Fish soup looks simple on a menu. But once you start ordering, the choices stack up fast. Which fish? Clear broth or cloudy? Bee hoon or rice? Add seafood or keep it plain?
This guide walks you through each decision, one at a time. It's written to help you order a bowl you'll actually enjoy, not just point at the first thing on the board. If you'd like to learn more about the restaurant behind this guide, we come from three generations of fish traders, so the choices below are the ones we care about most.
Let's start with the fish.
Step 1: Choose Your Fish
The fish sets the texture and flavour of the whole bowl. Three common choices cover most menus.
- Pomfret has soft, delicate flesh and a clean taste. It feels a little more refined, and it flakes easily, so it suits anyone who likes a gentle bite.
- Batang (Spanish mackerel) is firmer. It holds its shape well in hot broth, which makes it the everyday workhorse of Singapore fish soup.
- Grouper is meaty and mildly sweet. It has a fuller flavour and stands up to a richer broth.
So which do you pick? If you want something soft and clean, go for pomfret. If you like a firm, substantial bite, batang or grouper is the way.
Step 2: Choose Your Broth
The broth decides how the bowl feels overall. There are really three types, and two of them look almost the same.
Clear Teochew broth is light and clean. It lets the fish taste of itself, usually lifted with tomato and ginger. Nothing hides the fish, so the quality shows straight away.
Milk-thickened broth is the cloudy, white one many stalls make with evaporated milk. It's comforting, but the dairy softens the fish flavour and sits on top of everything.
Collagen-thickened broth looks just as creamy, but it's built differently. The richness comes from fish bones simmered until they release natural gelatine. It has body and weight without any dairy note.
This is how our broth is built here. It comes from batang bones and a siput (shell) base, cooked down until the collagen thickens it naturally. It isn't thickened with milk. It's thickened with the fish itself.
Here's the useful tip: taste the broth plain before you add chilli or lime. That first clean spoonful tells you where the body comes from: milk or fish.
Step 3: Choose Your Carb
Fish soup rarely comes alone. What you pair it with changes the whole meal.
- Bee hoon (rice vermicelli): thin and light. It soaks up broth without turning heavy, which is why it's the most popular pick.
- Kway teow (flat rice noodles): wider and softer, with a slippery texture that carries a thick broth well.
- Yellow mee (egg noodles): springy and more filling, with a slight alkaline note some people love and others skip.
- Rice: the plain, steady choice. It stays out of the way and lets the broth and fish lead.
Not sure? Bee hoon is the safe default. If you want the cleaner Teochew experience, you can also order the soup on its own, without any carb, and focus entirely on the broth and fish.
Step 4: Decide on Seafood Additions
Once you've settled the base, you can build the bowl up. Common additions include prawns, clams, sliced fish and other shellfish, depending on what a kitchen has that day.
Two things worth keeping in mind. First, additions change the balance, shellfish adds sweetness and depth, so a plain bowl and a loaded one taste quite different. Second, more isn't automatically better. A clean bowl with one good fish can beat a crowded one.
Where the seafood comes from matters too. Most seafood passes through several hands before it reaches a kitchen, and each layer typically adds 20 to 30 percent in margin. We shorten that chain, bringing local fish through our family wholesale business, Haixian, which is approaching its 50th year, and Japanese seafood direct from suppliers. Fewer hands, shorter journey.
A Bowl That Ties It Together
To see how these choices add up, look at Grandpa's Pomfret Fish Soup. It pairs soft pomfret with a collagen broth, then finishes with shiitake, julienned ginger, tomato, salted plum and a splash of hua tiao wine.
Each addition does a job. Shiitake adds savoury depth, ginger lifts the broth, tomato brings acidity, salted plum a sour-savoury edge, and the hua tiao wine rounds it off. None of them fight the fish. They frame it.
One Habit for Every Bowl
Whatever you choose, eat the fish early. In a hot broth, fish keeps cooking after it reaches your table. Leave delicate slices too long and they turn dry and firm. Take the fish first, while it's still tender, then work through the broth and carb at your own pace.
Putting It All Together
Choosing fish soup comes down to four decisions. Pick your fish for the texture you want. Pick your broth and notice where the richness comes from. Choose your carb, then decide whether to add seafood. Simple, once you know what each choice does.
Come hungry, though, Hup Lok's generous portions reward it.
If you'd like to put this into practice, drop by Hup Lok on Havelock Road and start with Grandpa's Pomfret Fish Soup.
