Simple Teochew food in Singapore is one of our favourite types of lunch on a weekend. A good restaurant for an uncomplicated Teochew lunch is Chao Shan in the Raffles Place area. You can dine with a view of Yueh Hai Ching temple on the other side of Philip Street.
Teochew Restaurant in Singapore CBD Area
Normally we would avoid going to restaurants in the Singapore CBD if we can help it. It is a crowded place on weekdays and the parking rates are crazy expensive. But on weekends, the situation is reversed. Raffles Place is deserted. Many CBD carparks have per entry fees that are fairly reasonable. Our preferred parking for Chao Shan restaurant is the OCBC Centre which is a stone’s throw away.
Chao Shan Menu Prices
Our last visit to this restaurant for simple Teochew food was in 2020. With a quick glance, the Chao Shan menu looked pretty much the same. On closer examination, it seems that some dishes have seen a small increase (eg the braised goose from $22 to $24). Here are pictures of some sample pages of the menu.
Our Simple Teochew Food Lunch
Our lunch started with our usual dish – sliced braised goose meat ($24 for a small portion). It is a dish that is wonderfully Teochew in character, especially when dipped into the “sng nee cho” – vinegar with chilli and garlic.
Our next dish was chestnut chicken ($32). This is a dish that can only be ordered as a whole chicken and is a good choice for a group of four people. We tend to like the “kau luck” as much as the chicken. Soft and fragrant, the chestnuts are usually wiped out before the chicken. Not much to look at, but we don’t get tired of this straightforward Teochew dish.
For vegetables that day, we chose the claypot bitter gourd, which can be a risky choice as the gourd can sometimes turn out hard and bitter or soft and tasteless. Fortunately, the chef was on form that day and it was well balanced – slightly bitter but proportional to the rest of the flavours contributed by the mushrooms, garlic and pork. We got carried away with the food and only realised we neglected to take a picture of the full dish. Here is a picture of a half-eaten claypot bitter gourd.
Our lunch ended with a final dish of simple Teochew food – fried kway teow. Unlike the usual version found at hawker centres, this Teochew char kway teow is less oily and features the taste of the humble chai poh – preserved vegetables.
Ratings:
Food: 4
Service: 3
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 4
Overall Rating: 4 TOPs
Chao Shan Cuisine (潮山林)
#01-01 Grand Building, 17 Phillip Street, Singapore 048695
Nearby MRT Stations: Raffles Place; Telok Ayer
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