Yum Cha Garden

Yum Cha is has always been one of the dim sum places that I always wanted to try out. Situated in Serragoon Gardens Country Club this isn't one of the easiest location to reach. Yum Cha is quite unique in a sense that dim sum push charts are quite a rare sight in Singapore. Yet this white elephant can be seen here, really bring back memories of the past. The overall interior setting is brightly lit and comfortable.

Chilled Tofu with Sweet and Spicy Sauce

This is actually a dish that is served to you upon being shown to your table. Nope it isn't a complimentary dish and you still have to pay for it, think peanuts and tea fee in a Chinese restaurant. Surprising this is nice. The strings of cucumber adds lots of crunch and compliments the chilled smoothness of the tofu. The sour of the sweet chilli bring in the much needed kick to make this dish tangy.

Pork Ribs with Bean Sauce

This is rather average. Texture wise the pork ribs isn't at tender as what I would prefer. Properly due to the usage of leaner cuts of meat. Well some can see this as a more healthy option, though I still like mine with a bit more fat.

Phoenix Claws

Based on feedback. Lacks seasoning. (I don't consume chicken feet, thus not my comments).

BBQ Pork Buns

BBQ Pork Fillings

Overall taste wise its alright. Filling is juicy and tasty. However, I find the crust to be a bit thick and the filling seems to be lacking in volume.

Siew Mai

The siew mai in yum cha is not bad, there is even a whole shrimp within. Difference from other siew mai is that instead of crab roe there is shrimp roe on it. However, the roe was place when steaming the siew mai, instead of after. Resulting on the cook roe, which loses its original luster taste when eaten raw.

YUMCHA Prawn Dumplings

The prawn dumplings are good. Each shrimp is well seasoned and fresh. Biting into them gives out a distinct crunch (Super Q). No joke. The shrimp were all steam just nice to perfection. Though I prefer if the skin is slightly more thinner.

Xiao Long Bao

So delicate.

Don't let those juices flow away.

I haven't eaten Ding Tai Fung's Xiao Long Bao so don't just go screaming nothing best that. However, these in Yum Cha seems good enough for most. The dumpling doesn't breaks open when lifted from their bamboo steamers. Biting its top releases the pipping steam trapped within, to reveal its rich broth. Tops the meal.

Prawn & Mango Sesame Fritters

Similar to the prawn dumpling. What you get here is a whole prawn. The texture and crunch is really good, only difference is the present of mango in the fritters, though it seems lacking a bit.

Prawn Wanton Crisp

Same huge, yummy and crunchy prawns. Delicious.

Chicken Yam Puff

Crab Stick?

I'm a huge fan of yam puff. However, Yum Cha's variation was not to my taste. The crust was thin and lacks the wholesome taste of yam. The fill was half filled with shredded crab sticks, instead of mince meat which one would expect.

Shrimp Bean Curd Roll

If you were to choose between the mango prawn fritter, I'd prefer this. Mainly due to the crispy bean curd texture.

BBQ Pork Rice Flour Roll

This one really falls below expectations. The rice flour was too thick and makes the whole dish a let down. Even those you get in the wet market beats this.

Crispy Silver Fish

This dish is addictive and goes really well with beer. However, it can be a bit salt and after much consuming can be a bit oily.

Lotus Leaf Glutinous Rice

Same disappointment as the yam puff. Was dry and lacks the sauce seasoning. They should stop the crab stick filling.

Even the Chinese wrap their presents

Paper Chicken Wings

This is good. The chicken is well marinated and the sauce sinks deep into the flesh making the chicken flavourful and fragrant. Though it can be a bit difficult tearing the chicken from the paper, as some of them tend to stick to it.

Century Egg & Lean Meat Congee

I love a hot steamy porridge to complete the meal and this doesn't disappoint. Century egg is creamy and porridge is thick and tasty. Just the way it love it.

Yum Cha Garden is average in my opinion and I probably will not revisit. Though their prawn dish are their strengths, they have too many misses for me to true recommend this place.

Dim Sum Buffet @ River City Restaurant

I had a dim sum craving, since my National Service days. Due to the shift nature of my vocation. This has prevented me from actually being able to attend any dim sum session. As most Chinese restaurants, hold their dim sum buffet session in the morning.

A friend introduced me River City Restaurant. To my surprise, their are actually related to Dragon Cate Restaurant which is located in Harbor Front. In fact, River City is cheaper at $12.90++ on weekdays and $15.90++ on weekend. However, the River City dim sum is missing 6 dishes compared to Dragon Gate. $2 cheaper for the lost of 6 dim sum items seems a rather waste.

Siew Mai (Steamed Dumpling with Mushrooms)

The chef here infuse the Siew Mai's mince pork meat with mushroom is a good try. However, I feel that the use of mushroom has overpower the sweetness of the mince pork. In addition, the mince meat was rather dry. Perhaps they use too lean meat?

Har Gao (Steamed Shrimp Dumplings)

The Har Gao here is really good. Not the best, but rather tasty too. Shrimps are fat and crunchy. The skin is slightly thicker then what I would like, but still passable. Skin isn't too soft and breaks off when removing from the bamboo baskets. We order many baskets of these.

Siao Long Bao (Steamed Dumplings with Superior Soup)

The bottom of the list of all the dim sum items I tried that day. In fact, its the worst Siao Long Bao I've ever tasted. The skin is totally thick, meat is all mashed up with hardly anything within the dumpling and the soup existence isn't even present. My all time low in the whole dinning session.

Steamed Rice Flour Rolls with Fresh Shrimps

Similar to the Shrimp Dumplings, the skin is silky thin and shrimp plum and succulent. The soy sauce isn't too much and salty. One of the must eats.

Steamed Pork Balls with Water Chestnuts

The meatballs were rather fragrant and the bits of water chestnuts within it added additional texture and crunch to an ordinary meatball. Should try for anyone who haven't.

Steamed Pork Ribs with Soy Bean Sauce

Rather normal nothing to comment.

Steamed Chicken Claws with Chilli Sauce
I don't consume chicken claws. No comments.

Steamed Fish Head with Chilli
Mum complained that fish flesh was sour. A missed.

Steamed Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf

The lotus steamed glutinous rice was rather inconsistent. Out of 2 packets, 1 have a nice lotus fragrant and the other had a sourish hint. The rice was to hard and dry, maybe due to overcooking and prolong time in the steamer.

Panfried Meat Dumplings

The Panfried Dumpling were a hit. With the crispy seared base and nicely steam top. Paired with vinger and strings of ginger. One word. Shiok.

Baked Sesame BBQ Pork Pies

The highlight of the whole dim sum trip. I'm beyond words to describe this dish. The crust is butter and flaky. Crumples softly as soon as you place it within your mouth. In which the fragrant sweet BBQ pork erupted into your mouth. Yum. Order 3 per person at least. Trust me.

Deep Fried Beancurd Skin Rolls with Shrimp

Another hit. My second most favorite dish. The bean curd skin wasn't too salty and not too thick and was slightly flaky. Shrimp were plump as usual.

Deep Fried Shrimp Dumplings with Salad Cream

This was also nice too. However, they mash up some of the shrimp paste and chunks of shrimp flesh. Maybe a way to add more flour to make your appetite fill up faster. Order less of these and more of the beancurd skin variety.

Deep Fried Crispy Chicken Wings

Average. Normal chicken wings season with salt and pepper. I'd prefer if they use shrimp paste to marinate it. Still rather crispy.

Grilled Carrot Cake

I love the charred and crisp side of the carrot cake. Adds the wok heat into the carrot cake, adding more fragrant and flavor to it. There are also bits of preserved sausages inside, not overwhelming and complements the carrot cake well.

Deep Fried Vegetarian Spring Roll

Rather thick layers of skins. Avoid unless necessary.

Century Eggs and Lean Pork Congee

River City has a poor retention of the porridge then their Dragon Gate counterpart. The century eggs were literately non-existence and the congee lacks the thick chicken stock that is use to boil and add flavor to it. Congee consistency was slightly too thick.

Soup of the Day

Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple Cubes
More flour and pineapples than pork.

Fried Green Vegetables with Minced Garlic

This is a joy to eat. The spinach was tender and refreshing. Not overly stir fried or oily. I order so much, that I was slurping down spinach as if they were noodles.

Chilled Sweet Mango Pudding, Chilled Chinese Herbal Jelly & Special Dessert of the Day

The Mango Pudding is average. As it lacks chunky bits of mango cubes, but still passable. The Herbal Jelly is the real deal and is really bitter. Be sure to add lots of sugar syrup. The Dessert of the Day was boiled beancurd & barley, good for cooling down after all those fried stuff.

Service is prompt and friendly even though they are under staff. At time they forgot your orders, but a quick reminder and they would dish out your orders asap. Certain orders seem to wait till a "quotation amount" before the chef cooks all at once, thus you would have to wait. Popular dishes like the Steamed Shrimp Dumpling are a bit slow to come, maybe due to their high demand and the restaurant's invisible limitation cap. Personally I'd prefer Dragon Gate, due to the more variety of dim sum and better standard in quality. However, River City is located neared to town. Just know what are the hits and avoid the misses.

Buffet start at 11.30 am and end at 2.30 pm.

River City Restaurant
5 Coleman Street
#04-02 Excelsior Hotel
Singapore 179805
Tel: 6339 9969

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Executive Cafe @ NTU

Executive Cafe isn't really a cafe in NTU, instead its a Chinese restaurant that offers rather responsible prices for the budget of the students within NTU. They have a range of dim sum, noodles, buffet and 8 course set meals all to cater to the different dinning experience.

Shredded Chicken and Century Egg Porridge

This porridge is the thick type, not the watery and runny kind. If you prefer the runny type this isn't the one for you. Even myself find this a bit too thick for my liking, if it were a bit more watered down, it would have been better. Flavour wise it's rather tasty. Though my taste bud could tell that the chef had cooked the chicken separated from the porridge and later added it in. I suspect that they just add the ingredients into the porridge as the order arrives, thus resulting in blend chicken not "absorbing" the nice stock in the porridge. I minus for that.

Prawn Dumplings

I must say these Prawn Dumpling are better then I expected. They're indeed better then the average Har Gao. However, I find them a bit dry and lacking the "juice" that gets trap in the translucent skins when you steam these previous gems. Still its worth to get these. One bamboo basket is not enough.

Char Siew Noodles

Roasted Duck Noodles
Roasted Chicken Noodles

Though they may score well in terms of dim sum, but according to my friends whom order the noodles, feel that their noodles were rather disappointed. They say that the noodles were oily and lack taste. Roast meats were too tough and not tender enough.

If you wanna save some money, you can politely tell the waitress that the peanuts, wet towers and refreshments would be unnecessary to you.

Maybe I would try the buffet (which is prices at $12.90 nett) next time.

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