Dabao Singapore: Hawker Food at the Metreon

Dabao Singapore is in the Metreon food court on 4th Street in SoMa. The counter is easy to miss, but the food is worth finding.

Hainanese chicken rice at Dabao Singapore — dark meat on jasmine rice with cucumber, chilli sauce, and scallion garnish, held in front of the Dabao counter at the Metreon

Chef Emily Lim grew up in Singapore, trained at the Culinary Institute of America, and won on both Chopped and Guy’s Grocery Games. She was a James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef semifinalist in 2024. Dabao started as pandemic-era meal kits for homesick Singaporeans and moved into the Metreon in October 2024. The name means “takeaway” in Hokkien.

The Hainanese chicken rice comes three ways: poached, fried, or five-spice roasted. The five-spice version has a lacquered, slightly caramelized skin and sits on jasmine rice cooked in chicken stock. It comes with sliced cucumber, a cup of chilli sauce, and a small side of ginger paste. The portion is generous for a food court lunch.

The seafood laksa is the other dish to order — a coconut broth made from a 21-ingredient rempah with fish balls, tofu puffs, shrimp, and egg over noodles, at $18.95. Curry puffs are $5 for golden pastry triangles filled with curried potato.

Dabao is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 AM to 7:30 PM. It’s a short walk from the 4th and King Caltrain station and the Powell BART stop.