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

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