• I’m not exactly a fan of Chinese food. After compiling the list of best and worst restaurants in Singapore for 2006, I realised that not one Chinese restaurant won or was even nominated for any of the “best” awards, while they scooped up the winner and runner-up positions for the “worst” award! Some commentators cried foul and pointed out that there’s a bias towards Western establishments.
So, I decided to give Chinese restaurants a go.
The local Chinese restaurant scene is largely duopolised by two heavyweights – Crystal Jade and Tung Lok. While I dine at the Crystal Jade restaurants often enough, I have not been to any of those in the Tung Lok Group. The latter is slightly more upmarket and famous for its fine dining restaurants.
The Tung Lok restaurant we picked was Teahouse that spans the entire third level of China Square Food Centre (not to be confused with China Square Central). As its name suggests, the menu here consists mainly of Chinese tea and dim sum. Kind of nice for a light family lunch together.
There is a very old-fashioned and quaint feel to this eatery. The décor is done in generic Chinese style, with bright red lanterns adorning the entrance, simple wooden furniture and ornamental ceiling fans hanging from the ceiling.
In an authentic dim sum eatery, I would expect to see wheeled carts being pushed around from table to table, serving dim sum from bamboo steamers. But strangely, we got none of that over here for a place that’s oozing such tradition.
S$5+++
Rating:
One dim sum classic is siew mai, which is possibly the commonest and most popular variety of dim sum. For the dim sum newbies, siew mai is a mixture of usually shrimp and meat that is then steamed to perfection. It tends to come with a bright orange dot on top. I thought the siew mai here was decent and certainly wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.
S$5+++
Rating:
Most of the dim sum we ordered had prawn filling, such as these steamed juicy prawn dumplings. Encased in a translucent rice-flour skin, the prawn dumplings tasted sort of bland, like the siew mai. All right, maybe I’m just not a fan of Chinese food. They all taste bland to me! Or maybe I just have higher expectations for an illustrious restaurant group like Tung Lok.
I do like these ones though.
S$5+++
Rating:
These colourful dumplings had scallop and actually tasted rather delightful! Plus, I like the effort that had been put into making each one look pretty.
Here’s a close-up on one. Does anyone know what’s that orange stuff?
S$5+++
Rating:
My mom loved these bean curd skin prawn rolls. The bean curd skin had a sweet taste to it that reminded me of the ones used in inari sushi. We ordered a few plates of these.
S$5+++
Rating:
The steamed flour rolls (a.k.a. chee cheong fun) had barbecued pork filling (a.k.a. char siew). Again, it tasted monotonous and would have made for a better dish had the skin been thinner.
S$5+++
Rating:
The only highlight of this whole meal (for me) was the deep-fried prawn dumplings served with mayonnaise. Fried stuff always tastes good! This one had a very light and crispy skin wrapped around some very juicy and crunchy prawn. Yum! In fact, it tasted so good we had nine!
S$6+++
Rating:
And finally, the dessert that reminds me of an egg served sunny-side up – yam paste with ginko nut and mashed pumpkin. According to my Mom, it’s really good.
So that’s it for my first meal at a Tung Lok restaurant! I find that when you visit a nice Chinese restaurant at either Crystal Jade or Tung Lok, the food never sucks. But it is never fantastic either. The food is so safe and consistent that it gets sort of boring. Certainly not the kind of food that would make me get a craving for. I wasn’t wowed or impressed.
But that’s just me.
51 Telok Ayer Street
#03-01/03 China Square Food Centre
Singapore 048441
Tel: +65 6533 0660 | Website
Service:
Feb 22, 2007
41
5 dollars per item seem quite expensive leh…
oh by the way, now if you go to Hong Kong (the land of dim sum) you can hardly find dim sum on trolley anymore, since most restaurants there switched to steam-as-you-order style.
Feb 22, 2007
3
hi…nice looking site!
the very 1st sentence from wikipedia….
“Chinese cuisine is widely seen as representing one of the richest and most diverse culinary cuisines and heritages in the world.” ….so how can you not like your own food? :)
for me, everytime i went to angmoh land, i have to start searching for chinese/asian food after a few days :) …how different can western steaks, ribs or fish/chips taste?
ok, i probably have not tried enough of western cuisine to comment here… but as of now, i am certainly not a fan either
Feb 22, 2007
3472
chillycraps: $5 is relatively expensive for dim sum. But then again, I would expect nothing less from Tung Lok. Steam-as-you-order? Sounds like a long wait for customers!
dan: Yeah I am not exactly true to my roots when it comes to food. It all boils down to personal preference.
Feb 22, 2007
14
Strange coincidence, was just there for lunch this afternoon! Packed and could only get a “bar” seat…was quite happy with the dim sum :) Then again, I’m easily pleased..haha.
Feb 22, 2007
3472
That place is near your workplace huh? I didn’t even notice they had bar seats!
Feb 22, 2007
14
am just next door! yah..i didn’t know until i was directed there…just outside the kitchen..:)
Feb 22, 2007
14
the orange stuff on top of those dim sum is roe, usually it should be crab roe, but some might use other kinds of roe.
i think one of the reason why your best of list was filled with western establishments might be because of your personal tastes and preferences. from the food that you’ve reviewed, they’re mostly western styled food, with more western food to be considered among the many, it’s normal that there are more winners in the best of list. there are plenty of good chinese eating establishments out there for you to try out~
Feb 22, 2007
3472
I know it’s some kind of roe. But it doesn’t exactly resemble the crab roe that I see on sushi! So I was wondering what roe it is.
Feb 23, 2007
22
Seriously.. singapore has got to have the smallest and most boring range of dimsum at all the chinese restaurants. even when i walk into places tht ‘specialise’ in dimsum.. i get so disappointed!! some places call themselves dimsum restaurants, but have a grand total of 10 types of dimsum on their menu…
dimsum chefs in singapore need to go for some overseas training… hehe!
Feb 23, 2007
41
lol, it’s not real roe bah, it’s coloured flour on the siu mai! (I’m 80% sure, since most tim sum restaurants do that)
Feb 23, 2007
10
im thinking it shld be prawn roe that they use,since its cheaper than crab roe,and in more abundance..haha..
Feb 23, 2007
3472
Is it crab roe? Is it prawn roe? Or is it just flour?
(This is just about the smallest subject matter we can debate over. Haha)
Feb 23, 2007
2
think 5 bucks is bit too ex… u may like to try out “red star” restaurant they serve value for $$ dim sum and are dish out in those dim sum carts… another recommendation would be yan palace restaurant at hong lim… serve great dim sum too… used to go there every wkend with my gramps for brunch when i was young… ;)
Feb 23, 2007
41
yan palace cannot! their “char siew so” uses vegetarian char siew one! this one I’m 100% sure there’s no meat inside!
if not crystal jade, then try kam boat at marina square or shaw tower, the shaw tower one is always filled with hongkongers on weekends, so you can guess how authentic the dim sum is.
Feb 23, 2007
4
could be just a little salted egg yolk on top of the siew mai.
Feb 24, 2007
14
OK, check out http://ieatishootipost.blogspot.com/2007/02/victors-kitchen-authentic-hong-kong-tim.html for their take on the best HK styled dim sum in S’pore. Haven’t explored it myself though!
Feb 26, 2007
27
Slurp :P~~~~
Oct 29, 2008
1
Is Tung Lok Teahouse still open? cos under the Tung Lok website, this place is not in its list of restaurants anymore. Thanks!
Apr 22, 2010
10
i always have this illusion that i enjoy dim sum. until i see the pics of prawns after prawns that i realise that its all just a dream. i dont really have any interest in real dim sum. what i like are the fake stuff.