Cuisine: Hong Kong
Address: 111 Somerset Rd, #01-16 TripleOne Somerset, Singapore 238164
Nearest MRT: Somerset Station (North-South line)

Travel to Hong Kong instantly with a bite at So Good Char Chan Tang, an upbeat casual dining café which has opened at TripleOne Somerset. The cafe also has other outlets at Capitol Singapore and Sin Ming Lane. My friend introduced me to this hole-in-the-wall cafe serving authentic HK food. My friend had arrived earlier to queue, so I did not wait long before we were ushered in. It was about a 15 minutes wait during dinner time, but I heard that during lunch hour, the queue can even stretch up to one hour. We had to place our order at a touch-screen display before we got to sit down. This type of ordering is also common at fast food outlets such as McDonalds and KFC.

I ordered the stewed beef brisket noodle ($7) which came with hor fun as the noodle base. When the dish was served, I was a little shocked by the meagre portions of beef brisket on top. As with the brusque service of HK cha chaan teng style, I did not want to question too much. Anyway for the price that I am paying, I think the beef is directly proportional. I like the hor fun sauce, not being too thick and also it had a rich broth taste of beef. The beef brisket was tender too.

We ordered a steamed rice roll with shrimp ($4.80) to share. There were three rolls to share. While the shrimp was fresh, but the rice roll was a bit too thick for my liking. I liked the freshly made rice rolls that are available at some hawker centres such as Old Airport Road or Marine Parade.

As part of a healthy diet, we ordered Poached Choy sim with oyster sauce ($4) because as you can see from my Beef brisket noodles, the vegetables provided was just one stalk of the choy sim, which is not enough. This is a standard dish that you can find under side dishes, or as an accompaniment to chicken rice.

Lastly, as a typical cha chaan teng dish, the Baked Tomato Pork Chop Rice ($9.50) begins with seasoned lean pork chops, tenderized, marinated and cooked over an oiled pan till golden brown. The tomato paste was rich and not too salty, while the dish is filling for someone who needs rice as part of every meal. While the dish does not seem very presentable with the tomato sauce covering the top, but it was heaven with every bite. For those who love to eat tomatoes, this is a must-order dish.

For desserts, we chose to order the Polo bun instead of the usual iced dessert or milk pudding. Created with a recipe by Hong Kong chefs, the Polo Bun with Butter ($2.30) is also a good substitute as a tea-time snack. Our only gripe is that the polo buns were not heated up, if not the melting butter would ooze with every bite.

Lastly, we also had a Cold HK Style Milk tea ($2.50) to end off the meal, I liked the rich fragrance of the tea, which was served in a small paper cup. The HK style milk tea is thick and luxuriant, bringing out the flavours of the tea.

Food pricing at So Good Cafe is indeed affordable, we ordered so many dishes and the bill only came up to $34. While some people have said that the food is nothing to rave about, I am quite impressed with the quality of the food and it is similar to the ones we can get at such HK style cafes in Hong Kong itself. Since the HK-Singapore travel bubble did not materialise and we are stuck in Singapore, why not give this cafe a try to relive some of the wonderful food memories that you had while traveling in Hong Kong?