Not-so-secret yummilicious fish soup

Now I'm sure that, at some point of time, most of us have been around the Bugis area during dinner hours. Just across the street is Tan Quee Lan St, neighbour of the more recognised and crowded Liang Seah St.

Ever notice an everlasting queue at the shop beside Ritz Apple Strudel? Well it belongs to Xin Yuan Ji, home to what could possibly be one of the best fish soups in town. I'm sure I don't have to elaborate much given that the queue is never ending!

At peak dinner hours, you can expect to wait an hour or more. That is why the only time the Wife and I come here is after after 9pm, typically later. She's the impatient sort, so we generally try to avoid queuing for stuff :)

This place can be best described as a 'zi char' with exceptionally good fish soup. And that is the only thing we ever order here. It might also have to do with the fact that we normally come quite late and need to avoid a heavy dinner before sleeping!

Here is my poison of choice. A bowl of sliced fish soup with thick bee hoon. Don't judge a soup by it's colour! It has milk added in it, hence the pale cream coloring. You can also leave the milk out if you happen to be lactose intolerant, the staff will ask your preference when you are ordering.

What makes this fish soup stand out? First, the fish is sliced to be pretty chunky, don't expect the sliver-thin slices you get at your neighbourhood foodcourt. Though the price is slightly heftier than usual at $5.80 for the cheapest fish (they have a variety of fish for you to choose from), you wouldn't feel like you're getting ripped off.
Secondly, the soup, oh the sweetness of the soup. At any other place, I would usually dump in a saucer of soya sauce with chilli to make the soup more palatable. But here? Nooooo that would be blasphemy (my favourite word to mix up, sometimes I say blasmurphy!). The soup is extremely flavourful and sweet, and I would liken it to papaya soup in Hong Kong. I would actually bet on a bowl of fish soup that it actually has papaya in the ingredients!

Here is The Wife's dish of choice, fried sliced fish soup!

Here the batter they use is pretty flavourful. Even after getting dunked into the soup it still retained the flavour of the batter.

We have been here countless times, at one point almost every alternate day because The Wife demanded it! So the next time if anyone is ever in the area at 10ish pm, do holler! We might just be in the corner waiting for our fish soup!

Price range - Starts from <$10!

Address : 31 Tan Quee Lan St, Singapore 188117

Tel : 6334 4086

Signing off,
The Lunatic