The One Spot Soup House 湯.com

Revisit post on The One Spot Soup House 湯.com [HERE]

For someone who claims there is nothing to really eat on Victoria Drive and loves herbal as well as ginseng soup, how could I have never heard of 湯.com?! And for someone who loves clay pot rice… how has BF never heard about this place?! After posting a photo of dinner from Cindy's Palace on Instagram stating I only went there for the herbal soup, a follower of mine suggested 湯.com! The restaurant is fairly small and has around ten seats. Coming for a late lunch, the restaurant was empty and we did not have to worry about a line up.

GINSENG SEA-SNAIL MEAT SOUP ($6.95). 

The soups are served boiling hot in individual sized clay pots. When having slow cooked soups, I like to scoop out the ingredients and place them on the side for an easier access to the broth! Plus, I never eat the ingredients because all the nutrients are in the soup base and usually the meat tastes dry as well as chewy. The soup has a light sea-snail broth as well as a hint of ginseng but tastes quite bland, diners need to adjust their own sodium level with the salt provided on the side. After adding some salt, the soup still could have tasted more flavourful as well as rich with a stronger ginseng taste.

HERBAL CHICKEN SOUP ($4.95).

The soup has a chicken broth with a light herbal taste and although not bland, is more on the lighter side and could have a more flavourful herbal taste.

PICKLED DAIKON AND CARROT.

Every order of clay pot rice comes with a complimentary soup (which we did not get possibly because we ordered the herbal soups?) as well as pickled daikon and carrot. To prevent wasting food, I will probably tell the waitress not to bring the pickled vegetables on the next visit because we do not eat them much.

CABBAGE PORK DUMPLING ($6.95). 

The dumplings are served in soup? LOL regardless, the dumplings taste moist with an alright taste of pork despite the heavy appearance of cabbage. Something interesting is that the dumplings have a gooey raw meat appearance, however, are fully cooked. Anyway, not like it matters as the dumplings taste okay. As for the soup, the chicken broth tastes flavourful and not canned, heavy on the MSG (btw I am not against MSG!) or salty.

CLAY POT TOPPED WITH PORK BELLY ($7.95). 

The clay pot has a good amount of fatty as well as tasty pork belly and the lean portion tastes tender, not chewy or even slightly. As for the vegetables, the choy sum tastes fresh as well as crunchy, the way I like it. After a while, the heat from the clay pot forms a nice crispy rice crust. For those who are not a fan of smoked meat or is a fan of pork belly, this is pretty much the go to clay pot here. However to those who are fans of smoked meat, will find nothing special about this and think there are tastier variations.

CLAY POT TOPPED WITH MINCED PORK CAKE

AND SALTED DUCK EGG ($7.25) + SAUSAGE ($1.00) + FRESH EGG ($1.00).

The minced pork cake tastes bouncy as well as rubbery rather than soft and fluffy. However, there is a somewhat generous portion and the meat does not taste salty. As for the rest of the ingredients, the fresh egg, sausage and salted duck egg tastes pretty generic with no complaints. If anything, we will probably stick to an original smoked meat clay pot next time for a rich smoked taste fused with the rice.

TOTAL: $39.43 + TIP $5.90 = $45.35.

Overall we tipped 15% despite having no service because the waitress was friendly. Also, of course I will revisit to try the original smoked meat clay pot as well as every soup that the restaurant offers! But, I will not line up for this place.

POSITIVES

- Friendly staff

- Made to order food

NEGATIVES

- Small restaurant (which did not affect us)

- Although average, could be better considering the restaurant specializes in only a few things

LITTLE THINGS

- Revisit post on The One Spot Soup House 湯.com [here]

- Gotta get the original smoked meat!

- Despite never going back to Sing Kee, their herbal soups taste more flavourful

Food: 2.5/5

Service: 2.5/5