When it comes to dim sum in Singapore, one name often comes up, Swee Choon Tim Sum. This dim sum restaurant in Singapore is well known amongst night owls who get hunger pangs in the early hours of the morning.
The main Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant branch is at Jalan Besar and occupies six units. Such is the demand for late night dim sum that is opens from 7 am all the way till 4 am with the last order at 3.30 am.
The brand has been around since 1962. From its early days and its coffee shop setting, it has since expanded to multiple locations around Singapore, including places such as Anchorvale Village.
One location that keeps up the late night dim sum tradition is the Swee Choon at Changi Airport Terminal 2, which is open 24 hours. This is where we decided to pay a visit for a dim sum meal.
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Dining on Dim Sum at Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant
The Swee Choon outlet at Changi Airport Terminal 2 is located on the Arrival Hall level.
One thing that is different about the dim sum at Swee Choon at the airport is that it comes in servings of two. This means that that you can try more varieties of dim sum as compared to places that provide servings of three or more in a basket or order.
No dim sum experience would be complete without dim sum staples like har gow or prawn dumplings and siew mai with minced pork and shrimp. So, we placed our order for the two.
Both the har gow and siew mai are quite acceptable. Just don’t expect it to be super delicate but you wouldn’t think twice while munching down on them.
Another dim sum stalwart that we had to order was the char siew bao. Like the others, this came in a pair as well and was pretty much what you would expect.
The prawn chee cheong fun or rice rolls were cut breadth-wise with a heap of fried shallots on top. We are not sure if they are deliberately served this way instead of the traditionally lengthwise way to reduce the portion size or for some other reason. Also, the rice rolls were felt a bit light on prawns – for example in the cut-up portion of four, there were some which only had one prawn in it.
Another of our favourite dim sums is the beancurd roll. One of the versions at Swee Choon, Beancurd Seafood Roll, is a bit more unique as compared to other dim sum restaurants. Many dim sum restaurants serve a version with meat inside the beancurd skin with a thick gravy sauce.
The Swee Choon version has the steamed beancurd roll stuffed with fish, egg and crab stick. It comes in a light broth that makes it feel less heavy and starchy as compared with those with the gooey sauces.
READ: 40 of the Best Places for Dim Sum in Singapore
Fried Dim Sum at Swee Choon
We then moved on to the fried dim sum available at Swee Choon.
We started off with the Lychee Prawn Cheese Ball, one of the signature dim sums at Swee Choon.
The dim sum looked quite cute. Its red outer coating looks like the skin of a lychee and conjures up a pairing of sweet with savoury. However, when you bite into it, you get the savouriness of cheese paired with prawn.
Another signature is the Tofu Bomb. This one has a bit of spicy kick to it.
The ball combines the crispiness of the outer coating with chopped prawns, minced pork and chives. We quite enjoyed this.
Another must-try dim sum at Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant is the Swee Choon Mee Suah Kueh. Normally, we would order fried carrot cake when we have dim sum. However, whenever we are at Swee Choon, we opt for this instead. It has an interesting texture with the vermicelli cooked with shrimps and Chinese sausage for a springy, bouncy bite.
The Sliced Duck in Crispy Spring Onion Pastry was another less commonly found dim sum that we enjoyed at Swee Choon.
What was disappointing was the prawn fritters. They were rather hard by the time we got to trying them.
On the whole, we thought that the fried dim sum at Swee Choon was more interesting than the steamed dim sum.
Overall Thoughts about Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant
On the whole, Swee Choon is a good place to hit up if you get the craving for dim sum late at night. With its long standing reputation for serving up Hong Kong dim sum in Singapore, coupled with its multiple locations all around the island, it is a name where you can satisfy your need for dim sum at different hours in the day. Visit the Swee Choon website here.
If you are a dim sum lover in Singapore, be sure to check out our guide to 40 dim sum spots in Singapore for all sorts of budgets.
