One word: sauce.
That ginger concoction that goes with the chicken is just awesome. I've tried many other versions around Singapore (including one from the supermarket that tasted and smelled like petrol), but this one takes the ribbon. The only comparison is the one I tasted with the chicken rice at the Island Shangri-La in Hong Kong.
So get this - a wide platter with boiled chicken and a stack of lettuce is served with the sauce taking center stage. You wrap all these babies together and shove it into your mouth for a very pleasant culinary experience. I can almost eat these forever - like Tex-Mex crispy tacos with pico de gallo.
The other stuff is not bad either. Soup is decent, if not spectacular (many to choose from). The veggies and fish dishes are good standard chinese fare. Didn't try the dessert.
Ambience is like something from a 1970's Chinese chopsocky Kung-Fu movie. I can almost imagine some bad dude threatening me with "Hey... your Kung-Fu isn't so bad. Too bad I have to kill you." I don't know about others, but I kinda like it.
Value is so-so, for this type of cuisine.
Service is eager, but hardly anyone speaks English.
Have I mentioned the sauce?

My buddy invited me down to soup restaurant for dinner and we ordered, dang gui kai lan vegetable, seafood in claypot, deer meat, stri fried bean sprouts, jiang zhi ji (chicken with ginger sauce).

Am never a fan of vegetables but after eating the dang gui kai lan, I fell in love with it. I never know that dang gui can be used to cook together with veg. The kai lan is simply fresh, crunchy and with a mixture of sweet, bitter and wild veg taste. Most importantly its not oily..

The seafood in claypot is fulled with sea cucumber, prawns, tofu, veg, pork slices and etc in brownish gravy. Ingredients are all fresh, not overcooked, taste just nice, not too salty or bland. Thumbs Up

Deer meat slice in some brownish gravy taste like those normal meat you eat outside but to be more precise, deer meat's texture is slightly different from others (not that rough). Like chicken, they have the chicken taste and beef has its own beef smell. Hence if you eat deer meat, the taste is definitely different and its more tender, sweet/juicy. Well Its not because they put those papaya acid to soften it but deer meat itself is indeed more tender than others.

Stri fried bean sprouts rather common but as usual, its not oily and its well cooked.

Jiang zhi ji (chicken with ginger sauce) is one of the restaurant's specialty dish. I heard my friend saying that their chicken is always fresh. Any left over chicken during lunch period will not be served at dinner time. Tender and smooth chicken with slight chicken sweetness dip in ginger sauce taste gr8.

Was a treat from my buddy so not too sure how much is it but overall its pleasant to dine in a chinese styled restaurant with such authentic chinese home cook style food.

My 2nd visit to the very same Soup Restaurant, but this time round, all the middle-aged service crew members were not present. Perhaps they have gone for visitations and in replacement was a young crew, comprising of Chinese folks, who may not be able to make it home for CNY.

A serious reduction in the menu selection coz it's the Chinese New Year period, and there was a heavy promotion of the dunno-how-many-8 Yu Sheng and other combo sets instead. =(

Who can go wrong with the Samsui Ginger Chicken, which Dad left all the chicken skin out, while Mum and me were the ones finishing the chicken skin. Mum commented on the lean-ness of the chicken meat and the minimal fats present on the chicken skin. And one can't deny that it's the skin that gives flavour to the dish.

We had the Tofu Prawns as well, which was less spicy as compared to my previous outing. It actually tasted more tomato-like instead!! A little disappointing and I felt that the sauce (this time round) was a little too starchy as well.

For the Chinese New Year, the Yong Chow Fried Rice was actually renamed as Reunion Rice. Huge portion, even though we ordered a small one, so much so, that we had to do take-away for the remainder, which became the next morning's breakfast. Not too wet, so the rice had it's 'cui-ness' in it, but was unfortunately, a little too oily. And I thought that daily necessities were increasing in prices..

The Boiled Soup of the Day was actually Bak Ku Soup with Lotus!! Yummy!! The lotus taste was pretty distinct!! YUMMY!!

Mum & me shared a Waisan & Ginseng Roots with Chicken Soup, whereby one could really see the ginseng in it!! The chicken was so cooked, that it disintegrated upon eating. Fair enough, coz that's how the meats should be, when boiled in soup. Thumbs-up too!!

I was pretty appreciative of the service crew as I requested for a change of tables mid-way through dinner, as our original table was getting too small for all the food placed on it. The crew was really nice in helping us in the move and even set up new utensil sets for us to use!! Pretty attentive staff as well, which never fails to pop up within ~5 seconds of getting their attention.

One area of improvement?? Maybe the kitchen should seriously consider in reducing the amount of oil used for cooking. Afterall, Singaporeans are on their way towards 'Healthy Living'. We should just do the ministries some justice, after all the effort put in.

I had a really good experience at the JP branch so when we were at Suntec and chanced upon Soup Restaurant again, I did not hesitate to drag my husband into the place.

We had the following:
1 steamed rice with chicken and mushroom (fabulous!)
1 black chicken soup (OK but it had a unique taste that I couldn't quite place. Rather sweet. Maybe too many mushrooms but I didn't quite like. Not used to black chicken soup like that)
1 ah kong fan shu veg (supposed to be mildly spicy but it was really spicy!)
1 penang fried mee sua (the most disappointing of the lot. The first time in my life eating bad fried mee sua. It looked like no effort at all was put into it, compared to the love and care that seemed to go into the soup. There were chunks of rather tasteless chicken, and the meesua itself was bland. Looked like economical beehoon that we get from breakfast stalls)
1 tofu (not sure of the name. OK but forgettable)

All in all, I'm very disappointed. Especially in the meesua. I had such high hopes and expectations of the place because of past experiences. The service was pretty good though. But I have one grouse - Because I cannot take ginseng and tang kwei, we asked the waitress to recommend a soup that didn't have either. She just said 'you see in the menu la!'. 1. it wasn't in the menu 2. neither my husband nor myself are very good at chinese characters. Other than that, service was rather prompt.

If I go again, I will stick with the steamed rice with chicken and mushrooms, and choose another soup.

PS I just checked my old review and it seems I took the same soup at my last visit at JP. Funny that the same soup can taste so different. It really didn't make me feel WOWed at all this time.

I have finally visited this restaurant, after hearing so much about it from my fellow colleagues. Well, it was more of a chanced-upon visit, as we could not make up our minds on where to eat.

Finally settling in, we zoomed straight for the menu and got ourselves the following & gave all the soup dishes a miss as well. Food names may be different due to forgetfulness.. =P

1. Home-made Tofu, which was seriously soft and was nicely done up with black soya sauce (if I was not mistaken) and finished off with spring onions. Simple but tasty!!

2. Ginger Chicken, which was served with fresh green cabbages and sliced cucumbers. One has to first wrap the chicken and the cucumber slices in the cabbage, before stuffing the food into one's mouth. It just totally reminded me of the Roasted Duck in Beijing, whereby the exact same procedures were done. Similarly, simple yet tasty!!

3. Ah-Gong Spinach Leaves, which tasted a little like Sambal Kang Kong. If one ain't a chilli-lover, there's the option of the Ah-Ma Spinach Leaves, which does not have the chilli element in it.

4. Some Tofu-Prawn Dish, which is slightly spicy, but it reminded me of Hot Plate Beancurd, except there was no egg but replaced by prawns in this case. Nice succulent prawns, covered in a thick tasty gravy. Worth a try and not too expensive as well!! =)

5. Penang Fried Mee Sua, which was simple and tasty, coupled with a lot of ingredients thrown together, from bean sprouts to egg bits.

The service crew was made up mainly of middle-age people, which gave a pretty homely feeling. The restaurant had little round stools as seats and tables with simple wood carvings on them, giving one the impression of being under some resting shade in Chinese Garden, but it actually reminded me more of the restaurants in China etc.

A little noisy due to the huge dinner crowd but otherwise, if one was to speak slightly louder, his companions would still be able to hear him.

Worth a visit and a true reminder to simple home-cooked food, especially if one decided not to cook at home for a particular day!