A blast from the past with a tantalising taste of modernity. Think retro-chic 60s-style Hong Kong with a touch of luxe – are you in the mood for love yet?
Social Place was originally from Hong Kong, and is a modern-style chachaanteng. The concept of Social Place aims to provide diners with a chic, vibrant, cozy dining venue. In their HK branches, you can even play ping pong in the restaurant while you wait for the food to come. Here they went for another HK favourite past time.
And closer inspection of the logo wall, you will see that it was mosaic made from HK’s favourite pastime – mahjong tiles. Made me want to get three more people and have a round mahjong straight away. But I digressed, we were here for a quick lunch.
Enough of the electric decor, I was told the food here was good, and I came for lunch with some business associates after a seminar in a nearby hotel.
Corn Sautéed with Crispy Fried Garlic 避風塘珍珠玉米
“Bi Feng Tang” 避風塘, which means typhoon shelter, was conceived in the makeshift kitchens on these boats gathered in Causeway Bay where they converged to shelter from storms. This style of cooking elevates the simplest ingredients with a crisp and tasty “storm” of aromatics like garlic and seasoned breadcrumbs.
Noodles in Scallion Oil 開蔥拌麵
Noodle in Scallion Oil 開蔥拌麵 is a Shanghainese classic. It takes a lot of skill and patience to make good scallion-infused oil that is used to dress the wheat noodles. And the only other condiment is soy sauce, and the quality of the soy sauce makes or breaks this dish. The most authentic ones will have a splash of dried shrimp called “Kai Yang” 開陽. They served a rather competent version, one of the better ones in Singapore.
Hot & Sour Dumplings 酸辣水餃
This is a variation of the wontons in spicy chilli oil 红油抄手. Instead of wontons, dumplings are used, and a tinge of sourness was added to the spicy chilli oil, just like you would when you eat the wontons in the first place. Wouldn’t say I enjoyed it as it was too sour IMHO.
Drunken Chicken 酒埕醉雞
What could go wrong with drunken chicken? Let me count the ways – the Shaoxing yellow wine used was bitter, the chicken overcooked, the wine marinade did not make it into the chicken, and there was not chicken taste.
Seafood Crackling Rice Soup 海鮮泡飯
After the disastrous drunken chicken, this was the saving grace. There has been a craze for 泡饭 or soaked rice in recent times, and there were many variations that came about. This Seafood Crackling Rice Soup 海鮮泡飯 was excellent. The seafood soup was rich and filled with umami form the different shellfish and prawns used that it could be served on its own. The rice was a mixture of normal steamed rice with rice crackles or what we called 锅巴, which was the puffed rice on the bottom of the rice cooker. These were specially puffed rice, and they soaked ups all those wonderful stock and gave a crunchy texture to the otherwise monotonous mouthfeel.
Roasted Quail 秘制鹌鹑
And then it ended with another hit. Featuring quails from local farms, the alternative take on the roasted pigeon was spot on. Roasted quail had that gamey taste of pigeon and the marinated bird was simply delicious. You could stop at one bird and this was the closest thing to roast pigeons from Yuenlung in HK.
Some misses but mainly hits. They gave me so nostalgic memories of Hong Kong. I especially like the classic but with new ingredients, like the typhoon-shelter corns and roasted quails. And the service was prompt and efficient, nothing more. Good spot for a quick lunch, and the place fills up quickly.
Social Place 唐宫小聚
583 Orchard Road, Forum the Shopping Mall #01-22 Singapore
Tel : +65 8870 2288
Visited Sep 2023
@socialplacesg #socialplacesg
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