The Good Trio 三人行 @ Thomson

Confucius said, “三人行,必有我师.” When three person walked together, there’s bound to be something I can learn from. We were three persons that went to this restaurant called The Good Trio, and we learnt something today.

They serve Fujian cuisine mainly, with some Sichuan dishes thrown in for good measure, just like any Chinese restaurants in every Chinese cities. True regional cooking has been infiltrated by “Sichuan” food because of the peppercorns and bold spices used that resulted in strong flavours that would destroy the tastebuds.

And like all Chinese restaurants, they would sell anything that’s popular across all palates and regional divides, like this Shanghai/Zhejiang influenced Shaoxing Huadiao Drunken Chicken 绍兴花雕醉鸡. Good flavours, but a bit overcooked and dry.

Whitebait Fritters 椒盐白饭鱼 is another of such dish – salt and pepper is not a style that can be claimed by anyone, but used by everyone. The first time I had this dish was in a Cantonese restaurant. whitebait is battered and deep-fried, and then returned to the work for a quick stir-fry with garlic, salt and pepper. A simple and nice appetiser and beer food.

Steamed Pork Dumplings 原味小笼包, again, is from the Shanghai/Jiangsu cuisine. But no one can do it better than the originals. So I would not suggest ordering this here.

Stir-fry Beef with Capsicum 尖椒牛肉 is a typical stir-fry from Hunan. Not done very well here.

Beer Braised Duck 啤酒鸭 is Sichuan. And the duck was very tough after being braised in beer. We ate the konnayaku but that did not absorb any of the sauce.

Stir-fry Edamame with Diced Pork 肉碎炒日本毛豆 was hmm, rather unappetising with the overcooked pork and frozen edamame.

Finally, one course that’s from Fujian. Braised Nanping Noodle 南平焖面 used noodles that were made in-house, which gave it a chewy texture. This style was similar to Putien noodles, but Nanping was inland city/county so clams was not a common ingredient in their noodles. However the technique cooking and braising the noodles was definitely Fujian.

Afterthoughts

This shop opened in 2020, after the massive renovation to Thomson Plaza. The menu was too big and there were too many styles that they deviated from the Fujian/Sichuan genres. Hence the food was subpar, we had only enjoyed the noodles. I guessed because Singaporeans were not familiar with the Fujian cuisine 闽菜 presented here, as we would like them to heavy soya-sauce flavoured and thickened sauces. And then they decided to do what Singaporeans are used to, in terms of Chinese cuisines. They need to research better, not everyone can become a Putien without understanding the local F&B scene and tastebuds. The service of the waitresses needed some work. Not coming back anytime.

The Good Trio 三人行
301 Upper Thomson Rd, #01-122/123 Thomson Plaza, Singapore 574408
Tel : 6970 2128

Date Visited : Sep 2021