Had our day planned out for yoga, currency exchange and dim sum. Will write about the slightly more relevant / interesting event :PDim sum is the kind of food I'd gladly eat at any time of day and Swee Choon is perfect if cravings occur very late at night or very early in the morning. Taking up almost a whole block along Jalan Besar, this place seems almost incongruous to the setting of Little India.
We arrived at 7pm and already there was a swarm of people waiting for tables. "Darn, should have came earlier hor." While waiting, we were given the menu and order sheet to self-complete. We did so and twiddled our thumbs for a bit, sitting on the plastic stools.Turnover is pretty quick though and the place is pretty huge, so wasn't too long until we were led to our table. (Probably a fraction of the time needed to get into Tim Ho Wan, hah).
Established since 1962 - Swee Choon probably needs no introduction to most.
{ Sichuan Chilli Oil Wanton ($4) }
Food generally get served quite quickly. We started with a plate of wantons sitting in chilli oil. This had quite a bit of 'kick' and the wantons were soft and smooth. Good for a dollar a pop!
{ Shanghai Xiao Long Bao ($4) }
A meal of dim sum isn't quite complete with XLB. These ones were decent too - skin not too thick and quite generous bits of meat inside. Broth was tasty. Again, this is not bad at all for a dollar each.
{ Siew Mai ($1.80), Har Kow ($2), Chicken Feet ($2.30) }
We ordered the 'essential' siew mai and har gow - but to be honest we could have just done without them.
The feets were ok - not as soft and fall-apart-y as I liked.
{ Baked BBQ Pork Pastry ($2) }
Couldn't resist ordering the char siew sou (?) - unfortunately this kind of fell short of the amazeballs version we had at Mouth Restaurant. This one here was relatively too sweet and not as fragrant. This tasted very traditional - like the ones I had when I was a kid. Unfortunately I've since found better ones elsewhere!
{ Swee Choon Mee-Suah Kueh ($2) }
Decided to also try one of their specials. This deep fried mee suah kek was quite interesting in texture but somewhat similar in taste to fried carrot cake. Taste-wise was the same as regular carrot cake ... except with mee-suah folded into the batter. The texture of the noodle strands within was interesting and the crisped top was nice as well!
{ Steamed Salted Egg Yolk Custard Bun ($3.60) }
One of our favouritest items ever. What was the verdict? This was okay in our books, not particularly memorable. Once again it's hard not to compare to the imba ones we had at Mouth, which really packed a punch in flavour and richness.
{ Yam Paste w/Gingko Nuts ($3.80) }
Last but not least, as sort of a little indulgence treat for (hehe), we got the orh nee to end off our meal. I'm not a huge fan as most tend to be sickeningly gao and sweet, but this wasn't so. I enjoyed the creaminess - the mix of coconut was necessarily decadent. Yum. There was a little pumpkin inside as well - this was definitely a winner as I just love orh-nee. Rich and not too sweet, lovely.I felt the quality of dim sum itself to be good but not mind-blowing. It wasn't too expensive, food wasn't bad in the least, they had a fair bit of selection and the place itself is huge with a fast turnover. I think the combinations of all that + location results in the crazy queues. Well that and Singaporeans have been brought up to love queueing.
Swee Choon
Main website : http://sweechoon.com/en/location.htm
HGW Link (85% recommended at time of posting ) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/swee_choon_tim_sum_restaurant/
Rating (out of 4) :
