Jia Li Seafood Soup – Tasty Seafood Soup & Hakka Yong Tau Foo Now in Kovan!

This post was brought to you by Jia Li Seafood Soup.

Why go for a typical fish soup when you can dig into a bowl of Seafood Soup instead? Helmed by Ms Ivy Chong, Jia Li Seafood Soup serves up comforting bowls of Seafood Soup filled with premium ingredients! The team has just moved over to Kovan, from their first outlet in Marsiling.

Each soup is made with a base of chicken and pork rib stock that has been boiled for 3 hours, before their secret sauce is added in. The rich umami in the soup emerges after seafood is added and boiled.

Their Signature Seafood Soup with Batang Fish comes in 2 sizes ($8/$9.50). One can also opt for their soup with Dory Fish ($7/$8.50) or with Red Grouper ($10.50/$12.50) instead of Batang Fish.

Don’t be fooled by the light colour of the soup. Expect to be greeted with a mix of flavours in every spoonful.

This piping hot bowl came with 3 huge prawns that were not only sweet and succulent, but also extremely fresh and juicy. They don’t come de-shelled but I promise that they’re worth the trouble to peel through. Just like the quality of the prawns served, the Batang Fish will not disappoint. The slices of fish were soft, smooth and flaky all-in-one, making for the perfect bite.

As you continue fishing (no pun intended) deeper into the bowl, you’ll find some roughly-shaped meatballs chunks. Made with minced pork marinated in their special blend of spices, fish sauce and sesame oil, the chunks also contain diced mushrooms which lent earthy notes.

Their soups are available as a la carte items but you can always add an order of rice ($0.50) or noodles ($0.70) – mee sua, bee hoon, ee mee or instant noodles – to accompany the soup.

If you’re looking to indulge in a more premium option, go for the Seafood Soup with Batang Fish, Prawns and 3 half portions of Crayfish ($17). Similarly, the option of Dory Fish ($16) and Red Grouper ($20.50) are also available.

While the ingredients found in this bowl are similar to the Signature Seafood Soup, this broth boasted a richer, more robust flavour due to the addition of Crayfish and Prawns. Colourwise, the soup carried a tinge of orange.

The crayfish came apart from the shells easily, once again proving its freshness. Feel free to dip the firm and juicy crustacean in the tangy chilli for an extra kick.

Jia Li Seafood Soup offers just the Seafood Soup with Crayfish as well, but I would just go straight for the one with Prawns added.

Besides Seafood Soup, they also offer Yong tau foo Soup ($6) with homemade paste made fresh daily. Packed with the usual suspects of bitter gourd, lady’s finger, red chilli, eggplant and fish cake based items, the soup had a slight bitter aftertaste from the addition of bitter gourd and a hint of spice from the chilli. Both flavour profiles balanced each other out, which made the broth addictive.

As part of their expansion plans, Jia Li Seafood Soup has recently partnered with an FnB group. Those in the North can look forward to their newest outlet opening in Woodlands, in September 2022! It will be located at Kimly @ Primz Bizhub so, be sure to keep your eyes peeled.

While their Kovan outlet is located just a 5 minutes walk away from Kovan MRT, the coffee shop it’s residing in does have limited seating. So, be sure to head down early to get a hearty bowl of Seafood Soup!