If you walk in to Huat Kee Teochew Restaurant, it's not hard to observe that each table of customers would have at least one elderly, if not all. Founded in 1969, the family-run-restaurant Huat Kee is famous for their authentic Teochew dishes, and the cook/ owner (third generation) always trying his best to preserve the traditional flavour of those dishes. Even their interior decoration brings you back to oldie days.

When you are at the restaurant, do take time to go through their menu, which is not only included all the dishes, but the history of Teochew dishes, as well as the establishment of the restaurant. Very meaningful. We ordered two set meal ($48 and $60 respectively), each consists of 5 dishes inclusive dessert.

The Teochew style braised shark's fin is served in a very delicate bowl + candle set. Beautiful. There is a plate of bean sprouts comes with the shark's fin, and it's meant to be poured inside the shark's fin soup. The combination is superb. You have the crunchiness of the bean sprouts, softy jelly texture of the shark's fin, and the braised broth is just flavourably tasty.Sea cucumber with goose web, and braised goose with tofu are two of the traditional Teochew dishes. Both of the dishes taste descent, but I have to admit it's not something that I would eat in a normal day. But it's definitely worth trying.

Teochew style prawn roll is crispy outside, the minced meat and other ingredients inside are marinated well with spices, yummy. Liver roll is something new to me. Not bad, as the liver taste is not too over-powdering. Oyster omelet is very well done. The eggy bits are crispy, and the oysters are huge and fresh, not over-cooked too. Thumbs up.The $60 set meal also comes with scallops and squid porridge. The seafood makes the porridge rich in natural sweetness aroma. Also comes with the set is pumpkin, yam paste & ginko nuts dessert. The yam paste is so rich and it's doubly yummy when it's served hot. I never knew the pumpkin would matches the yam paste so well. Definitely an A+! Besides the set meal, we also ordered another dessert called "Fan Sha Yu", just to try out more of the traditional Teochew food. The "Fan Sha Yu" is a dessert where the yam is cut into rectangular cubes, deep fried, and coated with sugar. I won't say it tastes good bacause it's a bit too sweet for me. The restaurant will serve two tiny cups of Teochew kungfu tea to each diner at the end of the meal to clean your pellet. Very thoughtful. The service is quite good too. The owner and his mum will sometimes come by and check if you are Ok with the food etc. I will definitely go back to Huat Kee, as there are so much more authentic Teochew dishes I wish to try out!

First look - Yes, it does not look appetizing and the cereals are too little ! The prawn is a little bit overcooked thus to the dry side :X.Chicken - Good ! Tender and soft . The gravy however, i does not recommend to have too much of it as it is oily and may be packed with the saturated fats present in chicken itself .Black fungus and prawn. This time round, the prawn is a little bit under cook but edible. The fungus is adequate as well .Fish - one word, fresh and it looks "beautiful". Well done steamed .Fanciful? Yes, this is the side and first dish . I like it as there are fried food and fruits . The broccoli is healthy with baby scallops. The ribs are well flavored too ! - sweet . Eggs ? Normal scrambled eggs you can find anywhere ~.

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

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. 

When I was there the boss still making the curry puff. I can see that each puffs are being made with love. They say food made with Love taste the best. I was there at 1130 am and he had only the potato puffs available. There's 2 price 80 cents and $1.20. The 80 cents ones are without a slice of egg. I opt for the later, the first bite of the puff can feel the skin very crispy. The fillings are still pipping hot even after I "ta paoed" for 30 mins. The potato fillings were very soft, when I put in the mouth I can feel the filling melt in the mouth feeling.