on the tastebuds. It’s a great idea to serve the noodles in chunks. It would taste even better if it comes with some spicy sauce.
Har Kow
虾饺
This Shrimp dumplings are just basically shrimps wrapped with translucent flour-made skin. And you can never go wrong with Har Kow unless the shrimps used are not fresh and succulent.
Salted Egg Yolk Custard Bun
奶黄流沙包
It would be wasted trip to Swee Choon if you did not order their Salted Egg Yolk Custard Buns. Dim sum lovers can get quite crazy over this custard buns when they see the hot steamy yellow custard oozing out of the bun in an explosive action.The more custard in it, the better. But here at Swee Choon, the custard buns are pretty good and the custard is not very intensely sweet or salty which makes it perfect for those who prefer a milder flavour. But for me, I prefer custard buns which has this contrasting intense sweet and salty taste that really tickles my taste buds. Whether these custard buns are one of the best in Singapore or not, you just have to try it here at Swee Choon – at least once.
Remember to drink more tea after eating all that sinful stuff!
183/ 185/ 187/ 189/ 191 Jalan Besar
Singapore 208882
Monday to Sunday : 6 pm to 6 am
Close on Tuesday
