It was a public holiday lunch at East Ocean Teochew Restaurant with the family; A much vaunted restaurant where we usually purchase our supply of deep fried fish skin from (only available during Chinese New Year). And after so many years, we finally got down to trying their dim sum.

Situated on the fifth floor of the upclass Ngee Ann City at Orchard Road, East Ocean had a large crowd of people milling outside, waiting for a table. Thankfully we had reservations but even then, we had to get in line to approach the wait staff for our table. The place was rather noisy which definitely isn't great for conversation.Crispy Roasted Pork Belly - Sporting a crackling crisp skin and a good fat to meat ratio, the roasted pork belly did seem a little wobbly and lacked finesse. But still pretty good in my humble opinion.

Steamed Har Gao - Crunchy prawns enveloped in relatively thin, translucent skin. Pretty decent as well.Steamed BBQ Pork Rice Rolls - The cheong fun was average; Relatively thin skin but lacked silkiness. Chunks of BBQ pork evident.

Steamed Siew Mai - Topped with a smattering of roe and a green pea, the siew mai didn't overwhelm with its porkiness, probably due to the low fatty meat ratio.

Pan Fried Carrot Cake - The pan fried carrot cake was awfully soft and mushy; Almost gross. No wonders it didn't have many takers.

Steamed Carrot Cake - Now the steamed rendition came out slightly better. Soft sans the silkiness with the topping of dried shrimp, dried sausages, onion etc failing to boost the inherently bland flavours. Palatable but not great.

Mini Steamed Glutinous Rice - Great consistency in the rice but sorely lacking in flavour. Need I say more?

Deep Fried Beancurd Skin - The beancurd skin wasn't crisp enough and the prawn paste lacked flavour. Starting to see the trend?

Deep Fried Silver Fish With Salt - This dish was a serious joke. The layer of flour amassed around a single silver fish was so dense that all I could taste was flour. I certainly didn't order deep fried flour!

Century Egg Congee - Starchy yet flavourful, the porridge had bits of meat and a rather generous serving of century egg. Pretty nice considering how terrible the previous few items were.

Steamed Custard Bun - This was probably one of the best dishes that afternoon; Runny custard that wasn't cloyingly sweet with a hint of egg yolk sediment. Only gripe I had was that the salty contrast wasn't evident enough.

Baked BBQ Pork Bun - Think polo bun (菠萝包) with BBQ pork. Crusty, semi sweet top with bits of BBQ pork filling. Pretty decent but would have appreciated more pork and a little more viscosity in the filling.

Steamed Custard Layered Cake - I've never had this at a dim sum restaurant before and honestly, I found it rather insipid. Dry layers of cake sandwiching dried, overly sweet custard that just made me give up after my third mouthful.Baked BBQ Pork Pie - Though the BBQ pork filling was chunky, it could have done with a little more gooeyness (as with the BBQ pork bun) whilst a little more butter would have helped the pastry.

Mini Egg Tart - The egg tarts showcased a flaky pastry with a smooth and semi sweet custard center. A pity the pastry just wasn't buttery enough. Still a decent eat nonetheless.

5 of us racked up a bill of about $142, which isn't too expensive given the quantity of food we had. Compare that however, to the quality of food that Wah Lok offers at a similar price point and the result is clear; East Ocean just doesn't measure up. There are more misses than hits and I'll probably just stop by for my yearly fish skin purchases, nothing more.

See all my pictures at http://www.timelessfacade.com/2014/07/east-ocean-teochew-restaurant.html

I've read great reviews and also read some horrible things about this place. I will just attribute my visit as an unlucky one becuase I belonged to the terrible-experience group of people  

If you still want to give it a try since there are others who think its good, I have some tips to share on my blog on top of my review for this - http://teacoffeerain.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/song-kee-fishball-noodle-%E6%9D%BE%E8%AE%B0%E9%B1%BC%E4%B8%B8%E9%9D%A2/I ordered Mee Pok Dry and Mixed Soup this evening. The noodles were really wayyy too salty! I like my Mee Pok with loads of chilli cause it adds flavours to it and I love salty food, but this was beyond my limit.

The soup was really bland too. Now I know, even with loads of pork lard, if its bad, its bad. This probably attributed to the fact that the tau pok and fishball were tasteless too! 

Although I must say the texture of the noodles and fishball were fine. 

Last time Qiu Lian Ban Mee was the best Ban Mee in Singapore, with savoury yummy soup and home-made springy noodles.

However, my recent visit was quite a disappointment.

The price was not very good, at about $5, you can get to eat more filling meals.

The soup was quite bland and lack of meat "sweetness".

The noodles was disappointing also. The noodles was soggy, not as springy as expected.

If you want extra ikan bilis, you will need to fork out another $1. No more smiles to aunty and ask for free extra.

Established since 1992, East Ocean Teochew Restaurant is well known in Singapore and the region for serving the best in Teochew cuisine and dim sum. In 2012, they moved to Takashimaya shopping centre and as pioneers in the art of Chinese cuisine, they constantly innovate by introducing new products such as cute looking dim sum, aimed at children.You can consider East Ocean if you want something more than just your traditional dim sum. As I had some friends visiting  from out of town, I decided to give them a try.On thursday at 12pm, the dining area was maybe 30% full. They were groups of business people and you could tell they were important discussions over the dim sum, as they barely touched their food!So here's the cute dim sum menu I was talking about. Nothing that really stood out to me. I was hoping for cute looking siew mai, har gau or even char siew pau maybe?

1. Pan Fried Carrot Cake $5++So first up was the pan fried carrot cake, one my my favourites. The texture was great, charred on the exterior to give it a crisp bite and yet soft and warm in the certain. You could clearly see the shreds of carrot inside with small pork cubes. It was flavourful and actually met my expectation.

2. Steamed Spare Ribs $4.80++The spare ribs didn't have much bones with them, so it was very easy to eat. The meat was very well seasoned and flavourful. My foreign really enjoyed this. Hidden underneath the layer of meat, are yam cubes. The yam was steamed till it was all mushy but yet soaked up the essences of the spare ribs!

3. Lion Fish $6++So we got these cute fish shaped, fried prawn balls. My friends and I all agreed, it was just for looks. We would pick har gau any day over these. 

4. Little Big Foot $6++When this was served, my American friends went, "Wow". I think the chefs did great by innovatively placing almond flakes on the back of "Big Foot". They were so cute, it took awhile before everyone on the table was done snapping photos.Inside the thick, and chewy pastry was sweet barbecued pork. I was expecting more of a char siew soh, so this was a surprise. The almond flakes were well with the pork I must say.

5. Ha Kau $6++, Chicken Feet $4.80++, Siew Mai $5++I decided to also get a range of traditional dim sum, to help bench mark East Ocean vs the familiar restaurants I've been to. Surprisingly, the taste was just "meh". Nothing to rave about.

6. Steamed Custard Bun $5++ *highly recommended*Definitely the highlight of my meal! Check out the liquid gold, flowing out of this very hot, steamed bun. The sweetness of the liu sha was perfect and the texture of the bun was soft and fluffy. 

7. Steamed Shrimp Rice Roll $5.80++The shrimp was sizeable and crunchy. The sauce had a right mix of sweet and saltiness. The shimmering rice roll was very soft and delightfully tasty.

8. Crispy Roasted Pork Belly $15++ *highly recommended*My friends who never tried this before were crazy over this dish. It was only when I told them it was $15++ that they realized, they had to savour this dish slowly. Good stuff doesn't always come cheap, but pricey stuff doesn't always mean good. But this is by far the best dish we had at East Ocean. The skin was so crispy, and the meat was juicy and tender. Strangely though, it was served with wasabi mayo.

Service throughout the meal was great, as the staff was constantly refilling, our pot of tea and asking if we needed any help ordering. They were also attentive to our every action and cleared our plates thrice throughout our meal. We ended up spending close to $90 for the 3 of us, and we did have our fill, but I felt that the quality of the dim sum could be better. It's sad to say that I know of several other chain dim sum restaurants that surpasses the standard here at East Ocean for several of their dishes.

My suggestion, skip the kiddy menu. Yes it looks cute, but it's not worth the price or the calories. 

$4 - Small (Top Picture)

$5 - Additional noodles

$6 - Additional ingredient (Bottom Picture)

We compared hubby's $6 bowl with my $4 one, the difference will be extra 2 big ball which tasted like meat and mushroom balls. This means it's $1 for each 'meatball'. Gosh, there was quite expensive.

Price aside, I do admit the noodles itself was pretty springy, least it didnt clog together like some other places. The fishball was definitely good, made purely with fish, which means more bouncy fishballs.

If you dont mind making your way for just fishball noodles, I suggest coming here earlier like 6 plus? Coming later at dinner time was a bad experience, we had to wait for more than 30mins and we finished the noodles in like 5 minutes? Definitely not worth the wait. *Shrugged*

Click on http://fun-hideout.blogspot.sg/2014/10/song-kee-fish-ball-noodle.html to read more and view photos! ♥ ♥ ♥