SWEE CHOON

"I can be quite the Dim Sum nazi after having lived in Hong Kong and Taiwan."

Swee Choon is perpetually full. Any time during opening hours that you happen to walk past, you'll gaze into the windows and see happy faces chomping on plates of food. My cab driver highly recommended it, as did my hotel receptionist, so I decided to skip one of the restaurants I had pencilled in for this visit and head here instead.

First up, for a non-local the ordering system is like something out of a quiz game. You have to stand around with your thumb up your ass while locals get shown in, only to find out there is an ordering system on a QR code, which then asks you to enter your phone number (non-local in my case), which then redirects you to a messaging service that sends you a code that you have to suddenly show some random dude sitting 20 meters away at a tiny booth, who in turn scribbles a table number on a piece of paper and shows you to a door, entering to the smell of steam, you are expected to find your own marked table (on the worlds most slippery floor- Do they wash it with butter?), open a different website with yet another QR code, order and then patiently wait for the glories of heaven to fall at your table.

In theory at least.

My Szechuan chilli oil dumplings had a nice kick to them, one that wasn't really spicy but hit my throat at the wrong angle causing me to almost lose my voice for a full minute. Luckily (for me), I was dining alone so my weakness was not exposed. The filling was tasty and the wrapper nice and supple.

Next up my Har Gao were good but nothing like I've had in Hong Kong. The one's at One Dim Sum would shit all over this in an instant. They weren't terrrible, they just were not very exciting and the wrapper had that overly gluey texture I dislike.

The worst offender was the Siu Mai. I am not exaggerating when I say that roadside or even 7-11 Siu Mai in Hong Kong would put this to shame. It had a super dry, very very dense firm texture and tasted nothing like shrimp at all. I don't know how they managed that considering shrimp is probably 75% of the dish.

All in all it was a nice exploration of the Singapore Dim Sum community, and there were hundreds of happy faces so perhaps I just ordered the wrong things off the menu. I don't think i'll return, but if anyone happens to visit, then at least get the Szechuan Dumplings because they were great.

These recommendations are just personal opinions based on my palate, things change, chefs get fired or replaced, places open-close, relocate, so take it all with a pinch of MSG  and discover your own gems too. But please do try a few of these, they have been researched exhaustively.