I've heard so much about Tim Ho Wan and how good the dim sum is, so I've been wanting to try it prior to coming back Singapore. And I finally had a chance to. :) I went out with my besties 2 days before, and we initially wanted to go to Swee Choon (again, because we have heard fabulous reviews), but Jalan Besar was too far and we were lazy to travel, so we (or rather I) decided to queue up for Tim Ho Wan. The queue was long but not scarily long as a 2-hour-wait, which I've heard of before. =/ I think going earlier before the dinner crowd and making sure that all your dinner partners are there with you helps you go in faster. We started queuing just before 6pm, and there was already a snakelike-queue.
DON'T go there just to wait unless of course you don't mind seeing other (smarter) people go in before you, even if you came first.
We waited for perhaps 30 minutes or more before we finally got a table. The place was bustling and all the tables were crowded and that stayed the way till after 8pm. We ordered a whole lot of food since it was our first time there, including the Big 3 Heavenly Kings (meant to be 4, but we missed one), but unfortunately, not all were hits. I'm just going to do a quick review on the hits and the near-misses. :)
Hits
1) Baked Bun with BBQ Pork (脆皮焗叉烧包) - $4.50
 |
| Source: Google Images (Pinky Piggu) |
This has a lot of raves and it's one of the Heavenly Kings. Personally, I think the BBQ pork filling is rather generous and the taste hits all the right notes. However, the bun is sweet too, so that made it a little too sweet for my taste. But I love the texture of the bun, it's really quite fluffy. :)
2) Congee with Lean Pork, Century Egg and Salted Egg (金银蛋瘦肉粥) - $4.20
 |
| Source: Google Images (thediningtable.sg) |
I love this congee! It tastes really good, and the lean pork, century egg and salted egg makes a very good combination. The congee is also not the thick kind but has a watery texture which I quite like too. I shared this with my 2 other besties and, almost, wished we could order another bowl (which we couldn't because of the amount of food that they ordered.). :(
3) Vermicelli Roll with Shrimp (Chee Cheong Fun) - $5.50
 |
| Source: Google Images (mydailymoo) |
Another one of my favourites! I love the smooth velvety skin of this rice roll and the shrimps they use were also very fresh! :) The sauce was also not overly salty which made it easier to drizzle the sauce over and eat it together. :)
*Apologies for no original pictures for the above 3 foods, I was busy playing "Plants Vs Zombies" on my friend's iPad even when the food arrived, so I had to source the above images from Google. :)
4) Garlic, Spinach and Mushroom Dumplings (金蒜香菇菠菜饺) - $3.80
 |
| Source: My own |
I have to admit, when this first appeared on our table, I was a little apprehensive because of all the greens and I was quite full as well. So I wasn't sure if I could stomach this, but after my friend's goading, I decided to try it, and it was surprisingly good. :) Very healthy but very nice and it's vegetarian too. :)
5) Poached Fresh Seasonal Vegetables (白灼清油菜) - $5.50
 |
| Source: Google Images (qingmoments) |
Usually I don't order vegetables at dim sum places because it's bound to be overpriced, but my friend ordered this. =/ So well, it was actually quite good too. The soy sauce and sesame oil drizzled over was balanced and went very well with the cooked-nicely vegetables. :)
6) Prawn Dumpling (Har Gow) - $5.50
 |
| Source: My own |
The har gow were pretty decent, in my opinion, the prawn filling was fresh and juicy and the skin was alright as well. My bestie loved it, she said that she doesn't have the
jelat feeling that she usually has when she eats it, and she could eat another basket of this by herself. Lol. :)
Near-Misses
And now comes the near-misses, which could be a personal preference problem because the other 2 found it good but I just didn't quite like them.
1) Pan-fried Carrot Cake (香煎萝卜糕) - $4.50
 |
| Source: My own |
Another of the Heavenly King dishes; this looked to be a sure-winner when it first arrived because I really liked how brown each piece of carrot cake looked like and it looked like it's going to be really crispy. And it was... on the outside. The inside was soft and it just tasted pretty weird to me. =/ I.. expect pan-fried carrot cakes to be crispy and firm, not crispy and soft. It just felt contradictory to me. :(
2) Steamed Egg Cake (马来糕) - $3.80
 |
| Source: My own |
Personal preference aside, I still don't like this. It tastes very much like huat kueh but a lot more expensive for just one square block of this. =/ And it is too soft. I took just one bite and almost gagged. Haha. Passed the rest to my besties to finish it off. :)
Summary
After eating Tim Ho Wan's dishes, I can understand the hype that many Singaporeans has built around it, but I'm reserving my thoughts about this place till I've tried Swee Choon and I'm able to make a fair comparison between the two of them. But, this is still the better place to go for dim sum compared to Crystal Jade and Ding Tai Feng. Although I would advise to come with a empty stomach and a optimistic attitude while battling the queue. Or just come early and wait happily in a much-shorter queue. :)
Price-wise, it would still be reasonable, we ordered 3-5 more dishes in addition to those above and yet the bill came up to <$25 pax and that was for 3 people dining. I think DTF and Crystal Jade would come up to more?
Food: 3.5 / 5
Service: 4.5 / 5 (Very efficient service, food came fast)
Value: 3 / 5
Ambience: 3.5 / 5 (Cosy place and air-conditioned, plus the place is not too noisy and you can still hear your friends talking to you. :))
Tim Ho Wan (添好运)
68 Orchard Road, Plaza Singapura #01-29A
Opening Hours: 10am - 10pm (Monday - Friday)
9am - 10pm (Sat, Sun & PH)
No comments:
Post a Comment