Hey Hive!
Since I've been sharing a lot of our favourite takeaway foods we've been trying during the lockdown, I thought I'd do something a little different today and write about a place we tried before the lockdown; in fact before all the craziness that happened since covid became public news.
Well actually this is a place we've eaten at both before and after quarantine, because it's one of our favourite dim sum places in Singapore - Swee Choon!
I can't remember when we first ate at Swee Choon; maybe in 2016? But it was a place that we'd always hear about from friends or online so we decided to try it one day and we loved it! Also, because it's (comparatively) cheaper than other dim sum places, it's become one of our go-to spots for a dim sum fix!
I think Swee Choon was well known among clubbers since it was one of the few places that open from 6 PM to 6 AM! So it would still be running at like 2 AM in the morning for clubbers to go get some grub after dancing and drinking all night.
But here's some history for you; Swee Choon was initially a single shophouse dim sum restaurant in 1962, and has been proudly serving freshly handmade dim sum made with the finest herbs and ingredients for over 55 years! They even boast a showcase of La Mian made right before your own eyes!
Source: Bossy Flossie
Swee Choon has since attracted much media attention as well as celebrities, expats and tourists. And they've since expanded by taking over 5 shophouses! The restaurant itself has also been considered a landmark in Jalan Besar, where people from all walks of life can come to enjoy the simple pleasure of affordable handcrafted dim sum. (Cr: Swee Choon)
Thanks to their fame and reputation of serving delicious dim sum at affordable prices, Swee Choon always has a long line of customers. And many years ago, people would sit outside and wait for their tables. But thankfully, they adopted a smarter queuing system where you would input how many people there are in your party and whether you'd prefer indoor or outdoor seating on a touch screen. And once it's your turn you'd receive a text message saying your table is ready!
The interior of the restaurant just screams classic Singaporean coffee shop; with white walls, white KDK ceiling fans and long LED lights similar to classrooms and plastic chairs. But thankfully, it's considerably cleaner and air-conditioned unlike the coffee shops of old.
The newer wing, which just recently opened since they renovated during the lockdown, however, has a more modern aesthetic. With the wood-grain floors, matching tables and stainless steel fans, this side of Swee Choon is definitely more of a restaurant than coffee shop.
But both are air conditioned and are pretty comfortable so I wouldn't really have a preference.
This is the main part of their extensive menu:
While Swee Choon does specialise in dim sum, they also offer a wide range of other dishes like La Mian, and a whole slew of cooked meat, vegetable and rice/noodle dishes.
Our favourite dim sum dishes are definitely these:
Which are (from left to right): Xiao long bao (soup dumplings), fried liu sha bao (egg custard buns), fried beancurd skin prawn rolls, and har gow (steamed crystal shrimp dumplings)
Here are some food porn close-ups:
I think the fried beancurd skin prawn rolls are probably my favourite. It's the one dish that's a must to order every time we eat dim sum. Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and savoury all around. Absolutely yummy! 😋
We've also tried the fried rice at Swee Choon, specifically the Dried Scallop & Egg White Fried Rice, which was pretty good, standard fried rice. The chili paired with it really well.
And just to get some vegetables, we also tried their Poached Spinach with Golden & Silver Eggs. I think it might've been a different name back then but there are 3 types of eggs in there; century egg, salted egg, and a normal chicken egg. Which was pretty good and really healthy too, plenty of proteins and vegetables.
Most recently, our trip to Swee Choon was to celebrate Sean's belated birthday! Since he was unfortunately sick for a week during his birthday, we thought it'd be a good treat for when he was feeling better (it was just a viral infection, not covid or dengue fever, thankfully).
We had dinner with my brothers and sis-in-law and we had quite the feast!
This meal featured some new dishes we haven't tried like Swee Choon's signature mee suah kueh, which is deep fried vermicelli cake. It tasted a little bland though imo.
We also tried a new vegetable dish - Sauteed Long Beans with Minced Pork which was actually pretty tasty! I don't really like long beans that much but this one wasn't bad at all!
There was also this layer pancake with egg & pork floss, which was alright. It tasted like a prata sushi roll, as odd as that sounds.
They also had some special items on the menu for national day, aka Singapore's Independence Day, which included mee suah kueh with chili crab sauce and lava bun with chili crab filling!
We don't really eat chili crab that often since Sean isn't a fan of seafood, but the chili crab bun was pretty good! The fried bun is good, but the chili crab filling made it interesting and savoury, as opposed to the sweet egg custard one.
All in all, a fantastic meal! I'm sure you can tell we've eaten here plenty of times. In fact, during quarantine, we even ordered in Swee Choon because I was craving dim sum after not having it for months!
Swee Choon is definitely one of my all-time favourite restaurants, and it being our go-to dim sum place for years and them still attracting so many customers post-quarantine is a true testament to how good they are.
So if you ever have a hankering for dim sum (maybe even past midnight), definitely try Swee Choon!
Thanks so much for reading! And sorry if I made you hungry! 😆
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
