Shang Social

Shang Social is the first stand-alone concept by the Shangri-La Group, a luxury hotel chain that’s known for its fine-dining restaurants. With the aim of offering top-notch Chinese cuisine curated by their Shangri La hotel chefs at affordable prices, Shang Social is meant to fit into the casual dining segment

Located at Jewel 1st floor, the restaurant has a refreshing take on Chinese restaurants with a modern chic design of wood, cement and black furnishings

The restaurant is divided into three different spaces: DINING for formal dining, MRKT for casual dining, and BAR for cocktails and drinks. From the entrance, you will pass the MRKT and BAR area first before passing a 2nd set of doors to the dining area

As we were having dinner with my mum, we booked a table in the DINING section which was filled with plush seats and cushion areas against a nice bamboo painting backdrop. You can catch a glimpse of the Jewel waterfall from the far end of this space but the door was partially closed in this photo

We originally came here for their dim sum but were told by the servers the dim sum menu ends with lunch so we decided to order a few of their classic dishes instead

Specialising in 3 distinctive cuisines; Cantonese, Huaiyang and Sichuan, there was lots to offer in terms of their menu. For a start, we ordered 2 starters, the roast pork belly and the chilled sliced pork trotters with homemade sauce. The pork belly was perfectly crispy and was a good cut of lean and fatty meat in one slice which melted in the mouth. The sliced pig trotter reminded me of a Teochew dish with the same gelatinous texture and a tangy sauce which was very appetizing

We originally wanted to order the Peking duck but were recommended by the staff to try their famous deep-fried boneless spring chicken filled with glutinous rice so we ordered that with sautéed French bean with salted egg yolk as well as the deep-fried fish with eggplant and meat sauce. The French beans were cooked perfectly with a nice crunch and coated well with the savoury salted egg sauce while the deep fish dish tasted very much like an eggplant minced pork dish. The chicken was slightly dry and nothing extraordinary except for the fried seaweed and glutinous rice which the children loved to eat

For our carbs, we ordered silky lean meat porridge, bamboo noodles with beef, plain bamboo noodles with pork lard and the yin yang fried rice with chicken and prawn served with tomato sauce and spinach sauce. The porridge was great as it was smooth and silky and perfect for the elderly and children while the bamboo noodles were really quite the star of the meal. I had the pork lard version which was perfect for the noodles with a balanced portion of oil and dark sauce seasoning while my sister had the beef which was very tender and soft according to her since I do not take beef. The last dish which is the yin-yang rice was pretty to look at but nothing too special to eat as the tomato sauce was not flavourful enough and the spinach sauce was lacklustre. When combined, it felt like a mixed dish of risotto poorly executed

For desserts, we had the chilled wolfberry osmanthus layer jelly with coconut and crispy red bean pancake with sesame. Both were well executed and very tasty as a nice ending to a meal. The sweetness of the desserts was balanced without being too sweet

Overall, there are some dishes which were highly recommended like the bamboo noodles and porridge as well as some delicious dishes like the roast pork and French beans but some of their signatures did not manage to wow me. However, I will return for their bamboo noodles if I am in Jewel

Address: Jewel, 78 Airport Blvd., #01 – 219 to 222 Singapore Changi Airport, 819666

Opening hours: 11.30 am to 3 pm ( till 4pm on Fri-Sun) and 5pm to 10 pm