Swee Choon Jalan Besar — Restaurant in Singapore

This used to be one of the local places we hold dear to our hearts, openly love and rave about.

“Supper? Dim Sum? Swee Choon? Let’s go!”

A pity to personally witness how far their standard has dropped. Since we are not the operators and cannot explain why, we can only try our luck with guessing. Mass production and emphasis only on speed and not quality in a bid to chun out to the fast moving tourist crowd is what we can think of.

They are probably propped up by tourists now. Every table around us was tourist from the neighboring countries. I mean, just look at the names of the other google reviews and you will know. This standard might work for tourists who probably doesn’t have a single dim sum restaurant in their village or town, but doesn’t seem to cut it for Singapore where good dim sum options are plenty.

Ordered a couple of dishes and only the century egg porridge and salted egg custard bun were hot and passable.

The chicken glutinous rice (lo mai gai) and fan choi were served cold. This applies to all the other dim sum except the bun and porridge, but to have both the rice dishes served cold is pretty pathetic. You could get hot ones just from the coffee shops below your house. The outer layer of the baked bbq pork pastry which is supposed to be flaky is just lumpy. The mee suah kueh only taste of oil and has no flavor of its own. The rice roll (chee cheong fun) was just a gathering of plain flour with no purpose of existence except concealing a tiny prawn smaller than my pinky finger nail.

The employees look like they didn’t want to be there. Served a wrong dish which we didn’t order and didn’t apologize at all after we informed them. Imagine if one of us has an allergy to the food.

Lastly, don’t bother wasting your time filling up their crappy survey for the $5 voucher. It can only be used a day after, a point they purposely omit and only inform you after the survey submission. All time low move.

And oh yes. The street directly opposite their shop has become the unofficial red light district now with massive touting by sleazy women going about their business. Be careful where you walk...

There’s a crave to eat Tim Sum today, so I came to Jalan Bersar, Swee Choon. Time : 1.30pm. I wasn’t at the main entrance. Since 1962 they have already taken over the ground floor of 3(if I am not mistaken) shop houses. It was all Aircon and food ordering was done through an app,scanning of a QR code. Serving of food was quite fast perhaps after the lunch crowd. I tried their Big Pau, Siew Mai, Beancurd seafood roll, Law Mai Kai, Chee Cheong Fun, Mee Sua Kueh and Pu Er. Pau skin was just nice not too thick, filing is enough with a quarter egg and mushroom. Siew Mai is quite solidly stuffed with finely minced pork (not with fats which may make you feel nauseous). It is also a good option for people who would like to avoid prawns due to some health reasons. Beancurd seafood roll taste good, not too salty. Law Mai kai is my favorite! G. Rice is moist, juicy and soft with enough chicken slices and a big half mushroom. For Chee Cheong Fun lovers, you may want to try the ones with fillings instead of the basic plate. Not the best that I have taken. Mee Sua Kueh is for those who wants something crispy. Not for me as I find it a bit tasteless. I have taken the above with minimal chilli so as to get the real taste of the food. 🙂 I have enclosed some photos for your reference(Menu vs actual). Price is above average.

1/2/25 Came back again for Lo Mai Lai and tried some new stuff. Salted egg Yolk Custard Bun was good but price wise on the high side. Spring Roll was so so and Black Pepper Pork Chop noodle was exceptionally salty. This time round, the staff was not very attentive. Food was prepared and ready at the counter for a period of time but no one serve. Not that it was very crowded. I had to alert the staff to do the serving. Also there was a lot of banging of trays from where we sat. Very noisy, I almost wanted to ask for a...

Not so good experience but food was good.

When I arrived at the store, I was standing at the doorstep and confused about where to seat. One of the staff noticed me, but didn't bother telling me where can I sit until I asked him.

After ordering, I waited a while before the tea and chicken arrived. However, around 20-30mins after my order, the steamed pork ribs and porridge has not arrived yet, so I asked the staff. Somehow, the steam pork ribs arrived right after I asked the staff. No updates about the porridge.

I waited another 10 min for the porridge, but to no avail. I asked another staff to check for me again, but she didn't get back to me.

5 mins later, I asked another staff, whom I informed her that I can't wait for too long, and she eventually helped me to check and found my porridge.

I'm frankly fine with the waiting time, I would have understood if it's busy. But Its disappointing that I asked 3 different staff for my porridge and no one got back to me. As such, my suggestion is that if the food item requires waiting, it can be stated in the menu, or the staff can update the customer, giving the customer the option to cancel or change thier order if the wait is going to be beyond 30mins. It is an awkward experience to be sitting there watching everyone else finish their food and leave, while I'm still sitting there. Otherwise, staff attitude is okay, especially the aunty who eventually found my porridge and apologised to me.

Time ordered: 6:14pm Time recieved: 6:57pm

I've heard a lot of good things about Swee Choon from my parents, but I guess that's the experience they had back in the good old days, not now anymore. Giving it a 3 becuase the food is quite nice. But for the experience, it was dissapointing.

Order the porridge only if...