Victor's Kitchen

So I heard so much rave about the dim sum from Victor's Kitchen especially their Liu Sha Bao. Since I was around the area, I decided to check it out. Bought myself 6 pieces of Liu sha bao to bring home and share with my family. When I reach home, the liu sha bao is still lukewarm and one bite of it.. it was heavenly! The salted egg yolk inside tasted so good! Thankfully it's not hot not my tongue will definitely be burnt. Now I understand why there's so many recommendation to it. I will definitely be going back again!

Located in one of the quiet corners at the ground floor level of Sunshine Plaza, this hidden find was nestled among a few other small restaurants. With newspaper clippings plastered all over their glass shopfront, it seemingly gave an assurance that their dim sum were good or way commercialized.

Dim Sum which was usually associated with yum cha (drinking of tea) originated in the days of the Silk Road. Drinking of tea was thought to aid in digestion for the meals and was henceforth introduced to complement dim sum. Enjoyed typically as a morning-after-exercise meal for the elderly, our families however only dined on it on our weekend family day.

The high amount of saturated fat and sodium in most dim sum dishes suggested it being a snack or tea-time meal. Meant to touch the heart in the form of a light treat and not a hearty meal, the conventions of modern dining however spelt a whole new experience. It was our first time in having dim sum for dinner and being a planned trip down to Victor's Kitchen, we were really looking forward!

Seated at a corner perusing the simple menu, posters such as Great Buns and strikingly yellow. Must definitely drew our attention to their famous Liu Sha Bau, i.e. salted egg custard bun. Let us find out if Victor's Kitchen has the perfect ooze factor indeed!(+) Enjoyed the slightly sweet initial taste accompanied by a salty aftertaste.

(+) Molten state of the filling was slightly gritty and offered a varied mouthfeel

(+) Fluffy, soft plain bun helped highlight the thick rich filling.

(-) Took some effort to juggle the molten custard in the bun to prevent it from spilling.

(-) Was good, but definitely not as good as acclaimed and described.

(-) The poster showed it was cheapest at S$3.50, guess not anymore.

I have always thought that a dim sum chef should be assessed on 3 simple yet intricate dishes, namely har gao, siew mai and lo bak go. Classically the must-haves when one dines for dim sum, we certainly could not do without!(-) The prawns inside were neither crunchy nor soft, wasn't sure what was the intended taste supposed to be.

(-) The dumplings were not well wrapped, one of it had the skin burst open.

(-) The skin of the dumpling was soft and thin but too sticky, leaving remnants at the teeth.(+) Soft and juicy siew mai but really nothing too spectacular to rave about.

(-) Largely disappointed as it was nowhere close to the Queen Size stated in the menu.

(-) Considering this was one of their signature dishes, I was expecting more.

(-) Minimal amount of fish roe on the top surface.(+) Good mix of flavours, giving a very tasty spoonful for it was so soft.

(+) The XO sauce kicked in after a while and could feel the warmness growing in the body.

(-) It was so soft that it was mashy, which was not quite what we expected.

(-) XO sauce was barely evident in taste, tasted more like mere soy sauce.

(-) Did not taste any scallops in the carrot cake too.(-) Recommended as a signature, this was a complete disappointment.

(-) Rice was not fragrant enough and relatively hard.

(-) Only 1 piece of Chinese sausage was found, as big as a section of your finger.

(-) Broken, loose and pathetic amount of chicken pieces, it was mostly rice.(+) I enjoyed the slightly varied texture in the cheong fun, with a light crisp surface.

(-) However, the inside of the cheong fun was not soft enough.

(-) Failed to bring out the much desired contrast in texture and mouthfeel.

(-) Sadly, not the authentic H.K style, especially the sauces.

(-) Lack of chili and peanut sauces for the real authentic deal.(+) Could hardly go wrong with their fried dishes.

(+) Freshly fried only upon ordered, it was very crispy indeed.

(-) It was a bit too much on the greasy side for me.(+) Like above, it was only freshly fried upon order, very crispy.

(+) Crunchy shrimps inside offered a very delectable bite to the crispy skin.

(-) Once again, too oily for my personal preference.

(-) Tasted some of the flour, maybe the skin was too thick or uneven mixture?

(-) We were served vinegar as accompanying condiments instead of mayonnaise, though was replaced after we requested.

In the mood for a cha chang teng H.K dining experience, we opted for the traditional drinks typically offered.(+) Unique way to maintain the coolness of the tea without diluting it.

(-) The milk tea was not fragrant, rich nor smooth enough.

(-) Tasted like 'milk-milk tea'.

(-) Certainly overpriced for the quality served.

100% H.K. Style Hot Ying Yang (Coffee mixed with Tea)

(+) Tasted rich and fragrant and not overly sweet.

(+) Adjusted to my liking for I told them not to add any sugar.(+) Refreshing and zesty punch to wash down the greasy food.

(+) The fresh lemon slices enhanced the tangy flavour to the drink.When it comes to dim sum, we have an exceptionally high standard for it is one of our favourite dining options. That being said, we were rather disappointed with our visit to Victor's Kitchen. The lack of typical must haves such as egg tarts and char siew sou aside, most of their signature dishes failed to deliver to our expectations apart from their liu sha bau and their fried dishes (which are generally safe options for dim sum anyway). Also, the lack of chili sauce was quite a taboo by my books. The only one available was a watery sweet chili sauce which definitely did not go down well with the dishes for me. The menu had a tagline which read: We serve the best foods, but not fast foods. I would attest to their latter half of the sentence, but as for the former, I shall leave it to one's discretion.

P.S: No service charge and GST were levied on the prices and this was highly commendable in today's dining in Singapore. Definitely value for money, which explained the brisk business, but it was a rainy day and we went early at about 6.30pm so getting a table was easy.

There was again a long standing queue outside Victor's Kitchen as seating is rather limited, the place was cramped and not very clean as well - but that didn't seem to deter customers, or dim sum lovers like me. I ordered their famous carrot cake - what is supposedly special about it is their XO sauce, however, portion of the sauce was very little, and the carrot cake is also quite average. Their pork ribs is not too flavourful as well.

2013-05-18

Liu sha BAo! I like liu sha bao a lot. the appearance of liu shao bao may seems normal and not outstanding but the taste is superb. See how the filling inside the bao will leak out when u bite it. this is to show how filling the bao is! its unlike any other bao that you eat. Althought the liu sha bao do not contain meat like char siew bao or da bao, but the filling inisde the bao is what make this bao so special. YOU must go try and experience the fillinf leak out when you bite. don't scald your tongue!

The Chef and staff are from Hong Kong (based on the way they speak). Their golden lava bun is a must for mr everytime i visit them. The queue is long if you reach later than 2pm but maybe bcos they serves only dim sum which doesnt require much time for cooking, so the waiting time is still reasonable. The golden lava buns are on first-come-first-served basis. Be careful when you eat them, bcos of the lava within, it will burst if you dont handle it well. There are salted egg in it too. Their lotus leaves rice are good too, rice not too sticky and most importantly the moisture level is just nice. It is so far the best dim sum stall i have tried in sinapore that is worth the wait.

2013-05-24

SGD 20(Lunch)

My colleagues and i went over to Plaza Sing for some event... and we were hungry and decided to head over to Victors Kitchen for our lunch...

As we walked to sunshine plaza, we had a few good stuff to eat... I liked the place a lot but it was so humid... i guess its the weather nowadays... I feel so irritated easily and feel that it cannot make things very crazy.....

Anyways we had the custard yolk egg bun or something like that... according to my colleague it is called liu sha bao... haha... i didnt know how to eat it because they were telling me like it is very creamy and the filling will come out... True enough... it nearly did... I was very thirsthy after that... Nice as it was.... it was also very rich and i was like woah.. i need another drink.... too heaty....

The other things included the pork ribs and char siew bao.... I felt very contented eating these 2 dishes but i guess you feel thirsthy after that... The one thing that was very impressive was the milk tea with ice... they put it in a bowl of ice with the cup in the centre...

Anyways i would come back here again but only if i am around the area...

We wanted to go to another Dim Sum restaurant around the area but it was not opened yesterday. I remembered TV featuring a Dim Sum restaurant at Sunshine Plaza. We were early and realised that Victor's Kitchen was not opened yet. We went for coffee somewhere else and decided to come back at 10.30. When we were back at 10.20, there was a long queue waiting for it to open.

Custard Buns

This is a must try item. I like the buns so much that I ate 2. My dad is a thrifty person and will always nag at us for wasting $ to eat outside. When we were footing the bill, he even requested to tabao 1 packet of the buns. We also tabao 3 packets of the Custard Buns for each family to bring back. Their buns are even nicer than a famous dim sum restaurant that we went recently. The custard are really flowing out and piping out. Siew Mai and Prawn Dumplings
The boss added generous of fresh pawn meat in the Siew Mai and Har Gow. The ingredients are also fresh. Fried Dumplings and Fried Beancurd Rolls
I like these 2 items. Fried dumplings skin is not too thick. Beancurd Rolls also have prawn and meat. Not those with a lot of flour. Steamed Carrot Cake
They gave the xo sauce after we ate almost half of it. I dont really like the steamed carrot cake as I find it too soft.

Fish and century egg porridge
I ordered the fish porridge for my 19 months old boy. The porridge is very smooth.

Steam pork ribs
The pork are too tough. Probably, they have not steamed it enough.

Note:

Do not expect a wide variety of Dim Sum.
Prepare to wait.
If you want to tabao home, you can request for cold buns so that you do not have to queue and wait to for hot food.

2013-05-12

SGD 12(Breakfast)

Having read about Victor's Kitchen and since it is conveniently located, I decided to give it a try. There was a queue and people stood outside the store to wait for empty tables (due to limited seating), and I waited for about 30 minutes. The liu sha bao is a must try if you visit Victor's Kitchen, they are famous for it; and indeed, it was one of the better ones I have tasted. Also tried the you tiao cheong fun; not good though, was very soggy and not crispy at all.

2013-04-14

Feel free to visit my site: http://thedessertprince.com/victors-kitchen-the-impression-of-a-boss/Impression has always been one of those guiding principles in life. For most of the time, impression may just play that decisive factor in the decisions you might made to maneuver your way. For instant, you would gauge a stranger based on the first impression you had of that newcomer before you could say “hey so and so, shall we be friends?”

So what about the impression of a boss when he have his Dim Sum fare? It’s not about having a table full of baskets each containing different food at a fanciful hotel setting. Although that could always be appreciated. Anyone could dress like a boss but not everyone could behave like one that’s for sure.At Victor’s Kitchen however, you will be considered a boss if you could converse with the ladyboss helming the counter in her native language, Cantonese. Yeah, as thick-skin as I have always been, I’m actually referring to myself!

You see, I have Cantonese blood running within my cake-cloted arteries. The language was and still is my first language. I still conversed with the older generation in Cantonese and many seemed amazed that I could even keep the conversation on-going. Amazed because somehow my generation have given up their true mother tongue and many don’t even try picking up the language. Such a pity if you have to ask me…I had a good laugh when I saw their menu which came in slips of order form. We ordered two bowls of porridge. One was called Phoenix Porridge ($3.50) while the other, Nemo’s Porridge ($3.50). In the Dim Sum world, phoenix is just a nice way of saying chicken but nemo? I have never heard of anyone naming their dish after a clown fish!Victor’s King Prawn Dumplings ($4.50) are anything but ordinary. They might not look set to impress the crowd but it speaks clearly in the taste. The prawns were exceptionally huge compared to most restaurants and siding more all the juicy and crunchy side too! A must-have if you ever drop by the kitchen.Another must have for Dim Sum at Victor, Tasty Queen Size Siew Mai ($4.00). Again looks can be deceiving. Just because it’s not well plated means it won’t taste as good. I am just happy to pay $1 for each yellow cuboid meat dumplings.Indeed one of our friend would consider this yummy. Phoenix Claws ($3.00). Personally, I didn’t really liked how the talons were prepared. Everything about this dish was good apart from the sauce that it was left simmering in. Just not flavorful for me.Sometimes I wonder how could a Chinese survive without pork in their lives. I mean I have pork for almost every meal I had and Dim Sum is no exception. The Steam Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce ($3.00) again is a must-have dish although, those chopped red chili just spiced everything up. I shall remind the staffs not to add them the next time I’m coming here for Dim Sum.Victor’s signature Dim Sum. The highly revered Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun ($4.00) or in my own dialect, Lau Sha Pau. The white bun was light and fluffy but that’s the main point. The yellow liquid that flowed out was nothing short of Oomph factor.

Extremely savory with a strong hinge of Salted Egg Yolk amidst the buttery creamy custard. We love their little buns so much that we didn’t just order one basket. We couldn’t settle for two and we ended up getting a third! That’s nine lava buns in total! Just like a boss!

Liu Sha Pau is the Chinese equivalent of the molten Chocolate Lava Cake.

We spend $40.30 for a table full of food for four people. (They don’t charge GST or Service Charge.) I thought it was quite a fair deal considering we ordered a lot. There were a few that I didn’t managed to take a shot so I omitted them out.

The food may fall short of glamorous compared to other popular Dim Sum restaurants.But for the quality that the Chef invest in is the reason why the kitchen is often found packed with people craving for their light hearted snacks which we call Dim Sum.

Instead of conversing in Chinese, how about placing your orders in Cantonese? Afterall, you’re dealing with a lady boss from Hong Kong. That’s how I ended up with the impression of a boss…

Food
Once we got an offered seat by the staff. We will need to get this from the counter and make our order, unfortunately, there were alot cross out (sold out) during my first visit.Fish porridge is not too thick and not too watery. The amount of water content is alright. This bowl of century egg with chicken meat is delicious.Fried "Fong Zhua" is one of my all time favourite order for DIm Sum. A slightly different taste from the typical ones, not too salty.The XO Carrot cake is so soft till i thought I'm eating some gluely paste until I confirmed that it is their signature carrot cake. This is also one of the shop's recommendation.Hong Kong Style Milk tea is quite trendy in the shop, they have a cup of ice tea chilled with a bowl of ices surrounding the tea. I find this quite interesting. The tea really reminds me of the Hong Kee's way of milk tea!Fried dumplings with mayo is yammy too. It was served piping hot from the wok! Dip the fried dumplings into the sauce and it feels so heavenly.Siew mai is moderate. The signature dish - Yellow castard bun.Once you bite on it, the fillings will ooze out. This is very oily and creamy, I believe that they have over done their fillings, its too oily. Overall it still tastes good. Service
Understaff. The queues are non stop and the turn over time is not that fast.

Ambience
Ambience is like what we have in a normal Hong Kong Cha Chang Ting. Tables were shared and withnarrow walkways.

Price
Pricing is relatively fine as compared to its competitor.

Recommendations / Tips
XO Fried Carrot Cake,
Castard Bun are all its recommendations

2013-03-23

SGD 15(Breakfast)

The FoodWhenever I crave for dim sum, Victor's Kitchen is always one of the places I would visit as it is near town area. Instead of my usual order of their very well-known liu sa bao (egg custard bun), I decided to order their char siew bao this time round. This bao did not disappoint as well. Though I still prefer their liu sa bao, this char siew bao is a good choice if you wanna try other bao too. A bad point is that there is a lack of variety at Victor's Kitchen.

Imagine that. Breakfast after zumba classes for a heart break. We headed to the nearby Victor's kitchen.

While it probably did nothing for my heartache, at least it filled my tummy.

The carrot cake was terribly stingy with the XO sauce and much too soft for my liking already.

But these parcels of lotus leaf glutinous rice?

I liked it very much. Full on ingredients, fragrant, redolent with the fat of the meat that has been cooked into the rice grains.
Chewy and very substantial.

SGD 20(Breakfast)

I've always tried many dimsum places, especially the swee choon. But I've never really tried Victor's kitchen and this time, I finally went over and got myself some awesome dimsum!

Full review:
http://chiamhuiy.blogspot.com/2013/01/victors-kitchen.htmlWe reached at 10am, and the eatery is supposed to open at 1030am. The store owner was nice enough to invite us in first to sit down and wait. In fact, he told us to make our order and he will give us whatever is ready. Speaking about good service!! How do you find victor's kitchen when it's hidden inside sunshine plaza? Outside the eatery, you can see many credentials and awards winning certificated on the wall. You can easily identify them, and that's victor's kitchen. I've never seen so credentials on the wall of a dimsum eatery before, hahaha. Try to avoid this day before they are closed!

Okay the food! The prawn was hugeeee and juicy. Too juicy to be true! It was a very sensational and satisfying bite of the dumpling. The dumpling transparent skin was very thin, which is exactly what a good dim sum is about. I hate thick dumpling skin because it totally ruins the mouthfeel. Here, victor's kitchen's king prawn dumplings will not disappoint you. $4 a set, a little pricey but worth it. Egg yolk lava bun is the all-time favs I will order without fail! Here at victor's kitchen, the buns are freshly taken out so it's really soft and hot. It's truly gratifying to bite open the bun and all the yolk lava starts flowing out. Be careful not to scald your tongue though! I had a bowl of phoenix porridge. Inside this humble looking porridge, there was bountiful amount of chicken meat and century egg. They are not stingy with the ingredients at all! What's more, this bowl of porridge might look plain but it's actually not. It doesn't taste plain at all, so I suppose there were quite a few types of condiments added to it. It's a little watery, but it was this that makes the porridge easy to consume. I also ordered the glutinous rice to fill our hungry stomachs. If porridge has bountiful ingredients in it, then the glutinous will have even more! The rice was really smooth and slightly gluey, not so much that it was stuck persistently to your teeth. I think the texture of this was ideal and just nice, good to have if you want something filling!

Overall, I would really recommend victor's kitchen if you would like to have some real hongkong style dimsum. The owners are hongkongers (i'm guessing) because they spoke fluent cantonese. Even if they're not, their food taste equally good as well! A little pricey here though, but between food quality and price, I would rather choose quality.

The eatery was generally cooling with air-condition. The seats are limited so be sure to come early or you'll have to wait. Still, try victor's kitchen! I'm sure you won't regret it.

Hope you liked my review!
Hui Yan

Victor's Kitchen located at level one of Sunshine Plaza specialises in serving authentic Hong Kong Dim Sum. I am sure that when Dim Sum is mentioned most of you would be thinking of the likes of Peach Garden, Peony Jade, Lei Garden, Red Star or East Ocean. What's the difference you may ask? Well, to me the Dim Sum at Victor's Kitchen is cheap and good!Arrived at 1pm on a Saturday. Victor's Kitchen was packed! Luckily, the turnover is quite fast, found a table within 5minutes. Do expect to be seated next to strangers with narrow passage ways.

To order, you will need to get the order slip(menu) from the counter along with a pencil and tick the items along with the quantity you want. After you are done, pass it to one of the helpers and then wait. Can't help but comment, look at the disclaimer 'we serve the best foods, but not fast food'. Well, for good food, you have got to wait.The H.K. Summer Ice Ying Yang comes with ice surrounding the cup of ying yang (also known as yuanyang; coffee with tea) . This way, the drink is kept chilled without diluting the the taste of the drink.I am not a fan of glutinous rice and in most places, most of the glutinous rice was hard. But we had to order it as we were starving and needed carbohydrate. When the Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous Rice arrived, my first (negative) thought was 'Wa, so plain'. But well, this is amazing sticky, soft and fragrant. I was totally won over by this dish. The best glutinous rice I have ate! What a great start to my meal.The Char Siew Cheong Fun was smooth and thin with pieces of char siew in it of course. It was average.I was not fast enough in taking a photo of the Phoneix Porridge. This is what is left after the 3 of us too our portions. Phoneix Porridge consist of century eggs and chicken. It was quite plain tasting. For those who want a strongly flavour, can add pepper and light soy sauce. I quite like the fact that it was plain tasting as it complement the other dishes. Moreover, thought that it was cooked well as it was not watery. Remind me of Teochew style porridge.

My first time trying such a Siew Mai; Vegetable and Quail Egg Siew Mai.It consist of egg quail on top and vegetable at the bottom. This is one dish that I dislike. Weird combination of taste that did not appeal to me. Moreover, thought that the meat had a weird after taste.I am the only one among us who knows how to eat this dish; Yummy Yummy Phoenix Claws. Lucky me, because it was yummy. A must order!The Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun (liu sha bao / custard bun) is another must order! Be careful when eating it. As inside, it is full of buttery runny custard that is sweet, salty and sinful! Shiok!

There was just 2 pieces of Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun which was filled with sweet and tender meat. After having the Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun, this was really just average.The Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce was fantastic! I have never eaten something like this before. The carrot cake was soft and mashy (like mashed potato) soaked in their home-made XO sauce. Somehow, we could not detect any XO taste in it, it was more like soy sauce. Nevertheless, this dish wow us so much that we had to order an addition serving of this.

This time we were determined to find out the exact taste of the XO Sauce. Hence, we added 50cents for the above. And well, we were truely shocked. I really have no idea what this is. Its like preserved vegetable soaked in oil? Anyone knows?

The Yutiao Cheong Fun was soaked in thick black sauce. Personally thought that it would taste better if it was soaked in soy sauce. Most online reviews have raved about how good this dish was. Well, I beg to defer, this dish did not appeal to me at all.

Well, the Steam Chicken with Chinese Wine was our last dish. The chicken was tender and fragrant having been soaked and steam in the chinese wine. Quite a normal and common dim sum dish.

Overall, the dim sum served here is really good and value for money. It was so good that we ordered 3 times in total, adding some dishes and ordering some dishes twice! In the end we over-ordered. I will definitely be back for more. If you have never been here, time to give it a try. Or you will never know what you are missing!

Detailed review: http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2011/11/victors-kitchen-sunshine-plaza.html

This is my fourth time patronizing Victor's Kitchen - the reasons being this is the place with absolutely satisfying dimsum that makes me want to keep coming back for more! There are a wide variety to choose from, the classics like xiaolongbao, har gao, custard buns (or liu sha bao) and also the special ones that you won't find anywhere. There's also the chee cheong fun with different fillings and many many more. There's definitely something for everyone here!

The seating in this place is very very very compact (I'm not even exaggerating) and squeezy. The business for this place is roaring most of the times (Hint: 3-4pm is the least packed) and you may need to wait. The other time I came at 1pm and was deeply disappointed to find a super long queue outside. Even at 3-4pm, you will find yourself seated right next to another stranger. It resembles a canteen, actually. A very crowded one.

There are posters and newspapers clippings outside and plastered all over the walls telling you "MUST TRY: Golden Lava Buns" (referring to custard buns)! Of course, every time I come, I will definitely order that. It is really a MUST TRY! After my first trying the custard buns here, I decided that custard buns are my favourite part of dimsum menus. There is a high chance you will end up really unglam when you eat this because it can be quite hot (so leave it aside first) and the filling is very generous and flowy! Be careful when you eat this The flavouring is very salty and eased by the external plain bun covering. It is a very sinful and enjoyable feeling at the same time - super shiok to eat this!!!

Next, it's this spinach dumplings! At the beginning I was quite surprised to see that there is so much spinach in one dumpling itself... I don't like vegetables but in this dumpling you cannot really taste the spinach. There are also prawns nestled right in the middle of the dumplings.

We also ordered the fried prawn dumpings! The prawns inside each dumpling is really generous, see for yourself: Absolutely yummy

Also, we ordered the obligatory har gao (Definitely must-order for every dimsum meal!!!) The skin is translucent and of the perfect thickness. There is also a generous portion of prawns stuffed in that small jacket!!

They serve the food quite fast (within 5 minutes, everything is served) and clear the tables quite fast using pails. Not very pleasant-looking but definitely efficient.

I will definitely recommend Victor's Kitchen to my dimsum-loving friends. It is really of good quality. I haven't been to the famous Swee Choon yet, but my friends who have been to both always say that these two are surely comparable in terms of quality of food. However, this will not be an advisable place to bring young kids or business associates because it's really very cramped.

2013-01-19

SGD 13(Tea)