SHAO 燒 @ RangoonShao

In my food hunting journey, Teochew food is not common on my list, purely because there are not many restaurants serving authentic Teochew fare anymore. Shao came into my feed with amazing pictures of raw seafood and fusion Teochew dishes

Gathering my foodie group, we quickly made a reservation for dinner on a weekday evening. Located at Rangoon Road near the famous Bak Kut Teh restaurant, SHAO stands out with their modern outlook amongst the old-school coffee shops along the same stretch of road

When you enter the restaurant, the vibe is lively, with efforts to adopt Instagram-worthy decor of dried flowers and lighted murals on the wall. I think the look of the place is pretty but we had an extremely noisy table the night we were there and it downgraded the experience to a coffee shop atmosphere. The bathroom area was spacious with a wide corridor for people to stand and wait in line

First up was the drunken cockles at SGD 16 per plate. The cockles were soaked in soy sauce, chilli and garlic with a sprinkle of spring onions. The version served here has less of a garlic flavour and is more basic with a flat soy flavour. The chilli was also mild which was slightly lacking to bring out the punch of the dish. The cockles were still fresh and juicy but the sauce was not as good as the ones from Putien

This next dish was the pan-seared Hokkaido cuttlefish with squid ink which was like a black Chinese sausage. My photo was horrible and unfortunately, I couldn’t find another photo from the dinner so you can see the photo from the menu I took from the website. While it did not look very appetising, the sausage was quite savoury and delicious. There was a nice seafood flavour while you chewed on it and it was good as an alcoholic snack more than an accompaniment to rice. There were bites of cuttlefish with their texture intact so you can still taste the flavours

The next dish was the highly recommended signature marinated raw crab which costs SGD 78 per 500 grams. We ordered 1 mid-sized crab which was full of roe and quite sufficient for 5 of us to share. Different from the Korean version, the Teochew version came with a lot of chopped garlic, spring onions and parsley which was mixed with the sauce and topped on the crab. There was some cut red chilli to give the dish an overall light spice punch. Our dining group consisted of 4 people who love the Korean version a lot which could also be the reason why we could not get used to the different flavours. We found the version here very light in taste which in turn could not cover the slightly fishy taste of the crab and the garlic overpowers the sweetness of the crab meat which was missing in this dish. The dish was nice but not wonderful in our opinion

Next, we had another highly recommended dish which is the golden chicken soup with fish maw priced at SGD 58 for medium and SGD 88 for large. We ordered a medium for 5 people and the pot can fill about 6 to 7 bowls. The soup is very thick and creamy with a thick collagen taste which lines your mouth as you drink the soup. The ingredients are quite generous with seafood, fish maw and chunks of meat in it. The soup is best drank hot as it tends to get oily when the soup turns cold

We also ordered the stewed Iberico pork with soybean paste which was highly recommended in the social feed I saw. The soup tasted like a mix between salted vegetable soup and Korean soybean paste soup. There were huge chunks of tomatoes which added a slight tinge of acidity and to balance up the meatiness of the soup. The pork was sliced thinly for easy consumption and this was great with rice to balance up the saltiness

Last but not least, we had the red grouper fish porridge which was served as the last dish. The soup was clear and light with the sweetness of the fish. The rice was soft and soaked in the flavour from the broth which was comforting for a cold day or people with poor appetite. Priced at SGD 48 for regular and SGD 68 for large, I found it quite pricey as there was nothing too fancy or mind-blowing about this dish. I could possibly think of other pao fan stalls selling the same or if not better flavoured pao fan

Overall, our dining experience was badly affected by the noisy tables as we could hardly hear each other during the meal. The staff were helpful and friendly in assisting us with our orders and questions. I was slightly disappointed with the food as the flavours were common and nothing too noteworthy for the price we paid per dish

Address:  223 Rangoon Rd, #01-01/02, Singapore 218460

Opening hours: 11.30 am to 11 pm