// Dim Joy is no longer in operation

Dim Joy is one of the few places in Singapore that serves all day dim sum. Be it dim sum for lunch, or dim sum for dinner – Dim Joy offers the option till late night! Since most restaurants only serve dim sum during lunch time, I love the idea of being able to have dim sum whenever I want it. Convinced? Take down the address: Dim Joy 80 Neil Road.

The Char siew sous ($3.5 for 3) are baked to a handsome shade of golden brown. It is all about the balance: the crisp snappy pastry and the sweet luscious char siew fillings. This is what I call, the perfect dim sum.

My dining companions enjoyed the King Shrimp Har Gau ($4 for 4) thoroughly and we also had the Barbecued pork & celery in rice rolls ($5). Finely slice celery and thin bits of char siew in rice rolls that were unfortunately, slightly too thick.

Like all Siew Mai ($3.50 for 4), Dim Joy’s rendition was unassuming: an adequate portion of lean meat with chewy shrimp. But unlike the usual steamed pork dumpling, the one here was subtle in taste, to the border of being slightly bland.

I’m not sure if you are aware, but there’s a ritual to follow when it comes to eating Custard buns ($3 for 3). First use a pair of chopsticks, poke a hole at the top of the bun. Watch the golden custard flow out from the peak, like how lava erupts from the volcano. The way the searing custard touches the tip of the tongue – sensational.

Having the custard bun, is almost like a religious experience.

I remember the char siew bao at Dim Joy during my previous visit because of it’s name, Honey Syrup Char Siew Bao ($3 for 3). With such a sweet name, I’d expect nothing less than honey syrup.

The char siew bao seemed to be the same as before. The white fluffy bao was excellent, but the filling was lacking; with just tiny char siew bits and the honey syrup wasn’t as sweet as expected.

Crisp buttery flakes, with eggy custard fillings straight from the oven. I always know there’s two types of egg tarts; the hard crusty ones that always come in an elongated shape, and there’s the thin flaky egg tarts that will crumble all over your shirt.

I know I have a tendency to make an normal egg tart sound like one that has bird nest and gold foil, but trust me, I’m not exaggerating on the Lingnan Egg Tart ($3.50 for 4).

* * *

Compared to the other dim sum restaurants, the ones here are slightly lighter in flavor. Well if you are craving for dim sum during dinner, Dim Joy is definitely the place to go.

Restaurant Review
Dim Joy Restaurant
80 Neil Road
Tel: +65 6220 6986
Open till 10pm (Closed on Tue)

Oh Yanting, how I hate you!

I first know of Yanting one and a half years back, and I never looked back. ‘Where is the best dim sum in Singapore?’ this has to be one of the most-asked question for all the dim sum lovers out there, and whenever someone ask me this, I will replied without any doubt, Yanting. The best dim sum ever.

Being label as the best dim sum in Singapore by me, it has a huge billing to live up to, but be it quality of the dim sum, ambiance of the restaurant, service of the staff, or (to a slightly lesser extent) affordability of dim sum; Yanting is almost impossible to beat.

Prices have gone up for the Stir-fried rice roll ($6) with XO sauce, it used to be four dollars, but still, I like how it went with lots of eggs and beansprouts. You don’t like the usual steamed cheong fan? Trust me, you will like this stir-fried version.

Rather than skipping the Steamed prawn dumpling ($5 for 3) and make my friend regret not having it, I decided to be nice and it was a good decision. Define a good har gau: it should have fresh and crunchy shrimp that is enveloped by a layer of skin that has the just-right thickness.

If you’ve been hanging around here for a while now, you should know well how I feel about char siew sou, egg tarts, and custard buns – I’m absolutely in love with them. People always think of har gau and siew mai when it comes to dim sum, but for me, it will always be custard buns and Char siew sou ($3.6 for 2).

Sweet and savoury bits of char siew within the golden coat of buttery flaky pastry. Perfect. The best char siew sou ever. This humble-looking pastry is what every char siew sou should strive to become.

The Steamed pork dumpling ($5 for 3) comes with predominantly lean meat topped with a mushroom and fish roe, I enjoyed every bite of it. Come to think of it, even though I always complain that siew mai is boring, but I still order it every single time. Siew mai is still siew mai after all – it’s irreplaceable.

It was a toast between the Stir-fried rice roll and the Pan-seared Radish Cake ($3.20), but since we were in a good mood, we decided to order both. Okay, here’s the deal, put incredibility a lot of radish to make the cake, and pan-seared it until golden brown, there – a simple and good radish cake.

Fluffy, soft buns, with the sweetest and juiciest char siew you can ever find. Needless to say the Char siew buns ($3.20 for 2) – one of my favorite dim sum – disappeared the moment I finished taking a photograph of it.

Happiness comes in the form of a mini egg tart.

Don’t be fool by the dainty, cute appearance, this Egg tart ($3 for 2) is not just a pretty face; it has everything more than that. My hands trembled when I picked up the petite pastry, it was warm, baked straight out of the oven. I took a sniff, trying very hard not to finish it in a bite, and then came the magical moment. The wonderfully light and buttery pastry, a smooth and not too sweet egg custard filling which was good in its own right.

* * *

Yanting has the best dim sum in Singapore.

Restaurant Review
Yan Ting
29 Tanglin Road
The St Regis
Tel: 6506 6888

Yan Ting is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favourite restaurants in Singapore

Do you believe in fairytale? I do. The story of the Paradise group isn’t exactly a rise from the rugs to riches one, but it’s close enough. For someone who started off with a cze-char stall in the industrial park Defu lane, to a group of restaurants that includes the fine-dining Taste paradise, seafood restaurant Seafood paradise, and middle-range Paradise inn, doesn’t it sounds like a fairytale ending?

I have wanted to go to taste paradise for a very long time. But their original outlet at Mosque street does not serve dim sum, and so I waited until now for their new branch in Ion that has dim sum for lunch.

Having tried the most expensive xiaolongbao, and also the dirt-cheap-but-good ones in Nanxiang restaurant Shanghai; everything in between seem exceptionally ordinary to me. I know for a matter of fact there are people who love to pop a dozen of xiaolongbao ($3.80 for 4) into their mouth, but not me, one is enough.

Ladies and gentlemen, this, is the one you must try. I will go as far as saying Taste Paradise’s rendition is as good as the best char siew sou ($3.60 for 3) that I’ve so far, Buttery undertone of the flaky pastry, sweet and juicy char siew fillings, honey get your hands off the plate!

My dear, listen to me carefully for this is going to be very important, you need to have three for yourself, uh-uh, no sharing, and maybe that isn’t enough – make it six each!

I was contemplating whether to have the usual Siew mai & har gau ($4.80 for 4), we didn’t fancy having the former, thus only the latter was ordered. It might be a case of having too much dim sum, but the steamed prawn dumpling, unlike the char siew sou or custard bun, is just not sex-citing enough.

We also had the Steamed cheong fun with prawns ($5.20), it was some sort like a go-between, not fantastic, but not all bad either. Increasingly, it’s getting more challenging to get a good cheong fun. The problem lies with me, and me alone. Define what makes a good cheong fun: the rice rolls must not be too thick that it will stick to the teeth, nor can it be too thin that the roll breaks and expose all the ingredients. The fillings of prawn or char siew must be fresh, and the light sauce must be able to make the simple cheong fun taste good.

For someone who do not like yam except for yam cake, I always find myself ordering the Fried Taro puff ($3.60 for 3) when I’m having dim sum. This one was pretty disappointing, the fried crispy exterior was not too bad, but the yam fillings were too mushy for my liking.

I tasted Custard bun for the first time about one and a half years back, since then I only had it on just a few several occasions. I remember very clearly staring at the ordinary-looking bun, the kind of buns that you get from the neighbor coffeeshop, whatever it is, those that taste plain and boring.

Imagine my reaction when I torn apart a small corner of the fluffy-light bun, hot molten custard fillings flowed out like lava from an erupting volcano, I scrambled to save every single drop of the yellow-golden fillings – they are oh-my-god, so good! ‘Yummy…!’

Towards the end, we had a second round of custard buns and were deciding whether to have one more serving of the char siew sou or go for the Baked BBQ Pork Bun ($3.80 for 3). I had fond memories of this dish, but the one here wasn’t what I thought it was, instead of the bo luo bao texture, it tasted more like deep-fried bread. The char siew fillings were great, but I’d rather have the crispy puff pastry than the honey-glazed baked buns.

* * *

I have always insist that my favourite dim sum place is Yanting and Royal China, but now, we have a new addition to the list  for best dim sum – Taste Paradise. There’s a problem though, it’s affordable, and it’s right in the middle of town. I’ll probably forget about all the other dim sum, and just binge on the char siew sou and custard buns – they are that good! See you there!

Taste Paradise
2 Orchard Turn
#04-07 Ion Orchard
Tel: 6509 9660

Taste Paradise is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

I admit, I’m spoil. And I blame everything on Yanting. If I have not had better dim sum before, the ones at Wen Dao Shi might be consider pretty decent, but the truth is – they are not.

They need not be anyway, people come here for the nostaglic feeling of sitting by the roadside in the red district area. People come all the way here because there’s not much options when you suddenly have a craving for dim sum in the middle of the night. And people like it here because it’s unpretentious and affordable.

This is not a food review, it’s a night where old friends come together and have fun. I will tell you absolutely nothing about the food here, because on this night the food becomes secondary. But I can’t do that can I? You are after all here to find out more about the place, so here’s a few snippets about the dim sum:

For around ten dollars per person, we had quite a lot of food. There was the usual Siew mai & Har gau, the former was pretty decent while the latter did not impress. The skin of the shrimp dumpling cracked even before we picked it up.

You probably want to go with the fried stuff instead. The fried prawn dumpling that came with the mayo dip was pretty competent and the xiaolongbao was fairly average.

We had the steamed pork-ribs, and also the cheong fun. The rice roll came with a different type of sauce that I couldn’t make out, and there’s too little fillings inside.

If you are there, don’t bother to get the Char siew sou, the taste was completely flat – the puff lacked the crispy buttery flakes, and the char siew did not have the attributes to earn the rights to be inside the char siew sou. But I was surprised by the char siew bao, the buns were fluffy and soft, and it came pipping hot.

Since most places do not serve dim sum at night, and even for places that have dim sum for dinner, they close early and Wen Dao Shi is probably one of the few places that can satisfy your dim sum cravings in the middle of the night. While there are others who felt that the dim sum here is over-priced, on the contrary I thought that the pricing is pretty reasonable.

But the next time I have a dim sum craving? I will sulk, go to bed with an empty stomach, dream about it and wait till the next day for my favorite dim sum.

Wen Dao Shi
126 Sims Avenue
Tel: 6746 4757

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

Weekends are the best time for dim sum, it is when everybody is free to have a long lunch, and what can be better than to yum cha?

My friend wanted to try the Beancurd prawn roll ($4.50), and I have never been a big fan of beancurd skin. Since a lot dim sum has prawns, we decided to go for the Char siew cheong fun ($4.50). The savoury light sauce always enhance the flavour of the cheong fun.

After trying so many different har gau ($4.50), it has somewhat become rather ordinary to me. I know it’s the dim sum queen; all right if you must, fresh crunchy prawns held firmly within translucent skins. But I’m indifference to it, at least for now.

I was craving for custard buns badly, and to my delight it’s listed on the menu; but the initial euphoria half evaporated when the captain said that it’s been replaced by the Baked custard buns ($3.50 for 3). So feeling half skeptical and half excited, we approached it. Judging from appearances, the baked buns look like those hard, baked pastry kind. We took a bite, and it was astonishing so soft! I would prefer those molten custard on any other day, but this was just as good!

Siew mai and har gau always come together in pairs, there isn’t one without the other. But unlike the har gau, I’m not so sick of Siew Mai ($4.50 for 4) since it has a combination of porky and prawny bite.

I’m insanely in love with Char siew sou ($4 for 3). The ones here reminded me of my old flame; the buttery crispy flakes, the oozing oh-so-sweet juice from the char siew. Delish! You know like they say, your first love is always the most memorable, if I’ve not had better before, I’ll say this is quite good. But then again, I’m biased against char siew sou.

The fragrant glutinous rice ($4.50) enveloped within the leaf; the salted egg yoke bursting through your tastebud with it’s strong and distinct taste, the little bites of chicken shreds, a pity the Chinese sausages were missing here. Almost perfect.

Pan-fried carrot cake ($3.50) used to be a favourite of mine, but after trying several half-hearted versions, I’m leaning towards some of the better steamed ones that I had. Packed the carrot cake full with relish, lots of them. Then lightly-seared it until golden brown, leaving a crispy surface with soft relish beneath it. Sounds easy? Do one for me.

Actually I’m undecided if I will come back to Asia Grand for dim sum again. And it’s not because they are not good, the variety of dim sum available was very comprehensive. But the main reason was the existence of a better option just directly opposite them. I’ll probably drop by again for their Peking duck, which is definitely much cheaper than the one I had at Peach Garden.

Asia Grand
331 North Bridge road
#01-02 Odeon towers
Tel: 6887 0010

I’m pregnant. Or at least I think I should be. Otherwise how else do you explain the fact that I’m constantly craving for food? Of course guys don’t get pregnant, so there must be worms inside my stomach. Okay I shall stop here before the whole controversial topic gets out of hand.

Anyway, I’ve been craving for dim for some time now. Fine, I lie. I’m always craving for dim sum. For those of you who have read my blog long enough, you’ll know that char siew sou and egg tarts are among my favourite. But this time, I was actually pining for custard bun.

And that’s the only reason I come to Peach Garden!

I swear that they’ve the best Custard buns ($3.60 for 3) among the ones that I’ve tried so far. The molten lava custard flowed out when I poked a hole in the bun, with a hint of salted egg yoke, the yellow custards within the tiny, soft, pillowy buns were SO GOOD! We ordered two each, and still it wasn’t enough. I will come back to Peach Garden just to takeaway their custard buns.

We couldn’t resist not ordering the Peking duck, and the slight promotion at $48 instead of the usual $60 helped too. The crispy skin was thinly sliced and placed within the pancake; every piece was drenched with some sweet sauce, and served with spring onion. One piece each, definitely wasn’t enough.The second dish was done with the ee-fu noodle ($10), shreds of duck meat fried to greatly enhance the flavour of noodle, with the remaining of the duck in the form of two delicious drumsticks. Crisping on the surface with the legs and everything intact, coated golden reddish-brown. They look good. They smell good. I love duck drumsticks, they are so sinful, and good. I’ll take up the whole thing, gnaw it right to the bones and not waste every bit. Delicious.

The branch at Novena does not have their full dim sum menu during weekdays, so in the end we only manage to try about 5 dim sum. It was maddening that’s all we got when I’m craving for the whole array of dim sum. The beancurd roll ($3.60 for 3) was like the typical ones, prawn fillings wrapped within beancurd skin and seaweed.

In dim sum context, I crown Siew Mai as the king, and Har Gau ($3.90 for 3) as the queen. But somehow I do not enjoy eating Har Gau anymore, well it’s just prawn wrapped inside skin isn’t it? I know how much effort the chefs put in to make each and every piece of har gau, but still, I couldn’t help feeling that way. Give me my char siew sou, give me my egg tarts.

Honey, they shrink the phoenix prawns!

I remember the prawns on top of the Siew Mai ($3.90 for 3) here used to be much bigger. Well even though the prawns were downsized, but the siew mai was still prawny with a crunchy bite.

A messy affair. Always the case when we have the deep-fried prawns wrapped in vermicelli ($2.40 for 3).

* * *

It has been a while since my last visit to Peach Garden, and honestly I only remember them for the XO carrot cake ($10), and their wonderful custard buns. We didn’t have the carrot cake this time round since I felt that while it’s good, but it definitely didn’t justify the hefty price tag. I will come here, just for their custard buns (Nai wang bao).

Peach Garden
273 Thomson road
#01-06 Novena Gardens
Tel: 6254 3383

I’m craving for dim sum, and what better way to get everybody hungry with me, by blogging about dim sum! Char siew sou, custard bun, egg tarts, siew mai, give them all to me!

Crispy prawn dumpling, spring roll, pastry filled with smoked duck, beancurd sheet filled with shrimp, Sweet & sour wanton

Meet my love, char siew sou. We re-re-order this, and I ate the most of it since everybody was full from the other dim sum. But me? I couldn’t never say no to you.

Jellyfish with cucumber

Vietnamese vermicelli

Century egg porridge & Fish with conpoy porridge

Even though we had a lot of dim sum which came with prawns, but I enjoyed the Crispy prawn thoroughly; dipped inside the mayo sauce, it was good stuff!

Pan fried cheong fun with dried shrimp

The Spare ribs with spicy pepper and salt were excellent for the folks with heavy taste-buds. Almost of us found it to be too salty, but another friend was totally immune and it even tasted bland to her!

I had only high praises for the Har Gau during the last time I had it, however on this occasion, the har gau skin already cracked before we ate, it wasn’t good, and we’d made it known to the restaurant.

Among all the different baos available, I only had eyes for custard bun and Char siew bao. I was sorely tempted to get second helpings, if not for the other dim sum that we’ve not tried.

Meet the king of dim sum, Siew mai.

Carrot cake

If there’s another item which I always looked out for, it would be the Glutinous rice. The fragrant of the glutinous rice floated in the air when we opened the leaf; the saltiness of the salted egg yolk, the flavourful Chinese sausage, the tender chicken bits, everything added up for a very delicious glutinous rice.

The Crystal dumpling was similar to the soon kueh, but a pity there wasn’t any sweet sauce available that day!

Chicken cheong fun

If you are a regular reader of my dim sum posts, you’ll know that I’m not a fan of the Spare ribs on dim sum menu. And surprisingly the spare ribs here were quite unlike the norm – it was meaty!

Chicken claw

Spinach dumpling

Spicy wanton

Beancurd sheet with black bean sauce

Shrimp coated with mashed taro

Mushroom coated with shrimp paste

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Wan Hao’s new weekday dim sum buffet is available during Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday only, reservations are a must. Prices are $36++ and they are having one-for-one promotion, which means that this unlimited dim sum buffet with 32 items to choose from, is available at a very reasonable price of $21 after taxes.

Even though there wasn’t any particular outstanding dim sum, but everything was pretty decent. And I believe if you are looking for a dim sum buffet, it will be difficult, if not impossible to find another place which can beat Wan Hao at such prices. And we are talking about a 5 star Chinese restaurant here, forget your Zhou’s kitchen, Dragon Gate; those places that offered dim sum buffet under $20. This is the cheapest deal you can get if you want to gorge yourself silly with decent dim sum, maybe other than Pine Court at Meritus Mandarin.

Read my previous visit to Wan Hao here, and the other dim sum posts here. And Catherine’s post on Camemberu, Maureen’s post here.

Wan Hao Chinese restaurant
320 Orchard road
3F Marriott hotel
Tel: 6831 4615

We searched for the button with the 37th label on it, and pressed. Zoom, the elevator, or I preferred to call it the express lift-off, shot up into the sky. Looking downwards as everything became miniature – we were so insignificant. I was actually quite scared when I took a peep. It shouldn’t be, since I’ve been to higher ground before, but still. It always happened. Ding, we reached 37th level, welcome to Hai Tien Lo.

The Steamed shrimp dumpling ($4.80 for 3 pieces) was pretty with the chopped celery giving it a tinge of green.

It must be short-sightedness, but it often occurred with carrot cake. Somehow I always missed out the word steamed, when I ordered carrot cake. So instead of my favourite fried carrot cake, we were surprised when they served a steamed rendition; but it was good! I like how the sauce brings out the flavour of the soft and nice carrot cake. Okay, the full name, steamed carrot cake with preserved meats ($3.90 per portion).

The Steamed pork dumpling with fish roe ($4.80 for 3 pieces) was a piece of art. The curvy lines, with her yellow outfit, topped with the pretty bright orange fish roe.

This was a special, they called it the dim-sum-of-the-week. Sophisticated yeah? It was essentially a shrimp with fish roe on top of a mushroom. An innovative way to do the overdone-to-death prawn in dim sum.

Surprise number two came in the form of pan-fried rice flour roll with crispy conpoy ($3.90 per portion). Well actually it’s not much of a revelation since I asked about the fillings beforehand. Or rather, the lack of fillings. I like the slightly char pan-fried surface of the rice roll with all the crispy toppings. The rice roll on itself was rather bland, but drizzled with the gorgeous sauce; it was good, no, it was tasty!

Since my favourite char siew sou wasn’t available, I just had to make do with the Steamed barbecued pork buns ($2.80 for 2 pieces). White fluffy buns, with sweet char siew fillings, what’s there not to like? I like it sweet, extra sweet please!

Instead of the usual prawn filling, Hai Tien Lo’s rendition came across as the Deep-fried sea perch wrapped in vermicelli ($5.40 for 3 pieces).

* * *

With the to-die-for magnificent view of the marina area, dining at Hai Tien Lo was definitely something that evoked the visual senses together with the taste buds. We chatted, appreciated the skyline, nibbled at the dim sum, drank more tea, and I’m so in love with dim sum! xoxo

Hai Tien Lo
7 Raffles Boulevard
37F Pan Pacific hotel
Tel: 6826 8338

I would have never imagine this; I froze at the mention of it, the sacred foie gras. And hold on a second, what were they saying, I thought I heard something like Juicy dumpling with foie gras. Wasn’t this supposed to be XLB, now where did the foie gras came into the picture?

Believe it or not, they actually contain the French delicacy within our XLB, well maybe just a morsel of it since there wasn’t any trace of the foie gras.

Fresh, is one of the word which has been over-used to describe food. How else would you use to depict the prawn within the crisp vermicelli, well maybe I would say juicy, succulent, and I ran out of vocabulary. Oh well. Deep-fried filo dough.

It was wet, a little moist inside, so I stuck my finger in, and poked it in a little further. I took a bite, beneath the crispy exterior, was duck shreds. Deep-fried yam croquette with minced duck.

Pan-fried radish cake

I was caught by surprise when they told me this was called the Deep-fried scallops with sugar cane. I was happily biting it off the sugar cane (read: I use it), thinking it was very prawny, and there they were, telling me it was deep-fried scallop!

Naturally I was amused, how could scallop taste like prawn? Ignoring that, the slightly-sweet-slightly-sour sauce was most excellent – it was refreshing. And the sugar cane added some brownie points to the whole artistic value.

May I introduced to you, ladies and gentleman, the scarce Harm Soei Gok, or Deep-friend traditional chicken dumpling. Honestly, I did not know about its existence before this, since many places didn’t served it due to the complexity and effort needed to produce it.

The whole, Shark’s fin within the soup, it was so big! With an equally flavourful stock, all of us agreed that the Double-boiled dumpling with Shark’s fin was a delight, well maybe not for the sharks lovers.

I liked this. I’m a char siew sou man. And I was disappointed when there was no sight of it on the menu. And then the baked fluffy skin pie with chicken and mango came. Having the same (or almost) crispy, buttery pastry skin, the interior of the usual char siew was replaced by chicken and mango instead. And the marriage of chicken and mango was a good one, those two totally complimented each other well.

Steamed prawn dumpling

How can one reinvent a dish already done to death and found everywhere? Well, they either provide premium stuffing or reinvent the skin used to wrap the stuffing. For the steamed pork dumpling, they did neither but it was still a cut above the rest. The prawn was sweet and there wasn’t an overly-porky after-taste.

My, my. It was interesting to note, a mini version of claypot rice appearing in a restaurant. Call it a classic, the Mini pot rice with chicken was nothing mini in taste; the tasty Chinese sausages, the succulent mushrooms, and the tender chicken chunks. I had it a taste without any sauce initially, then I added some of the superior sauce that came along with it, and it did wonders – it literally enhanced the taste of the whole mini pot.

Phoenix eye dumpling

There was three different types of steamed rice roll served, but I just showed one photo since all rice rolls looked the same less the fillings. It was the standard-trio, scallops, char siew and prawn. And needless to say, most Chinese restaurants definitely uses fresh ingredients, so it was really down to the rice roll to determine the winner.

And I must say, Man Fu Yuan had silky smooth rice roll, and most importantly, they were not overly-thick.

Vegetarian dumpling

Scallop dumpling with pea shoot

I never liked beef balls, or for that matter, any type of meat balls. Just the sight of it made me full, I took a bite of the beef balls with bamboo pith, and unexpectedly, it wasn’t as heavy as I thought it would be. And there’s tripes at the bottom of the beef balls too.

It is a fine line between tradition and new, and I feel Man Fu Yuan balanced it very well. There are the traditional dim sum available for the purist who want their fix regularly, and not neglecting those who craved for innovation and excitement in their dining experience, the chefs played around with some other ingredients that are not commonly used in Chinese cuisine.

This marks the end of the dim sum marathon, and I must say I’ve enjoyed myself very much together with the rest; chatting and enjoying the good food.  My appreciation to Sharon, the PR manager for hosting us, and Cuisine & Wine Asia for the invitation.

Read my fellow food blogger review:
Catherine @ Camemberu here
Leroy @ Hungrycow here

Man Fu Yuan
80 Middle road
2F Intercontinental Hotel
Tel: 6825 1062

We are all old friends, yet we never met before. We visit each other on the web, that is how we “meet” everybody. Food brings us together, finally we can put a face to each other instead of just a nickname. From online, to offline, our food blogger outing.

While waiting for everybody to arrive, we ordered some fried dim sum for the photo shoot first. Hua Ting have more steamed items than fried ones, and the baked chicken & mango tart ($3.90) headed the list. This reminded me of the one that I had at Man Fu Yuan, and personally I felt it was well executed with the sweet mango zing and crust pastry.

I am not a big fan of bean skin roll dim sum, but since this was one of the few fried item and came highly recommended by the staff, we ordered the Deep-fried bean skin with prawn ($4.80).

Oh, the prawns were fresh. Yes they were. But, but the skin was too thick, and well they are not the best Steamed crystal prawn dumpling ($4.80) I had before.

There was the option of doing it steamed or pan-fried. But who could resist yummy-sinful fried food? Not us, we went for the pan-fried carrot cake with canopy ($3.90). Eat first, worry later! For some unknown reasons that continue to evade us, we are seeing restaurants not frying their carrot cake enough. Is it for the health conscious customers, or is it because it requires more oil? I wished they will just pan-fried it longer.

The first page of the menu comprises of the signature dim sum Hua ting serves, yet i was surprised not to find the Steamed siew mai with shrimp roe ($4.80) there. I felt that it was better than their har gau. And oh yes, there was also mushroom mixed within the siew mai.

There was nothing to fault for their Steamed BBQ pork bun ($3.90). I love my char siew bun, and when there was no char siew sou, I comforted myself by indulging in every moment of this.

Drum roll! Announcing the award for the best performer for the meal, I presented to you, Deep fried scallop pastry with onion and garlic ($4.50). My personal favourite out of the 12 dim sum that we tried that day. The pastry literally melted in my month when I took a bite. And I simple love the strong garlic taste within.

I will also like to mention the good service of the staffs at Hua Ting. While I was causally asking my friend what was inside the Steamed dumpling in Teow Chew style ($3.90), one waitress who was walking by overheard us and stopped to explain. While she couldn’t get all the ingredients in it, she went to the kitchen to ask and came back to tell us. So here it is, peanut, turnip, mushroom & celery.

You definitely will have tried char siew and prawn cheong fun before. Okay, how about scallop? Aye most restaurants have that too! All right, I give you Steamed cheong fun with sliced fish ($4.80). Now that’s something new isn’t it? It was a unique and bold creation, and while personally I still preferred char siew and prawn for my cheong fun, you need to give credits to the chef for trying something new.

Steamed soya bean skin rolls with chicken and mushroom in superior oyster sauce ($4.20). With such a long name, I was caught dumbfound and the staff had to kindly explained a few times what it was. It was actually the same as the deep fried bean skin we had earlier. But somehow I like this one more, the oozing out of the oyster sauce when I took a bite into the bean skin rolls. Oh my.

The others wanted lo mai gai, but there was none. We just have to make do with the Steamed glutinous rice with abalone ($5.20) and it was competent enough. There was the grimicky tiny abalone on top to up the prestige level, but I felt it would be better to give me Taiwanese sausages instead of that.

Not many restaurants use duck for their dim sum, it is always like what I mentioned, char siew, prawn & scallop. Therefore we chose the Pan fried shredded duck rolls ($4.20) out of curiosity.

I never like ordering Steamed pork ribs ($3.90) in dim sum restaurants. I felt they were overpriced, and under-portion. Honestly I will rather order another steamed char siew bun to give me more meat. I’m a carnivore!

Total bill was $120 after a 15% credit card discount for 6 person. We tried 14 out of the 20 dim sum available, and that’s quite a lot! I was confused between Orchard hotel with Orchard Parade hotel, so do check your maps before going down.  In my personal opinion, the staffs at Hua Ting merit the good service tag, all of them were friendly and knowledgeable. Thank you!

The six of us ended up somewhere for more desserts after this filling dim sum lunch. When floggers come out to eat, there is always food, fun, joy and laughter. Oh yes, Dslr, snap snap! Look out for my next post on the after-desserts that we had!

Hua Ting Restaurant
442 Orchard Road
Orchard Hotel
Tel: 6739 6666

Read about my dining companion post:
Catherine @ Camemberu
Evan @ Bossacafez
Julia @ AromaCookery
Leroy @ The Hungry Cow
Nic @ Black Tie, White Lie

An oasis of blue, with a glimpse of gold. Royal China. There are places which you will proudly recommend to your friends when they want suggestions for food, and I raved about the best dim sum before. Indeed, my fond memories of the exquisite Chinese-tapas still lingers in my heart. My perennial return was long overdue.

But perhaps it was my mistake not to check with the restaurant before going, that I didn’t realise they had a special dim sum menu for the Chinese New Year period. With just a selection of 12 different dim sum, all priced at $6.80++ instead of the normal price, I did feel being rip-off, but that’s Chinese New Year for you, and it was my fault for not checking beforehand.

In place of the usual red roe on top of the steamed minced pork dumpling with abalone ($6.80++, usual price $4.80), we had tiny abalones instead. Right, the siew mai was up to standard, but I’ll not say the same having pay two dollars extra for the tiny abalone on top.

From the outside, the steamed prawn dumplings with black moss ($6.80++, usual price $4.80) looked the same. The exotic ingredients kicked in with the addition of black moss (fa-cai), an ingredient that is never missing from Chinese New Year menu. I certainly understood the significant of the auspicious ingredient, but I must admit that there wasn’t any enhance in the flavour of the har gau.

The Crispy prawn rolls with sesame ($6.80++) was one of the item which I did not try before, and I was pleasantly surprised by it. Fundamentally prawn roll with mango, fried crispy with the sesame stuck on top. A dip into the mayo dressing completed the whole taste.

My love, the Baked barbecued pork puff ($6.80++, usual price $4). Royal China’s rendition was very good, with golden butter flaky skin and juicy red char siew. The only problem, this was exactly the same without any addition of “exotic ingredients” and I had to pay almost three bucks more for it.

Total bill was $43. 90 for 4 dim sum, 1 appetiser, and of course the other charges. Was I disappointed by the second visit? Certainly, counting by per piece, it’s close to $2.60 each, even more expensive than Yan Ting. But you can’t fault them for the quality in dim sum, it’s just that I’m sore over paying more than usual for my char siew sou. Will I go back again? Certainly, I still have good impression of them even though this was a bad experience.

And one more thing which I was not pleased about. For those of you who had been there, you’ll know that in their middle seating area, it used to be square tables with the nice white chairs. But they had removed them, and placed round tables with ugly brown chairs instead. I presumed this was done to increase the seating capacity,  but the different furnitures was certainly not pleasing to the eyes, and the seating arrangements were not comfortable at all. After checking with a friend who went after the cny period, it seems everything is back to normal.

One thing’s a definite. We will find out the next time I revisit the place.

Royal China
1 Beach Road
#03-09 Raffles Hotel
Tel: 6338 3363

We walked along the narrow street, wondering where was our destination. The road seems so distant, the future so vague. Just like the route we took, there’s much hurdle to be clear. At long last, we arrived, Dim joy.

Culture of all walks of life, our very own roots. Dim Joy offers a perspective much more than just eating dim sum. Its about the art of appreciating dim sum, the approach in understanding our culture. I like the small details they look into, like how they have tiny notes on the teapot to teach people about the correct method of teapot refill, like how they print their own manuals on the chopstick cover to educate about chopstick etiquette. Small little things like these, make a whole lot of differences.

Nestled in a shop house on neil road, the restaurant quaint and tranquil environment made me feel at home upon entering. There wasn’t much people on a weekday lunch, we had the whole lovely place to ourselves. This is just a place where you can seat down and chill for the whole day.

The simplistic approach to the chief, King shrimp har gao ($4). The whole taste was very subtle, the prawns were fresh, but the skin was again, too thick. While it wasn’t fantastic, dim sum just isn’t dim sum without har gao.

There wasn’t much difference with the Barbecued pork & celery in rice rolls ($5) too. It was way too short if i were to compare it with elsewhere. There was also the option of having the rice rolls in claypot, but i dismissed it as gimmick. I wanted a good steamed and savoury rice roll in light sauce.

There were bits of char siew which could passed off as bacon strips. And we were wondering how cool it’ll be if there’s bacon rice rolls. Nonetheless, the taste was again, very subtle and tame if i may just use the word. I didn’t quite enjoy the celery within too.

I was eagerly anticipating the Honey-syrup char siew bun ($3). With such a sweet name, we were like bees attracted to the beauty of the honey pot. The white pillowry bun was soft and fluffy, very good! But the char siew fillings could be better. While its sweet with honey-syrup infused, the fillings were too little, and i’ll prefered it to be more moist, like their char siew sou.

There is also Siew mai ($3.50 for 4), another dim sum staple. Chewy, shrimpy and not too oily. Value for money definitely, and its the only one that comes two by two. The ratio of shrimp to pork outnumbers greatly, with only a small portion of lean pork meat.

I always choose Pan-fried radish cake ($3) over its steamed cousins. I love the slightly charred surface of the carrot cake, but this one wasn’t charred enough. Well unlike most carrot cakes which are very filling, this one wasn’t very starchy, and had a different taste from the ones which i tried before. The jury’s out on this, you need to make your judgement.

Personally, i ain’t a big fan of the beancurd skin roll ($4.50) but my companion wanted to try this, so here we go. Instead of the typical prawn fillings, this one was all about mushrooms. The skin was a bit raw, and taste almost like beancurd, well it’s made from beancurd after all. The wholesome, vegetarian fillings within the beancurd skin roll didn’t work for me. But my companion rather enjoyed her helpings.

Now, my choice. The char siew so ($3.50) bears a great resemblance to our festive pineapple tarts. Golden brown in colour, with the buttery egg-graze taste on the pastry. While it didn’t come in the form of my favourite flaky skin, Dim Joy’s rendition was unique in its own right.

This time, the sweet honey infuse char siew fillings were more generous, and it was very moist within the pastry. But the char siew did lacked certain texture, and given time to improve, it’ll be better.

We were half-decided on ordering the Custard bun ($3) since we heard it wasn’t that good. But we decided to try for ourselves, taste after all is a very subjective thing. The vital factor for a good custard bun, the oozing out of the golden custard fillings. This one did, the molten custards flowed out of the bun, just like the lava erupted from a volcano. The salty egg yolk taste wasn’t strong enough, the bun was soft but, there’s some fine particles which we guessed was course sugar not dissolved properly. I had the best, and the worst before, this one would be good given some minor tweaks.

While i know Lingnan is an area in China, i couldn’t see the link what the place got to do with the Lingnan egg tart ($3.50 for 4). The best part about Dim Joy during weekend was there wasn’t much people around, so everything was made freshly, rather than pre-made. We waited 25 minutes just for the egg tarts to come out freshly baked. The egg fillings were nice and wet, but the pastry lacked the buttery undertone.

Total bill was $42.35 for 2 person. I must say, with 9 dim sum between us, the prices are fairly reasonable given the standards of the dim sum. I’ll definitely make a perennial visit again, and for that, See you there! And just for some background information, Michelle Saram’s the partner behind Dim Joy.

It also helped that Dim Joy served dim sum throughout the day, even during dinner. Most places don’t serve dim sum at night, so it’s a nice place if you are craving for dim sum after the sun set. I heard they are packed during weekend, so avoid the crowd come on the weekdays instead.

Dim Joy
80 Neil Road
Tel: 6220 6986

Dim Joy is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

Everyday, with the newspaper headline screams the unspeakable “R” word, or some country’s government scrambling to put together a package to rescue their too-big-to-fall banks, times are indeed bad, and no doubt we’ll need to cut down on our spendings to prepare for the storm ahead. But that is not to say that we can’t enjoy good food without spending big money.

My predilection for dim sum has brought me to the attention of Peony Jade restaurant. And since we are on the topic of economics, Peony Jade certainly attracted me with the prices for their dim sum, which i saw from their online menu. There’s two different branch, one at Clark Quay, and the other, Keppel club. Since my friend was driving, i opted for the latter, as it wasn’t a daily affair that you could go to the ulu Keppel club.

Peony Jade is smacked right at the entrance of the Keppel club main building. The main problem will be getting to Keppel club from the outside, just a few minutes drive from Vivocity, but if you are going by public transport, it’s at least 15 minutes walk in from the main road.

Red lanterns adorned the ceiling, with the black traditional walls giving a contemporary look. The whole restaurant was spacious and when we got there around 2pm on a weekday, i was surprised by the small crowd there for lunch.

There was both the steamed prawn & scallop rice roll ($4.50), and coming with an empty stomach, we ordered both. I liked the prawn which was crunchy and fresh, while my friend preferred the scallops which was light. But the rice roll was a tad  thick.

And how can i missed out ordering the Char siew pastry ($3.6 for 3). The very first dim sum i always looked out for. With the main ingredient char siew sticking halfway out, the visual impact was already there. But like they say, after you had the best before, everything else tasted average. How very true.

It was already 2pm when we arrived, and i was starving. The mini oven baked egg tart ($3 for 3) was helpless as i wolfed down 2 easily. The dainty portion was sufficient for my friend, but the petite size was never enough for me.

The squarish basket box caught my attention instead of the steamed pork and crystal shrimp dumpling ($3 for 3). That’s not to say that the siew mai wasn’t attractive. Bright red fish roe, mushroom bits, pork and shrimp, how can anybody resisted the temptation? A pretty decent take, but light’s the word to describe the flavour. Beware of it’s relative, cousin, the steamed butterfly prawns, which was really, just a more expensive rendition of siew mai, with slightly bigger shrimps.

If anyone were to ask me how should a good Har kau be like? In my humble opinion, the shrimp would be the key of course, fresh and crunchy, but you couldn’t miss out the skin too. Most places either do their skin too thin or too thick, which is the fine line between a good and average har kau. The steamed peony jade crystal shrimps dumpling ($4.5 for 3) here unfortunately, fell into the latter category, with the skin coming as a tad thick.

Eating on my own, i’ll never order the Steamed spare ribs black bean sauce ($3.50). I’ve no luck with this dish in all my escapade thus far. So i’ll avoided them far far away with a arm and feet. Give me another basket of siew mai or har gau instead of this.

I’m gonna get into trouble with save-the-sharks organisation after I’m done with this post. My friend wanted the double boiled shark’s fin broth with dumplings ($6), and how can i say no? There was just a few tiny strand of shark’s fin anyway. What? Are you really expecting a whole shark’s fin at this price? Nonetheless, there was plenty of other friends accompanying the lonely fins. Mushroom, prawn, pork, all wrapped within the ginormous dumpling. And oh, the soup base was rather salty for my average MSG indictator.

Just like how I always must have my desserts and dim sum regularly, the chef’s signature deep-fried filo crusted seafood roll ($5 for 6) is surely the must-try gourmet dim sum at Peony jade. There wasn’t any warning to inform us there was going to be 6 seafood roll coming our way. It came as one of the last few dim sum, and by that time we were full. But it didn’t stop me from finishing all of them. As always. And not to mentioned the seafood roll’s about 80 cents each, surely one of the cheapest in town. I’m lovin’ it!

Similarly, the Deep-fried goose liver and prawn ball with almond flakes ($7.50) also gave us a pleasant surprise when it came in 6 instead of their standard 3 piece. Speaking of exotic, how does some goose liver in your dim sum sounds? I didn’t discover any goose liver, or maybe my taste buds wasn’t sensitive enough. It did however, reminded me of the prawn balls that i had before, i wasn’t impress then, and definitely not now too.

When a Japanese asked you to play roulette with her, i wouldn’t bet on the Deep-fried beancurd roulette with shrimps and Japanese seaweed ($4). While the shrimp was fresh, and wrapped inside the deep-fried beancurd, everything’s prefectly fine, it wasn’t my type. You know, some things couldn’t be force. But then maybe i was too full, to find out her true beauty.

I lamented the fact that the pan-fried radish cake ($3) came too late. The very same carrot cake you can find in your market, this one was pan-fried slightly char on the outside, and the radish taste was just right. A pity our stomach finally gave in, and refused to budge.

Total Bill was $70.85 for 2 person, which was much more than what i usually ordered as i always thought that eating 70% full is enough. Its better to eat a bit of here and there, to appreciate the beauty of the dim sum, than to gorge yourself silly. But we couldn’t help ourselves ordering more, the rather cheap prices played a huge role in it of course.

Peony Jade restaurant prided itself in Szechuan and Cantonese cuisine, but surprisely the Szechuan factor seems to be lacking out. I’ll say that the dim sums here are one of the lighest in flavour i ever had before, not that they are not good, just that sometimes you’ll think it should be something more. However, for people who like light flavours, this’s the place for you then.

Prices are absolutely cheap given the restaurant standards and ambience. I’ll be hard-pressed to find another such restaurant which served dim sum at such prices, even Kam boat is more expensive without the 30% discount. And although the quality of the dim sum isn’t comparable to Royal China, and Yan Ting, but the pricing factor certainly win hands-down. I’ll go to their branch at Clark quay when my cravings come again.

Peony Jade restaurant
Keppel Club
Bukit Chermin road
Tel: 6276 9138

* * * Now closed, the other outlet is at Shaw * * *

After the last dim sum at Zhou’s kitchen, it took some time before i regained my craving for our “Chinese tapas“. And this time round, i chose Kam Boat since my friends wanted a convenient location. Marina Square it is, how accessible. I must admit, when i first heard that Kam boat dim sum kitchen was in Marina Square, i was thinking where it was, since i never saw it everytime i went MS. Right, Kam boat location is very easy to find, if you are coming from the underground citylink. Upon coming up the escalator, they are at the entrance of MS, breeks cafe is also there.

The restaurant interior was smaller that what i expected from the outside, still it could seat about 50 thereabouts. Simple furnishings ooze a cosy feel, and we were quite surprise that the restaurant was barely filled on a Saturday afternoon. The lightning was very good, in fact one of the few places where i only took a few snaps and i’m happy with the photos.

Note that they have discount of 30% for dim sum on weekends 230-530pm. The prices i stated are all their original price before discount. Most of their dim sum are around 4 bucks, and after 30% discount, its around $2.80, which is rather cheap.

Steamed prawn dumpling ($4.20)

I loved the jade-colour basket, which exuded a feel to enhance the flavour of the dim sum. The steamed prawn dumpling didn’t allow us to have the best of both worlds. The prawn within was crunchy and whole, but the skin was a tad thick, and sticked to the teeth. But with the discount, the har gau was barely a dollar each.

Steamed Xiao Long Bao ($4.20)

I was never a big fan of Xiao Long Bao (XLB), this one here was all right, the soup stock gashed out of the skin when we took a bite, but having had one of the best and most expensive XLB before, this one paled in comparison.

Rice noodle roll with shrimp ($5.60)

If it wasn’t for the 30% discount, i would feel that the shrimp cheong fun was too expensive. The shrimp, like the one in the har gau, was crunchy, rolled within the cheong fun, and together with the light sauce, made a good start for our meal.

Steamed siew mai with mushroom ($4.20)

The notable difference between Kam Boat’s rendition and the norm was the addition of mushroom. Like the one i had at Zhou’s Kitchen, the mushroom didn’t really enhanced the flavour of the siew mai, since the porky and prawn taste was so strong. But it’s a nice change.

Steamed barbecued pork bun ($3.50)

I think most kids don’t like char siew bun since they always had it for breakfast. But i always couldn’t resist ordering char siew bun from restaurants since theirs were always so good!

Steamed chives dumpling ($4)

This was one of the more unpleasant choice, since nobody liked chives, i’ve no idea who went and ordered this.

Deep fried prawn dumpling with salad ($4.20)

You know, deep fried prawn dumpling is always good, especially so when you dipped in the slightly sour salad sauce. Shiok!

Deep fried prawn with mango roll ($4.20)

Besides salad, mango’s another good combination with fried prawn. The deep fried prawn with mango roll was crispy outside, crunchy with the prawns, and fruity with the mango.

Pan fried meat dumpling ($4)

Meat dumpling or “wo tie” is often eaten together with ginger and vinegar. But since i didn’t like eating ginger and vinegar, i ate it on its own, and it was not bad.

Pan-fried carrot cake ($3.50)

The pan fried carrot cake was nice, charred on the exterior, and soft inside. Personally, i felt that pan fried carrot cakes must show some char, if not the whole taste wouldn’t be there.

Deep fried seafood roll with mustard ($4.50)

The bee hoon or whatever you called that, which wrapped around the deep fried seafood roll, provided the crisp crunchy bite. Although deep fried, the seafood roll didn’t lose its freshness. The usual scenario for deep fried stuff would be overly oily, but this one was not so.

Baked mini egg tart ($4.20)

For some reason or the other, dim sum restaurants never seem to serve their egg tarts big. All came in mini size, how did they suppose we would be satisfied with the tiny, petite egg tart? Nonetheless, the mini egg tart was done exactly what i liked, the egg custard filling was soft, slightly “wet”, and the skin was crispy.

Steamed chicken feet ($3.50)

I never ate chicken feet, so you need to try this one out yourself.

Steamed Glutinous rice ($3.50)

The Chinese sausage or “la chang” injected the salty taste and enhanced the fragance of the glutinous rice. A vital ingredient for all glutinous rice. The mushroom, meat and rice portion was generous. Defintitely worth a try.

Total bill was $64.05 after a 30% discount for 4 person. There was some items like the steamed prawn dumpling and siew mai which we had two basket. We didn’t really order a lot since a friend was late and the last order was around 515pm. Still, Kam Boat was surprisingly good, much better than what i expected. The location is very accessible, the dim sum is cheap after the discount. And i think i’ll go back again.

Kam Boat dim sum kitchen
6 Raffles Bouleverd
#02-05 Marina Square
Tel: 6336 6696

Royal China @ Raffles exudes the prestige and grandeur as the famous colonial Raffles Hotel. Housed in the 3rd level of the hotel, Royal China definitely strikes out to be a cut-above-the-rest with its impressive name, and location. Having heard rave reviews about Royal China’s dim sum, it was about time that I patronised the restaurant, and boy I was charmed.

I decided to go against the norm this time round, usually i’ll write out my conclusion at the end, but Royal China isn’t any normal restaurant serving run-of-the-mill dim sum. I’ll rate them in the same league as Yan Ting, but definitely cheaper. Given the varsity in prices, I say Royal China certainly serves the best dim sum among the places i tried so far.

You can be forgiven if you think that Royal China comes with some Chinese background since the name China indirectly implied the meaning. In fact, The Royal China group is eminent in London, and the foray into Shanghai was just a recent event. Royal China @ Raffles remains the exclusive restaurant in the whole of South-east Asia.

Stepping into Royal China, the contemporary interior which comes in wave of ocean blue makes it a swanky restaurant. No doubt you wouldn’t believe this was actually a Chinese restaurant, and i must say I enjoyed the ambience as it’s very different from the traditional red and gold setting which you find in Chinese restaurants. The blue and white backdrop ooze a certain calm and tranquil, which made you feel right at home.

Baked Barbecued pork puff ($4 for 3)

The baked barbecued pork puff or char siew sou, was definitely the must-order dim sum at Royal China. Within the flaky, crispy pastry skin was the most delicious, sweet and juicy char siew that you could find. I regretted not having second serving of this, the next time round, i’ll have one basket for myself!

The best char siew sou that i tried so far was at Yan Ting, and Royal China’s rendition is certainly on-par with that. The thought of the excellent BBQ pork puff is enough for me to make a perennial return.

Steamed pork dumpling ($4.80 for 4)

Making a strong case for Royal China, the steamed pork dumpling, or siew mai was also another staple in the menu. Like most siew mai, the beautiful red roe adorns the top, and how can you not order this when you are having dim sum!

Steamed prawn dumpling ($4.80 for 4)

As with most, if not all good steamed prawn dumplings, a whole fresh and luscious prawn shroud within the thin and light skin had the right amount of bite. And at $1.20 each, they are really worth the money, compared with the ones at Peach Garden which are higher in price.

Steamed BBQ pork buns ($3.60 for 3)

Like i mentioned before, I love to eat char siew buns from Chinese restaurants because they are usually in three parts which have gaps to tease you with the char siew fillings. And at $1.20 each, I’ll rather have one of these any time over the sub-standard buns elsewhere.

Steamed seafood roll with minced garlic ($4.80 for 2)

Coming on the recommendation of the staff, the steamed seafood roll with minced garlic was one of the more expensive dim sum at Royal China. Each basket only serves two person, nevertheless, each serving came in the form of a huge crunchy prawn wrapped around wisp of noodles. An interesting and novelty take.

Carrot cake with preserved meat ($4 for 1)

There wasn’t anything fantastic with the carrot cake here, No complications of XO sauce, no carrot cake wannabe cheong fun just a good and reliable portion of the dish which we are all familiar with.

Glutinous rice in lotus leaf ($4.80 for 2)

We decided to have just one basket of the Glutinous rice not because it wasn’t good, but rice makes you full easily, and we wanted to keep our stomach for the other delectable dim sum. The rice was enhanced with the fragrant emitted by the lotus leaf.

Royal China Cheong fun ($4.80 for 3 rolls)

We had the Royal China Cheong fun, which was a combination of the three different ingredients, namely, prawn, char siew and scallop. You can also get just one of the ingredient in a serving, but since we wanted to try all three, this was a good choice.

The cheong fun rice rolls were silky-smooth, and encompassing within were fresh scallops, crunchy prawns and juicy char siew. I couldn’t quite decide which ingredient was better, but i’m leaning towards the crunchy prawns.

String beans crystal dumpling in chilli oil ($3.6 for 1)

This was the only upset from the otherwise perfect meal at Royal China. Coming as a last minute before the last order at 2.45pm (lunch’s from 12-3pm), the staff told us this was special because not many places uses string beans in dim sum. And i agreed, only with the part that you seldom see string beans.

The string bean crystal dumplings had fillings of string beans, and soaked in chilli oil. We did not like the combination, the chilli oil was too spicy and oily. But being the nice people, we didn’t want to waste food, so we took one each and gulped it down.

Deep fried prawn dumpling served with Mayo ($4.80 for 3)

Another of the last minute order, the deep fried prawn dumpling fared better than the string bean crystal dumpling. Covered with almonds, the inside was minced prawn. My friend was looking out for the big prawn which was evident in the prawn dumpling, and the seafood roll. But the prawn here was minced nicely and filled in the dumpling instead.

Baked duck meat roll in Portuguese sauce ($4.80 for 3)

The baked duck meat roll was also on the recommendations of the staff, it came as a surprise to us when it arrived, looking like meat roll dipped in curry-like colour sauce. In fact, it was Portuguese sauce, now i’m not too sure what exactly was Portuguese sauce, but the flavour was too strong, and overwhelmed the duck meat roll.

But eaten without the Portuguese sauce, the duck meat roll on its roll was actually quite good. The fillings were generous within the roll, pity the Portuguese sauce though.

Total Bill was $95.10 for 5 people. Most of the earlier dim sum that we ordered came in 6 portions because another friend didn’t come in the eleventh minute. I listed out the normal pricing for the standard pieces of dim sum available so as not to confuse you. You could also do it like us, say you have 5 people order 5 pieces instead of getting two basket of 3 each.

Prices are reasonable given the quality of the dim sum. We paid about $19 per person, definitely not expensive, but we didn’t exactly eat a lot, one of each dim sum. I preferred to appreciate each piece of quality dim sum than to gorge myself silly with a lot of sub-standards one.

Dim sum at Royal China was an excellent one, standards are comparable to Yan Ting, yet prices are cheaper than the latter. There are some other dim sum which i haven’t try, and a perennial return looks to be a certainty, and I’ll definitely recommend Royal China if you are looking for good dim sum. The restaurant’s also famous for their lobster noodles, but unless you got deep pockets, i suggest you stick to the dim sum. See you there!

Royal China
1 Beach Road
#03-09 Raffles Hotel
Tel: 6338 3363

Royal China is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

It’s a shame that Dim sum isn’t getting the recognition as its Sushi counterparts. The Japanese sushi is also like what Dim sum is to the Chinese cuisine, just that it comes in the form of vinegared rice topped with ingredients like fish, various meats and vegetables.

With the entrée of more Spanish restaurants in the local dining scene, more people knows about tapas, and degustion has always been a firm word on the menu of the French restaurants here. How about dim sum? I think that most youngsters nowadays are not really into dim sum, since it’s often seen as a more traditional meal. Youngsters want to break out of the tradition, they want something hip and cool, and dim sum is not that. Which is cooler, saying you had dim sum, or tapas at the latest Spanish restaurant and a 6 course degustion dinner?

Dim sum is akin a piece of artwork crafted by the chef, so exquisite and refine. No offence to the Sushi-fanatic, but give me dim sum over sliced raw fish anytime.

Every hotel will have their own flagship restaurants in the different cuisines, and at Carlton hotel, Wah Lok is the Cantonese representative. Our latest dim sum adventure brings us here, together with hautestuff and ladies, we had a great time over our dim sum lunch.

Wah Lok is located on the second level within the Carlton hotel, the high ceiling of the restaurant makes the interior looks very spacious. The decor is typical of most Chinese restaurants, with a very comfy and homely feel. There are two different dining halls and can easily fill up on a normal day, which shows the popularity of the restaurant.

Char siew sou ($3.80 for 3)

The Baked BBQ pork pastry or more affectionately known as char siew sou, has always been one of the dim sum that i will order first. Wah lok’s version of the char siew sou did not disappoint, within the buttery surface of the pastry were juicy and sweet char siew fillings.

The rendition at Wah lok may not be as refine as the one i had at Yan Ting, nevertheless it’s still better than most char siew sou that i had before, and all of us were tempted to order second helpings.

Baked BBQ pork buns ($3 for 2)

We asked the captain for recommendations, and he promptly suggested that we have Wah Lok’s signature, char siew bao. We were rather surprised when the char siew bao came, as it’s not the normal steamed buns which has white pillowry exterior. Instead, the baked counterpart is browned and glazed, more like bo luo bao.

The juicy and sweet char siew was enveloped within the baked pastry. Although we just had the char siew sou which is a different variety made with puff pastry, the pork buns were gone in an instant.

Baked egg tarts ($3.20 for 3)

The petite baked egg tarts had smooth and eggy fillings within the puff pastry. The miniature size of the egg tart was the only problem as we only had one each.

Steamed prawn dumplings ($5.40)

The steamed prawn dumplings, or “Har Gao” at Wah Lok had fresh, succulent prawns contained by the thinly light skin. Solid and reliable prawn dumplings.

Steamed pork dumplings ($4.60)

The steamed pork dumplings or “siew mai” is another dim sum which i would not fail to order. The siew mai was well-balanced, not too porky.

Fried XO carrot cake ($10)

The fried xo carrot cake was off-the-menu, which we requested for instead of the steamed carrot cake. However this was a mistake as the carrot cake was bland and too soft for my liking. We couldn’t taste much of the supposedly “oomph” xo sauce. At $10, we would be better off ordering two other basket of dim sum.

Steamed chicken claw with chili ($3)

I am never a fan of chicken claw, but the three ladies certainly enjoyed it, munching the chicken feet and spiting out the small bones.

Deep fried beancurd ($5.6)

We wanted one more dim sum after our first round, and the waiter recommended this. The deep fried beancurd skin with prawns was excellent. Normally, the beancurd skin would be more than the prawn, but in this instance, the succulent prawn fillings threatened to overshadow the beancurd skin.

Fried mango ice cream ($6)

We ended off our dim sum lunch with a very non-chinese dessert. Fried ice cream was a craze a few years back, and i remember there’s even a store at the Tiong Bahru market which used to sell fried ice cream. But not anymore, where can you still find fried ice cream nowadays?

The crispy exterior had a strong hint of coconut taste, while the interior was icy cold ice cream, simply magic, how did they do that?

Total bill was $63.75 for 4 person, which worked out to be around $16 per person. We didn’t really ordered a lot, so the price might seem deceptive, nevertheless, the dim sum at Wah Lok is still priced reasonably given their quality. The portions are quite petite, but it will do for our ladies. I foresee i’ll be coming back to Wah Lok quite often in the near future to try out the rest of the dim sum.

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

The cravings for dim sum meant that i am always on the lookout for places be it restaurants or eateries which can answer to my stomach’s calling. Victor’s Kitchen has been around for quite a while now, and has been labeled with the “good dim sum at affordable price” tag.

Located at Sunshine Plaza off the corner at Bencoolen street, it is a no-frills, grab-your-seats kind of place. Victor’s is divided into two seating area, with both holding a maximum of maybe fifteen people each. Seats are limited, you must be prepared to queue up for them, and squeeze in the small seating area. Well, more like a small eatery than a cafe or restaurant kind of environment.

Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous rice ($4)

I always like glutinous rice, dim sum style. Opening the leave that wrapped the rice, the aroma of the glutinous rice flowed out, and it was just so good. The chicken was tender and the chinese sausage palatable, the fragrant and soft rice, all the combinations made the glutinous rice a praiseworthy dish.

Tasty Queen size Siew Mai ($3)

You don’t say you eat dim sum if you did not order siew mai and har gau. Nicknamed the queen size siew mai, its actually the normal size i guess that’s why they didn’t named it as King size siew mai instead.

The pork meat in the siew mai is very lean, not those fatty type. The portion of prawn to pork is actually very low, so not much of prawn taste, its the more porky kind.

Victor’s King prawn dumpling ($3.80)

Prawn dumpling or har gau, another mainstay in the dim sum menu. The skin of the Victor’s King prawn dumpling is rather thin, and the prawns inside looked like its going to burst out anytime. The fresh prawns go easy on the palates and always welcome with second helpings.

Carrot cake with XO sauce ($3.80)

I was rather amazed when i saw the Carrot cake with XO sauce served. For one i wasn’t expecting the carrot cake to be literally soaked in xo sauce, i thought it will be something like the one i had at Peach Garden, or Yan Ting, but i guess again, there isn’t any “fried” or “pan-seared” attached with the name here.

The name’s scallop, sausage carrot cake with xo sauce, but i hardly had any hint of the presence of scallop and sausage in it, and i think i still preferred my carrot cake to be fried than soup. Nonetheless, the amount of XO sauce given was rather generous, and i guess its more of a personal issue, some might just fancy this over the normal fried carrot cake.

Oyster sauce Char Siew Bun ($2.80)

I preferred my char siew bun to be those restaurants-type where there is three parts one. There’s no trace of oyster sauce in the char siew bun, or maybe i happened to miss the flavor.

Nevertheless, the char siew bun is still quite soft and fluffy, the juicy char siew captured within is also enjoyable. Not the best char siew bun i had, but it will suffice.

Milky Custard Bun ($2.80)

I am getting warm up to Custard bun nowadays since i used to only flavor char siew bun when i had dim sum. You know a good custard bun when you see one, hot milky custard oozing out of the bun, tempting you with both visual and taste.

However, the case is not to be with Victor’s Milky custard bun. Touted as their signature dish, i was totally disappointed with the one i had here. Maybe the ones at Victor’s don’t ooze out, but for the custard buns to come cold is another complete matter all together.

Having heard many wonderful things about their signature custard bun, i must said i was shocked by the revelation in the quality of the buns. Maybe its a case of a bad hair day, but i’ll give it a chance and re-visit to try it again the next time.

Spare Ribs rice ($3)

I’m not even sure if i want to elaborate on the spare ribs rice. First thing first, the rice is hard, too hard. I do understand that ribs being ribs do not have much meat, but this one, the pork ribs were not even tasteful. A waste of 3 bucks, kindly ignore this if you ever go to Victor’s.

Phoenix Porridge ($3.50)

The century egg porridge or pi dan chow is transform in the name of Phoenix porridge. However the majestic name did itself no favors with a run of the mill watery porridge. There are bits of century egg and chicken chunks, but i don’t see the point in paying $3.50 for an average small bowl porridge.

Deep fried spring roll ($3)

The deep fried spring roll is pretty decent, with the usual mix of turnips inside. The vinger dip was a commendable mention, with the slightly sourish sauce going well together with the deep fried stuff. The spring roll was crispy and you could hear the “crisp” sound with every bite you took.

Char siew cheong fun ($3)

The trails of a good char siew cheong fun are smooth and silky skin, which comes with juicy char siew. However the skin of the cheong fun or rice roll is rather thick, i’ll prefer it to be slightly thinner. The char siew within the cheong fun is still acceptable.

King prawn cheong fun ($3.50)

I think we over ordered, which results in having another one, the King prawn cheong fun. I presumed the prawns are the same as the ones in the har gau, and they are fresh and good, pity the skin of the cheong fun though.

Total Bill is $51.1 for 3 person. Victor’s kitchen is definitely affordable and rather cheap with its array of dim sum served. The maths work out to be around less than a dollar per piece for most of the items, which can be a good place for your dim sum fix if you want something cheap and not bad.

Victor’s Kitchen is a case of hits and misses. However the misses hit me more because i had high expectations of the place since there are much rave about the dim sum here. With the silky custard bun as the biggest upset in this visit, it is likely i will visit the place again in the future, to prove whether its a fluke or one-off thing.

The place is small, and they don’t take any reservations, do go at earlier timings or be prepared to queue a while for the seats. Its also advisable to go in small groups since there aren’t much space and table to accommodate a large crowd.

Victor’s Kitchen
91 Bencoolen Street
#01-21 Sunshine Plaza
Tel: 9838 2851

St Regis hotel, the latest glamorous and prestigious hotel to open on our shore. Tout as a 6 star luxury hotel and with so much at stake, Yan Ting, a Cantonese restaurant offers to promise you a totally different dining experience.

Stepping into St Regis is quite an experience on its own, the grandeur of the hotel will simply blow you away. The splendid furnishings and the majesty furnitures are not all, even taking a lift in St Regis promises you a unforgettable reminiscence.

6 Star is not exaggerating, and from the moment you enter the hotel, it feels so good to be rich, even just for that afternoon.

Albeit being a Chinese Cantonese restaurant, the contemporary and classy feel of the restaurant’s interior certainly does not show any indication, with the exception of the 4 seasons painting, and the exquisite chopsticks and spoons plated in gold and inlaid with jade pieces.

An elegant chandelier is the highlight of the low ceiling in the restaurant. Stylish curtains and the comfy seats brings out a cozy and relaxed dining atmosphere.

The main emphasize which makes Yan Ting stands out from the other Chinese restaurant is in the pricing for its dim sum. While others usually charged dim sum by per basket or plate, Yan Ting attempts to break through the norm and bring the pricing of dim sum to another level by its per piece charging.

For Yan Ting’s A la carte menu, just like some of the more prominent Chinese restaurants, they are priced by per person, and the small servings of the food meant that there is no chance of sharing food.

Being in a 6 Star hotel, you definitely will not expect Yan Ting to be easy on the pocket, with most of the simpler dishes priced from $10 to $24 each. And with the small serving, expect to spend up to $100 for a decent meal, per person.

Appetizer

Unlike their western counteparts, most Chinese restaurants doesn’t actually serve out appetizer since the Chinese doesn’t have the emphasize on course eating. The small squid is actually quite good, simple enough to start our taste bud going in anticipation of the rest to come. And its free, so no complains there.

Cripsy radish pastry ($1.80 per piece)

This is the first time i had a radish pastry before, and i must say it is good, the crispy skin compliments well with the soft radish inside.

Oven-baked fluffy Char Siew Pastry ($1.60 per piece)

The Char Siew Pastry is indisputably the star of the show here. Take a bite into the crispy fluffy pastry, and you will discover the juicy and sweet char siew hidden within. Having one each is really not doing justice to the pastry. And i’ll rather pay $1.60 for one of these wonderful char siew sou, than to eat several cheaper ones. Excellent!

Stir-fried “cheong fan” rice roll with XO sauce ($4)

I never had stir-fried “cheong fan” rice roll with XO sauce before, and to be honest initially i mistook this dish for the fried carrot cake done with XO sauce which is commonly found in Chinese restaurants dim sum menu.

Although it tasted more like Char Kway Teow than “cheong fan”, but i find it to be quite all right, and at $4 even though the portion is quite small, its still cheaper and more worth well than the XO sauce fried carrot cake that i had at Peach Garden.

Steamed shrimp dumpling ($2 per piece)

The steamed crystal shrimp dumpling, or more affectionately known as “Har Kao” comes at a hefty price tag of $2 per piece. If you do your maths, this works out to be $6 for one basket of three Har Kao. There’s always a first time for everything, and this is really a first time where i had such expensive shrimp dumplings.

However, Yan Ting’s Har Kao is really one of the best that i had tried so far, the thin skin envelops the fresh and succulent prawns. But at $2 each, Yan Ting is really testing the limits for the first-rate dumplings.

Steamed Pork and Shrimp Dumpling ($2 per piece)

“Siew Mai” or steamed pork and shrimp dumpling is always the dim sum i’ll base my judgment on how good the dim sum at the restaurant really is. The Siew Mai here passes the test, the combination of the crunchy prawn and the lean pork goes well together.

Xiaolongbao ($4 per piece)

To be frank, I never liked xiaolongbao, since i can’t really appreciate the beauty of it. Even though the xiaolongbao is a bigger rendition than your normal ones, to pay $4 for one xiao long bao, i’ll be crazy.

But, the Xiaolongbao at Yan Ting is really different from the usual ones, the pipping hot stock juice literally floods out upon a bite into the skin of the xiaolongbao. Although the xiaolongbao is quite good, but i’ll not order it again if i come back to Yan Ting. For a $4 xiaolongbao experience, once is enough.

Traditional Cantonese egg tart ($1.60 per piece)

The egg tart is done exactly the way i like it, cripsy skin with the smooth egg custard within. I lamented the fact that the egg tart is too small. And at $1.60 per piece, they are not really cheap.

Deep-fried Yam Croquette ($1.60 per piece)

The deep fried Yam croquette with diced chicken is excellent. Although the croquette is deep fried, but its not too oily, and the Yam taste is quite unique too.

Steamed Wild Mushroom Roll ($1.60 per piece)

We ordered the steamed wild mushroom roll out of curiosity from the name. There’s two to three different type of mushroom, well the mushroom roll is not really my call.

Hong Kong BBQ platter ($16 per serving)

BBQ pork, roasted duck, and crispy roasted pork makes up the Hong Kong BBQ platter. Note that its $16 for one portion, andthree of us ordered 3 portions, which adds up to $48. Ripped off is the only word to describe this.

The crispy roasted pork is not too bad, but it comes in only four small cubes. The roasted duck is really ordinary, and the BBQ pork or char siew, does not justify the exaggerated price tag of $16 for 4 cubes of roasted pork, two slices of roasted duck and three slices of char siew.

For $48, you can have a whole duck, with healthy servings of char siew & roasted pork. This is totally what you will not expect coming from Yan Ting, however the truth is there for all to see. This is somehow an anti-climax for the rather excellent dim sum that we had.

Total Bill was $150.20 for 3 person, which works out to about $50 per person. But if you work out the sums, excluding the BBQ platter which was $16 per portion, the amount for dim sum is actually about $34. Although we didn’t have that much dim sum, but i still find $34 to be acceptable given the high quality dim sum we had.

6 Star dim sum comes at a price, although some of the dim sum did not really justified the price, but overall the dim sum was nothing short of excellence. I’ll definitely try Yan Ting again, even though its a extravagant experience, but like they say, good things come with a price. Just that in this case, its a heavier price.

Do note that if you decided to give Yan Ting a try, you must be careful and not over ordered, that is unless you got a deep pocket. Service is good and professional, with the staff knowing when to approach us, and when not to disturb us. Yan Ting certainly test my limits for good dim sum, although i am still skeptical about their A la carte menu. Give that a miss and try their dim sum! And dim sum is only available during lunch, not dinner.

Yan Ting
29 Tanglin Road
The St Regis
Tel: 6506 6888

Yan Ting is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

Peach Garden is one of the most well-known restaurants when it comes to Chinese fine dining in Singapore. It currently has five branches at Novena Gardens, Thomson Plaza, Hotel Miramar, Orchid Country Club, and OCBC Centre 33.

Reservations are highly recommended, especially if you would like to have a window seat. The dim sum menu has over 20 items to choose from. Otherwise, you can go for the set menu at $38++/pax.

Most of the dim sum items come in basket of 3, but as there were eight of us, they were flexible enough to allow us to order 8 pieces instead.

The baked BBQ pork pastry, or char-siew sou was good, but I’ve had better ones elsewhere before.

The Fried Carrot Cake with X.O Sauce – one of Peach Garden’s signature dishes – was slightly crispy on the outside, and very soft on the inside. But I couldn’t taste much of the X.O sauce, and to be completely honest, I am not sure if I’d pay $8 for it.

The baked mini egg tarts were decent with flaky crust and smooth egg custard.

Another highlight was the Siew Mai. I would say it was quite good, with predominantly lean meat, and crunchy shrimp.

The Har Gau, on the other hand, was okay but not fantastic. I didn’t find it very outstanding although it was definitely in the above average region.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun is one of my all time favourite dim sum items, and Peach Garden’s rendition was actually one of the better ones that I’ve had.

The signature dim sum of Peach Garden is without a doubt, the Steamed Custard Bun. The beautiful golden yellow custard filling oozed out when I poked a hole into the bun. I’d come back to Peach Garden just for this.

Initially, I thought that it was quite expensive to pay $7 for one spare ribs. I had to eat my words when the staff served it to our table. The BBQ sauce went very well with the Baked Spare Ribs, and we finished everything.

Overall, Peach Garden at OCBC Centre 33rd floor is a nice place to go for dim sum. It offers a bird’s eye view of the beautiful skyline, and most of the dim sums are reasonably priced.

Peach Garden
65 Chulia Street #33-01
OCBC Centre
Tel: +65 6535 7833