Wah Lok restaurant II: I reckon you need some dim sum

October 20, 2009 | 28 Comments

Looking back my archives, I realized it’s been a while since I last blog about dim sum. Actually, I have been putting off this post for very long, I wasn’t sure if I want to blog about it. Their famous baked BBQ pork buns and char siew sou were sold out, but I reckon you can do with some dim sum.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I find it almost impossible to resist Egg tarts ($4), not when they are baked straight from the oven. How can one ever be enough? I can easily have a dozen on my own!

I wanted custard buns, but they did not have that, instead we got Baked custard pastry ($4). Surprisingly it was quite good, the custard wasn’t the flowy lava type, but who cares? Sprinkled with icing sugar, the thin and moderately crispy pastry was a perfect re-enact when custard bun meets char siew sou.

For the life of me, I couldn’t remember when I started to like dim sum. Red Star introduced me to dim sum when I was young, but it’s Yan Ting that made me fall in love over again. Coming back, it’s hard to know what to say about Steamed pork dumpling ($5.60), I mean it’s siew mai, and how bad can it get? It’s pork and prawn, and they always taste good together.

It’s a different story for Steamed prawn dumpling ($6.80 for 4) all together. For har gau, it’s either very good, or very bad. I’m very particular with the thickness of the skin, it cannot be too thin, otherwise it’d cracked easily. But if the skin is too thick, it doesn’t taste good and get stuck the teeth easily. The har gau was fairly competent, but I cringed at the price tag.

Before I say anything else, I thought that it’s fair to tell you that I normally do not like yam, with the exception to yam cake and Deep-fried yam roll ($5.70). There’s just something which makes deep-fried yam so irresistible.

If you ask me to pick between steamed or fried carrot cake, the answer is obvious, I will definitely go for the latter. Why will anyone in their right mind choose the healthy steamed way over the sinful-but-delicious fried ones? Unless, there’s the steamed rendition taste really good, or there’s no fried ones available. In this case, it was a combination of both, Wah Lok’s Steamed carrot cake ($4.50) was pretty decent.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I’ll never order Steamed pork ribs ($5.60) on my own accord. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’ll never come to appreciate chewing on tiny ribs with no meat, not unless you are talking about huge baby ribs. Now that’s another story all together.

* * *

Answering my own question, I will probably not come back to Wah Lok for dim sum again. Even though all the dim sum were pretty competent, but it lacked the draw without their char siew sou and baked char siew bao. And not to mention that their prices are much higher than what it used to be before. You know the good thing about being in town? There are plenty of better options in the same area.

How about you? What’s your favourite dim sum place?

Wah Lok Cantonese restaurant
76 Bras Basah road
2F Carlton Hotel
Tel: 6311 8188

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Category: # Restaurant Review, * Central Singapore, Dining Guide Singapore, Food Photography, Singapore Food Blog
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Comments

28 Responses to “Wah Lok restaurant II: I reckon you need some dim sum”

  1. Evan
    October 20th, 2009 @ 1:40 am

    i love egg tarts, but only the portugese kind :p in fact i would like them green right now, do you think a macha flavored one would work? hehe

  2. Shirin
    October 20th, 2009 @ 4:23 am

    hmmm.. brad! i want some dimsum now! :P

  3. Sara
    October 20th, 2009 @ 6:29 am

    I like your photos and you write pretty well but I think it would be better if you avoid using unnecessarily bombastic vocabulary, as it’s often used inaccurately and out of context. I hope you don’t take this the wrong way! :)

  4. ladyironchef
    October 20th, 2009 @ 7:24 am

    evan: i’m not so keen on the portugese ones, prefer the “hk” ones? lol yeah baked your own macha egg tarts!

    S: Do you got dim sum in London? Must be quite expensive eh?

    Sara: Hello there, thank you for yr feedback : )

  5. irony
    October 20th, 2009 @ 9:08 am

    I prefer the less flaky egg tarts..supposed those belong to the “HK” ones? Heee steaming hot dim sum are one of the best cuisine around, damn hard to resist.

    Just a sidenote, reading through your posts can really make one put on the pounds =x

  6. Reiz
    October 20th, 2009 @ 10:55 am

    Their egg tarts pretty good for weekend small bites! ~

  7. SistaFood
    October 20th, 2009 @ 11:08 am

    Next time just go to the better choice at you-know-where! haha
    Nowadays when we ate dim sum, we seems to avoid common dim sum dishes like har gau and siew mai. lol
    Like what you’ve said, siew mai is just siew mai. Nothing special about it. haha

  8. FFichiban
    October 20th, 2009 @ 6:32 pm

    Mmm craving egg tarts…

  9. shayna
    October 21st, 2009 @ 12:28 am

    i miss good food. ) :

  10. amy
    October 21st, 2009 @ 2:50 am

    i miss eating my dim sum!!!! i think the best i ever had was hai tien lo. but i always find myself going back to red star! i havent tried your favourites so i cant really say for sure, I NEED TO EAT DIM SUM LIKE NOW!

  11. ladyironchef
    October 21st, 2009 @ 6:27 am

    irony: hello there! “hk” type is those less flaky? Not sure, but i like all types of egg tarts! heh yea dim sum is under-rated, the young people prefer to go for “cool-er” cuisine like Italian, French, but i rather have dim sum : D

    reiz: only problem is, it’s always not enough for me! HAHA

    sistafood: Yeah royal china is just opposite. But the thing is i feel weird if i don’t order har gau or siew mai.

    Ffichiban: hahahaa any decent dim sum at yr side?

    shayna: Oh dear, you sounds like being deprive of food for very long eh? go eat ok!

    amy: hai tien lo was all right for me, my fav is still royal china and yan ting. i used to really like red star when i was young, but after i tried the better ones, red star very average. lol I NEED TO EAT DIM SUM NOW TOO! :p

  12. Shirin
    October 21st, 2009 @ 6:46 am

    haha. probably gonna get some dimsum tomorrow with nick at chinatown!! ^^ really happy! heh. i’m so deprived huh. can’t wait! xx

  13. SistaFood
    October 21st, 2009 @ 9:24 am

    haha…guess that’s the basic items for dim sum right? But having eaten so many har gau and siew mai, what is your conclusion about them?

  14. thenomadGourmand
    October 21st, 2009 @ 12:44 pm

    ohh…what is dim sum without char siew bao!!
    ;)

  15. ladyironchef
    October 21st, 2009 @ 5:17 pm

    Shirin: YAYNESS! so happy for you. lol! order lots of char siew sou okay hehe

    Sistafood: No conclusion, eat some more! lol

    thenomadgourmand: YAY! char siew bao sold out. so sad. but for me, it will be what’s dim sum without char siew sou! or custard buns.

  16. Fatkuraprincess
    October 22nd, 2009 @ 7:25 am

    yeah!Dim Sum!Dim Sum but in HK soon!
    yeah!!!!^_^ ^_^ ^_^

    sumimasen so long nv comment..
    Busy with work n studies n blah blah blah~

  17. Camemberu
    October 22nd, 2009 @ 2:46 pm

    Whuaaaaahh!!! Dim sum again! *quivering*
    I need some. Good ones. Now.

    Still haven’t gone to Yan Ting for their dim sum…and East Ocean beckons too!

  18. SistaFood
    October 22nd, 2009 @ 4:43 pm

    A: You make us crave for dim sum again! I want custard bun and egg tart soon!

  19. ladyironchef
    October 22nd, 2009 @ 9:17 pm

    fatkuraprincess: YA! i was wondering where did regina go to! hehe cannot like this, busy with work and studies also must drop by to say hi!

    Camemberu: It’s been so long since i last dim sum, and that’s like one half month ago at Wah lok! East ocean need to try out, don’t know if it’s good, but not that cheap also.

    Sistafood: me too! me too! custard bun, egg tart, and char siew sou, these are the stuff that i must have, rather than siew mai and har gau

  20. Fatkuraprincess
    October 23rd, 2009 @ 7:16 am

    HAHHAHA~ok mah!absence make the heart fonder. hey!i gonna get a dslr soon! ^_^ ask u. does megapixel matter?

  21. ladyironchef
    October 24th, 2009 @ 8:21 am

    fatkuraprincess: Nope the megapixel doesn’t matter, it’s the lens that is important. haha. which brand are u gonna get? nikon or canon? Actually it doesnt matter so much too, just go down to a shop, and feel the camera, see which one u like the grip more, and get it! :)

  22. pammiez
    October 24th, 2009 @ 10:57 pm

    Jade Palace! My favourite place for dimsum, for now. HAHA

  23. mycookinghut
    October 26th, 2009 @ 6:01 am

    Hi,
    I stumbled upon your blog when I was looking for custard buns!! The photo egg tarts caught my attentions :)

  24. tigerfish
    October 27th, 2009 @ 8:18 am

    Wah Lok dim sum…been some time since I have been there.

  25. ladyironchef
    October 27th, 2009 @ 10:05 pm

    pammiez: hahaha i know, you went there like Nth time already

    mycookinghut: I like the sound of stumbled upon. hehe yeah give me an egg tart anytime : )

    tigerfish: what are you waiting for? make a trip down! haha

  26. J2Kfm
    October 28th, 2009 @ 11:42 am

    hey, true enough. me never ordered any steamed ribs, or chickn feet (foong chau) for that matter.
    only the tried n tested har gau, siew mai, char siew pau, CCF, lor bak kou and maybe an egg tart or two.
    the funkier items usually did not impress.

    i’m a dim sum fan from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia myself. :)

  27. ladyironchef
    October 29th, 2009 @ 7:30 am

    j2kfm: yeah i nv order steamed ribs and chicken feet too. my fav is char siew sou, egg tarts and custard bun

  28. yen
    November 29th, 2010 @ 12:34 pm

    I went to Wah Lok last Friday & ordered egg tarts, har gow, char siew sou, (recommended by liverpool fr ieat) baked bbq pork buns & Oo Kok. This is best Oo Kok I’ve had in my life.

    Thank you for the effort in compiling this list, I’m also a timsum lover & ur reviews certainly help & the pics….they make me drool.

    Hey J2Kfm – u didnt go Wah Lok the other day ur in sg?

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