Rice bowl + soup buddy meal (Chope: $22)!
Suntec Chinese restaurant buddy meal via Chope: sweet and sour pork and salted egg chicken over egg fried rice, with double-boiled soup. $22.
Lunch with BB at Suntec. Rice bowl + soup buddy meal via Chope, $22. πππΌ
What was on the table:
- Plate 1: golden egg fried rice dome with salted-egg-style chicken pieces and curry leaf over lettuce
- Plate 2: the same fried rice dome with sweet and sour pork, pineapple, onion petals and peppers glistening in the red glaze
- Two cups of double-boiled soup: the clear Cantonese style with carrot and pork visible
The buddy meal format is restaurant-deal engineering: two mains plus soups bundled for a fixed price, sold through Chope (the reservation appβs deals arm) to fill weekday lunch seats in malls like Suntec. The 2022 playbook: book through the app, show the voucher, eat a $30+ lunch for $22.
Sweet and sour pork (εεθ) is the litmus dish for any Chinese kitchen doing volume lunches: the batter has to stay crisp under the glaze, and the sauce has to balance rather than read as ketchup syrup. This plate held the crunch through most of the meal, the pineapple doing its acid job.
The salted egg chicken rode the tail of the salted-egg-everything era: fried chicken tossed in the golden salted-yolk butter sauce with curry leaves. Mall versions are gentler than the zi char originals, and this one fit that pattern: creamy, mild, crowd-safe.
The double-boiled soup cups are the quiet best part of any Cantonese set: hours of slow heat in a covered jar, producing the clear broth that tastes of more than it shows.
At $22 for two mains and soups in Suntec, the Chope deal did its job: mall-restaurant lunch at kopitiam-plus pricing.
Overall: 4 / 5. πππΌ Solid deal lunch. The sweet and sour porkβs surviving crunch was the standout. Would book the deal again.
