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2014-01-21
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I finally braved the crowds and joined the ranks of the queuing warriors at Tim Ho Wan. After eons of its debut at Plaza Singapura and subsequently at Toa Payoh, Bedok and last month at West Gate, this dim sum restaurant still attracts throngs of people to dine at this place. At Sunday noon, it took me thirty minutes to get from the end of the queue to the front. Not as bad as I thought it would be - but do note your whole group needs to be physically present before you will be issued a table.Th
The legendary Tim Ho Wan!!!
Baked Bun with BBQ Pork (3pcs) - $4.50There's always their '4 Heavenly Kings' to make up for it... here are their signature BBQ pork buns. Much much smaller than I've always seen on blogs and reviews. I've only got to say kudos to the food photographers for micro-focusing on the baked buns! It is in real life only smaller than (my) palm-size. Living up to its name, the baked buns do break apart with a crispy exterior and fluffy inner walls. The pork fillings are also melt-in-your-mouth delicious and sweet. Recommended.
Pan-Fried Carrot Cake (3pcs) - $4.50Quite the ordinary carrot cake which did not impress much.
Steamed Egg Cake - $3.80Right outside Tim Ho Wan, one of their television screens was playing an excerpt of a Channel 8 foodie variety show raving about this Steamed Egg Cake, or affectionately known as Ma Lai Gau. This one-star Michelin restaurant's rendition is not as appealing as the usual Singapore/ Malaysia street snack. It's pretty good, but it lacks the sweetness and the softness. Quite a surprising fail for one of their signature dishes.
Vermicelli Roll with Sweet and Sesame Sauce - $4.20Very old-school taste with the classic sweet sauce which gets cloying after a few mouthfuls. The vermicelli roll is pretty good but maybe go for those with fillings rather than just the sauce.
Beef Ball with Beancurd Skin (3pcs) - $4.20An interesting dish of beef balls with a dash of lime/lemon (can't tell which) and really chewy with a soft bite.
Pork Dumpling with Shrimp (4pcs) - $5Ordinary siew mai without much interesting innovation... Tim Ho Wan needs to up their ante to compete with other restaurants when the taste is little more than average.
Prawn Dumplings (4pcs) - $5.50This dish managed the bare minimum requirements as har gaus but really nothing beyond the average to justify for the higher prices.
Beancurd Skin Roll with Shrimp - $5.50This was really good. The crunchiness of the skin roll was really good and complemented its soft and juicy shrimp fillings. Not much to be said except that this dish emerges as a surprising favourite as it is a fried dish! Recommended.
Congee with Lean Pork, Century Egg & Salted Egg - $4.20Thick congee that is extremely yummy with much ingredients but probably due to a lot of MSG content. I am quite sensitive to MSG and this is definitely more than what I would consider acceptable.
Tim Ho Wan falls below my expectations on an overall with only two dishes that I really liked - their BBQ Pork Buns and their fried beancurd skin rolls. I'm not sure which ones (or all) of their dishes had MSG in it - I could sense that the tastiness of the food wasn't coming from any of the ingredients but from somewhere else and my unnatural thirstiness after the meal confirmed my guess. Oh well. I won't be going back on my own accord because of the overrated queues and MSG-laden food. I am surprised there are people still queuing for it - there can't be so many first-timers, right? So Tim Ho Wan - tried & tested. The dimsum trail continues.
For more food adventures, follow me at http://spherepiece.blogspot.sg/
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