Szechuan Kitchen at Fairmont

Situated in Fairmont and easily accessible from Raffles City, Szechuan Kitchen is a an awesome place for lunch if you are looking for affordable set lunches in a comfortable setting.

The restaurant was hardly crowded when we arrived on Friday afternoon. There are seats inside and outside the restaurant and all areas are air-conditioned, so there really isn't much of a difference. The place feels like a typical Chinese restaurant at first glance with its wooden furniture and huge signboard.

This is the set lunch menu and I must say, it is highly attractive! We each ordered one $13++ set lunch and some herbal cooling tea. I was in dire need of herbal cooling tea as I was battling a sore throat, but obviously a few cups of herbal cooling tea was not going to help much when I was eating chips the next moment. Anyway! The $13++ set lunch included poached prawn dumpling with spicy sour soy sauce, soup of the day, szechuan minced pork noodle, and your choice of dessert. I chose chilled cream of pomelo, sago and diced mango.

The poached prawn dumpling in spicy sour soy sauce was awesome. The prawns were large and juicy, and the soy sauce tasted really interesting as it was spicy, salty and sour all at once.

The soup of the day was double boiled chicken soup. I love traditional double boiled soup as it is always full of flavour and so nourishing. This chicken soup was great, and tasted as though it had been boiling over a fire since the morning.

The minced meat noodle was really unique. The noodle was not the usual la mian that we have in Chinese restaurants, and the minced meat did not taste like the usual minced meat in zha jiang mian. There is something special about the sauce, which was more savoury than sweet, and totally unlike the usual sweet sauce that you find in zha jiang mian.

The pomelo sago and diced mango tasted ordinary though. But I was never a fan of pomelo sago so that could explain my lack of interest in the dessert.

The set lunch here is really awesome and totally worth the price tag. The portions might look small at first glance, but I assure you, it will keep you full and sleepy all the way till dinner time. Which might be a bad idea if you are rushing work, so prepare some coffee.