Tung Lok Classics @ Chinese Swimming Club

The insanely good suckling pig served on doughy pancakes with sweet sauce and cucumber

Going to Chinese restaurants is, to me, still a bit of a treat. Perhaps it’s because growing up I always ate in Chinese restaurants with my family, so going without my parents feels like a really “grown up” thing to do – even though I am now older than my parents when they migrated to Sydney !

Of course living in Singapore I have ready access to a multitude of great Chinese restaurants, and one of our regular restaurants is Tung Lok Classics at the Chinese Swimming Club on Amber Road.

It serves a lot of your standard Chinese dishes, and they also serve a delicious range of Chinese herbal soups. I love that the soup comes out in a huge earthenware pot where they ladle out individual soup bowls. The tradition of cooking soup in the claypot somehow makes it feel almost fortifying.

Paper-wrapped chicken baked in rock salt

We’ve tried some of their more unusual dishes like paper-wrapped chicken cooked in rock salt, and while it was tender and delicately flavoured from the rock salt, we couldn’t quite put our finger on why it wasn’t a firm favourite. I couldn’t work out the flavours that were with the chicken in the bag.

Peking duck – slices of crispy duck skin in thin pancakes with shallot and cucumber

Our favourites: Peking Duck – whole (or half but why eat in halves ??) duck that has been seasoned with five spices and then roasted and hung in special ovens so the fat renders, leaving the skin super thin and crispy. At the table, skilled staff then cut away the skin, and this is served in pancakes with a sweet hoisin sauce, cucumbers and spring onions for a fresh zing. The meat that is left on the duck is then removed and you can have it fried with thick noodles or rice.

The other favourite is suckling pig. Similar to the Peking duck, the skin on the pig is roasted till crisp, and this is served with a slightly sweet doughy slice of pancake and sweet sauce. The combination of the salt and sweet, crunchy and soft textures is just pure bliss.

Any recommendations for great Chinese food in Singapore? I’m definitely keen to expand my repertoire, and until I get to try those, Tung Lok Classics remains one of our go-to’s for our Chinese food-fix. I’m also keen to check out their dim sum menu during the day.

Tung Lok Classics 
Chinese Swimming Club
#03-00
21 Amber Road
Singapore 439870
Tel: +65 6345 0111

Opening Hours:
Mondays to Saturdays
Lunch: 11.30am – 3.00pm
Dinner: 6.00pm -10.30pm

Sundays & PH
Lunch: 10.00am – 3.00pm
Dinner: 6.00pm -10.30pm

Advertisement

Tung Lok Classics at the Chinese Swimming Club

I had the opportunity to eat at Tung Lok Classics the other day when a family friend took my visiting grandmother to dinner.  The Chinese Swimming Club is actually two buildings – think old, and new.  Tung Lok is situated on the third floor of the new Club.

Overlooking the pool, this unassuming restaurant serves authentic, time-honoured Chinese classic dishes from Shanghainese, Sichuan and Cantonese cuisine.  Expect no surprises, but eat well !  The dishes are carefully created and complex and serve to delight your tastebuds.

We started with the ubiquitous roast pork squares, with its crispy skin and melt-in-your-mouth tender meat, followed by traditional peking duck.  The duck was served three ways – crispy skin skillfully removed, in pancakes with shallots and hoisin sauce,  roast duck meat, and then duck congee.   The soup of the day was a pork and salt fish soup with herbs that soothed the stomach and the soul, fragrant and tasty without being overpowering.

This was followed by juicy, firm, steamed fish fillets with preserved vegetables, braised homemade tofu, fried snake beans.

For dessert, I ordered the durian mochi, which was a deliciously soft intense explosion of durian it was almost shocking.  Absolutely the best way to end an evening of well-executed, classic food.

The one thing I will add is that I noticed that the restaurant also specialises in Sharks Fin Soup.  If it were up to me to choose the venue I would have gone to Szechuan Court at the Fairmont Hotel where they have taken Shark’s Fin off the menu.

Tung Lok Classics
Level 3
Chinese Swimming Club
21 Amber Road, Singapore
+65 6345 0111

Mon–Sat: 11.30am–3pm, 6pm–10.30pm
Sun & PH: 10am–3pm, 6pm–10.30pm

Szechuan Court
Level 3, Fairmont Hotel
8o Bras Basah Road
+65 6431 6156