When it comes to casual Chinese restaurant, the Soup restaurant is one of the place I really like for their down to earth homely dishes to their pretty nostalgic restaurant setting. Started from 1991 with their first outlet, the Soup restaurant founders drew inspiration from his Cantonese upbringing and curated a series of home-based Cantonese dishes which was called ” Chinatown Heritage Cuisines” as most of the dishes where common and popular home cooked meals found locally in Chinatown.
The entrance of most Soup restaurant outlets will have these huge red lanterns and couplets which is also a common sight for most local Cantonese traditional homes. In fact, you can find this at my house too which is perhaps why one of the reason I like visiting Soup restaurant.
The entire restaurant is decked in traditional Chinese lanterns and fake tiled roof so you when you are dining in the restaurant, you will feel like you are in China or at least Chinatown.
You can find many variety of dishes in their menu all cooked in the Cantonese home cooked style so it is slightly different from the bigger Cantonese restaurants. They also have set menus featuring some of their popular dishes for first timers to their restaurant.
For me as a regular, there are a few popular signature dishes which I will definitely order like this Samsui Ginger chicken. You will probably notice that every single table will order at least 1 plate of this dish. Looking similar to the Hainanese Chicken rice, blanched chicken is a common dish found in most Cantonese dinner tables especially during Chinese New Year. Instead of the chilli sauce you find at most chicken rice store, you will find a special minced ginger sauce which complements very well with the blanched chicken.
The chicken is tender and succulent and with the ginger sauce, it has a savoury and slightly spicy flavour. You can also wrap the chicken meat with the fresh iceberg lettuce provided for a refreshing crunch.
Another signature is their double boiled herbal soups as soups are extremely important to a Cantonese family. I have tried all of their soups and they all taste wonderful and has absolutely no msg as you can taste the sweetness of the ingredients all extracted into the soup itself.
The next dish is the clay pot tofu which is a dish that complement white rice extremely well. As I find bits of sweet radish in the dish, there is a nice balance of sweet and savoury flavours in the sauce of the dish. The tofu itself has a nice pre-fried skin soaked with the sauce while the inside of the tofu remain smooth and soft to the bite.
We ordered their vegetables as well but the order was forgotten and we were too full to have it so we cancelled the order but I had their vegetables before and they are mostly well fried and tasty. Overall, eating at Soup Restaurant is a no fuss experience for me as the dishes are very typically Cantonese in character and is something I grew up with as well. The food is also wallet friendly and suitable for all ages.
Address: 1 HarbourFront Walk, #02-141, Singapore 098585
Operating hours: 11.30 am to 10 pm
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