A contemporary Chinese-style cafe in the heart of Yaowarat.
#CafeReview
As time goes by, businesses have to adapt to the times. This is the case with “Song Tek” – a 50-year-old wholesale shop in Leng Buai Ya Market, which the grandchildren have transformed into a contemporary Chinese-style cafe. The shop’s name has been changed from Teochew to Mandarin, “Song Te”, which means “the pine tree of virtue”, just like the original name. The interior design of the shop is beautifully decorated with paintings of young women, bright red Chinese lanterns, alternating neon lights, and dark stairs and corridors that are reminiscent of scenes from Wong Kar-wai’s movies. Social media users are happily taking pictures.
The food here is not restaurant-style, but rather homemade Chinese food made for family consumption from grandma’s secret recipes. The meticulous attention to detail and use of quality ingredients has resulted in a taste that attracts both the older and younger generations to visit continuously. This time, we’ve selected the shop’s signature menus to try:
🥢 [Dim Sum Snacks]
➡️ Fried Chives
The chives dough is light, soft, and chewy. Fried until the skin is crispy and fluffy, packed with the aroma of Chinese chives, sweet soy sauce with a rich flavor, dip and eat continuously, before you know it, it's all gone in no time.
➡️ Songte Fried Spring Rolls
A signature menu that the name of the shop guarantees. It looks like a regular fried spring roll, but the filling is soft taro, mashed together with pork and mushrooms. Eat it hot with plum sauce, it's as good as the shop calls it the family's signature menu.
➡️ Shrimp Chest
Crispy fried spring roll wraps shrimp inside. The texture of the filling is similar to shrimp balls or shrimp cakes. Dip it in plum sauce like the previous menu.
➡️ Hokkien Pork Dumplings
Hokkien style pork dumplings have a special feature in the well-rounded sauce with a fragrant sesame oil flavor, sprinkled with crispy fried garlic to add more deliciousness. It's really fun to eat.
🍛 [Main Dish]
➡️ Soft Chicken Rice with Fragrant Fish Sauce
Served as a large set, start with iced tea to cool down before having a heavy meal topped with mushrooms and large pieces of soft and tender chicken. Served with a delicious sauce with a fragrant fish sauce and chili sauce to enhance the flavor. Served with soft-boiled eggs and “Khun Lek’s Mushroom Mustard Greens”, a special recipe of the shop that you will love so much that you have to buy a whole jar to take home. Finish with hot oolong tea and it’s perfect.
🫓 [Xiao Bao]
➡️ Xiao Bao with Shredded Pork
Soft Xiao Bao, cut in half, smeared with butter and baked until the skin is crispy and fragrant, topped with sweet and sour salad cream and sprinkled with crispy shredded pork. This is another version of shredded pork bread with salad dressing that is quite interesting.
🍧 [Dessert]
➡️ Refreshing Oh Aew
This shop’s Oh Aew is authentic Oh Aew, made from Oh Aew seeds (or Aiyu seeds) ordered from Phuket, soaked in water to extract the mucus until it becomes a slippery jelly. Eat with oolong tea jelly and sweet and chewy brown sugar jelly, topped with real honey and freshly squeezed lemon juice. It's a refreshing dessert that's just like the name of the menu. I really like it.
🥤 [Drinks]
➡️ Jasmine Tea
Hot jasmine tea served in a beautiful Chinese ceramic teapot. The jasmine scent is very fragrant and refreshing. It goes well with dim sum or Xiao Bao.
➡️ Traditional Plum Juice
Cold plum juice with a nice sweet and sour taste. I heard that the shop uses whole pickled plums. The plum scent is very strong. It's really refreshing when you sip it.
🚅 Public Transport: MRT Wat Mangkon (วัดมังกร)
🚗 Parking: China Tower Building (เหล็กอาคาร) / Pichaiyat Building (Phichaiyat Building - Cathay Fish Maw Shop)