Fish soup has long been a comforting choice in Singapore, whether enjoyed with rice, noodles or simply on its own. But beyond its warmth and familiar flavours, can fish soup be a healthy meal? The answer depends on what goes into the bowl, how the fish is prepared, and what you eat alongside it.
At Hup Lok, a Teochew pomfret soup and seafood restaurant on Havelock Road, the answer starts with the fish. The restaurant is built on three generations of a family working with seafood, with the founder’s father having sold fish before moving into the wholesale trade at Jurong Fishery Port. Today, that knowledge continues through the family’s approach to sourcing and Hup Lok’s seafood-focused menu.
Its Grandpa’s Pomfret Soup offers an interesting place to start when thinking about what makes a fish soup a satisfying and potentially balanced meal.
What Makes Fish Soup a Healthy Meal?
Fish can be a useful part of a balanced diet because it provides protein and, depending on the species, varying amounts of healthy fats and other nutrients. A bowl of fish soup can therefore offer a relatively straightforward way to include seafood in an everyday meal.
But the fish itself is only one part of the equation. A nutritious meal also depends on what accompanies it. Adding vegetables can increase variety, while rice or noodles provide carbohydrates for energy. Portion size and the overall composition of the meal matter too.
This is where fish soup has an advantage over some heavier comfort foods. A broth-based dish can provide warmth and satisfaction without necessarily relying on cream or large quantities of added fat. The exact nutritional profile, however, will vary according to the recipe and ingredients used.
Grandpa's Pomfret Soup Starts With the Whole Fish
At Hup Lok, Grandpa’s Pomfret Soup is more than a signature dish. It connects the restaurant’s food to the family’s history with seafood.
The soup is built around a whole pomfret, with a white broth made using fish bones. As Hup Lok puts it, “The soup is white because the bones give everything.” Rather than using milk to create its body, the broth draws its character from the bones and the work that goes into simmering them.
That approach reflects a broader lesson about cooking seafood: simple-looking food can still require considerable knowledge. Knowing which fish to buy, how to handle it and how to build a broth around it all influence the final dish.
For Hup Lok, that knowledge did not begin in the kitchen. The family has worked with fish for three generations and continues to buy seafood at dawn, carrying experience from the market and wholesale trade into the restaurant.
Does the Fish You Choose Matter?
Not all fish are nutritionally identical, and different species contain different amounts of protein, fat and other nutrients. Some varieties are naturally leaner, while oily fish tend to contain more omega-3 fatty acids.
For diners, however, fish quality is not simply about nutrition. Freshness, handling and sourcing can affect the eating experience too. Hup Lok’s family background in seafood gives it a perspective that begins before the fish reaches the kitchen.
The restaurant works with the family’s seafood network and supplier relationships, applying knowledge accumulated through years of buying fish. This is an important distinction: understanding an ingredient means knowing not only how to cook it, but also how to select it.
A Healthy Meal Is About the Whole Bowl
Even a nutritious fish soup can become a very different meal depending on what is added to it.
For a more balanced meal, consider pairing fish soup with:
- Vegetables, for additional fibre and variety.
- A moderate serving of rice or noodles, for carbohydrates and energy.
- Other seafood or protein, if the meal needs to be more substantial.
- Water or unsweetened drinks, particularly if the rest of the meal is already rich.
At Hup Lok, the broader menu includes dishes such as Signature Prawn Noodles, Claypot Hokkien Mee, Alaskan King Crab Bee Hoon and Seafood Pao Fan. These dishes show that seafood does not have to appear only in a bowl of clear soup to form part of everyday eating.
The key is to consider the meal as a whole rather than labelling one dish simply as “healthy” or “unhealthy”.
Why Broth Deserves a Closer Look
Broth is often treated as a supporting element, but at Hup Lok it is central to the dish. Grandpa’s Pomfret Soup demonstrates how bones can be used to create body and flavour, turning parts of the fish that might otherwise be overlooked into an important component of the meal.
This whole-fish approach also reflects the family’s relationship with seafood. Hup Lok’s food is not designed around luxury or culinary spectacle. Instead, it takes ingredients the family understands and turns them into familiar food that people can return to.
That makes the soup particularly relevant to the idea of everyday healthy eating. A balanced diet does not have to consist entirely of specialised “health foods”. Familiar dishes can have a place too, especially when they are built around whole ingredients and sensible portions.
From Three Generations of Fish to One Everyday Bowl
The story behind Hup Lok ultimately comes back to the ingredient.
Three generations of the founder’s family have worked with fish, from his father’s early days selling seafood to the family’s continued involvement in the trade. Hup Lok represents the next expression of that knowledge: taking seafood expertise and putting it into food that feels familiar and accessible.
Grandpa’s Pomfret Soup captures that idea particularly well. There is a whole fish in the bowl, a broth built from bones and a recipe that does not need elaborate presentation to make its point.
So, can fish soup be a healthy meal? It can certainly be part of one. Fish provides valuable nutrients, while a broth-based preparation can form the foundation of a satisfying meal. What matters is looking beyond the label and considering the fish, preparation, accompaniments and portion together.
At Hup Lok, that philosophy starts with something much older than the restaurant itself: knowing the fish before it reaches the bowl. So when you ask yourself: where to try traditional fish soup in Singapore and not be guilty about it? You know what our answer is.
For more guides on different healthy food options in Singapore, browse Healthy Food Guide!
