For several months we noticed the busy Hong Kong Stret Chun Kee Thomson restaurant along Upper Thomson Road. Last night, we tried it for dinner and found it to be top-shelf szi-cha ('called dishes').
Their specialty is a fish hor fun (thick, wide, flat white noodles). I am not a fan of hor fun, but even I was impressed with this dish. The sauce was fragrant but didn't have the stink of docks. The noodles were properly cooked, intermingled with black pepper. Nearly every table ordered it.
Most dishes had some sea bass mixed with it. That went for both the hor fun and the tom yam soup we ordered. The soup was the suprise winner. I wouldn't have expected them to prepare it so nicely, but since the soup we originally ordered was out of stock, we went with it. Its excellence came from the thick broth. I don't think I've ever had a tom yam that was thicker than this one. It must have used a frightening amount of coconut milk. I couldn't get enough of it until my throat was burning so painfully that I was drinking it in some curious way that gave me uncomfortable ur-hiccups.
We ordered whole fish served with honey-chilli sauce. We wanted a Garoupa, but they only were left huge $39 beasts, so we settled for a Sea Bass (Sea Bass in Singapore is not the same as what we called Sea Bass in San Francisco. Here that fish is known as cod. Singapore Sea Bass is a much smaller, more bony fish) The fish was deep fried whole and then covered in this remarkable sauce -- which was a great balance of sweet and very spicy -- and slathered with a huge pile of sliced fresh onion and coriander. The onion and coriander made a great cooling counterpoint to the strong sauce.
The side dish of baby kailan vegetable tasted crisp and was cooked with a discreet amount of oyster sauce.
The restaurant is crowded with a lot of big families pouring in for dinner. That's a good sign. The only problem is that the large, misshapen room has tiled walls and floors. It's an acoustic nightmare. Even without a full house the place is deafening with the sounds of plates, silver, and people bouncing off the walls. It was thick with din.
Hong Kong Street Chun Kee Thomson
Lunch: 11:30AM-2:15PM
Dinner: 5:30PM-11:15PM
222/224 Upper Thomson Rd, Singapore 574354
Reservations (Weekdays only) 6454 2988