Ed's Fish Soup, Food Republic @ Vivocity

Have I mentioned before that I hate eating at food courts? I do. In fact, I try to avoid them as much as possible. The stuff offered at food courts are usually sub-par but cost twice as much as their hawker centre counterparts. Total waste of calories and total waste of money.

But, eating is a communal thing and sometimes, you gotta go with where the pack wants to go. So, when my friends suggested heading to the food court at Vivocity, I tagged along. Ah well, it's sometimes the company you enjoy than the food you eat, isn't it?

I thought sticking to something safe like fish soup would do the trick, and besides, this stall looked like it had quite the queue. Boy was I wrong.

The Fish Soup ($4.50), with just a handful of fish slices (4-5 of them thin ones), was incredibly miserly and miserable a portion. The soup was practically an MSG-bomb and the fish so treated with milk (to remove any fishy odour) that there were unappetizing milk strands hanging off the fish. The only good stuff about this were the lettuce, beancurd and tomatoes.


The Tom Yum Fish Soup ($7 for large) broth was similarly insipid and reeked of a generic premix base. The layer of chilli oil floating on the surface was also quite off-putting.


The Fried Dory Fish with rice ($5) was dried out. A hard crisp all the way to the flesh. Not even the liberal tomato-ish based gravy could save this so-simple-I-have-no-idea-how-they-screwed-it-up fish.




Ed's Fish Soup
Food Republic @ Vivocity
1 Harbourfront Walk
Vivocity Level 3
Open daily from 8am to 10pm

Comments

Anonymous said…
what on earth made you chose this stall? when i go i eat at other (overpriced) stalls there.

Da Proff
FoodieFC said…
I totally agree with you. I try to avoid the food court if I can too.

Bern said…
Everything else looked unappetizing! What do YOU eat there anyway?

@FoodieFC: totally!
Anonymous said…
@ Bern : oh, (1) the ex-happy place and (2) soup.

Prof
rollingwrites said…
i share your thoughts about not wanting to go to food courts! especially if they have poor ventilation!
Bern said…
Yeah and you come out of lunch/dinner smelling like stale food!
Anonymous said…
food republic @vivo ain't so bad, it's quite well ventilated but sucks that prices are higher. i don't have much of a choice, i work in the area so tend to go there rather often (i rather eat at food republic than at seah imm's hawker centre!). in any case, this fish soup store has closed down, as have quite a number of other stores in food republic, including Putien.
Bern said…
Huh, why not Seah Imm hawker centre? Don't they have amazing food?
Anonymous said…
a/c comfort @ food republic!! granted that food is cheaper at seah imm, but trudging over in the hot afternoon sun, contending with the stuffy-smoky air and vying with the rest of the lunch crowd for a free table puts me off on most days. i'm not sure how amazing the food is (honestly haven't tried most of them), but the fish soup store at the far corner near the bus interchange is very popular. the duck rice/porridge is pretty good too. do you have any recs for seah imm?
Bern said…
Hahaa, guessed as much! The heat is usually what puts me off hawker centres too! I dont know how some people can eat soupy stuff at a hawker centre...it just exacerbates the sweating!

The duck rice! but to be honest, i don't frequent seah imm very much so i'm quite clueless as to their hawker gems.
Even how nice the food u mention here, their poor attitude over at the cashier. Especially the fat auntie, always take the wrong orders, and still accuses her customers gave her the wrong order. Their food is just average and normal nothing fantastic at all. And the counter always take wrong orders, BE VERY AWARE OF THE AUNTIE especially! U dun want to spend just $7 and kill your appetite.

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