Food review: Tim Ho Wan Singapore 添好運 – Michelin Star Dim Sum – Celine Chiam | Singapore Lifestyle, Beauty and Travel Blogger
I can’t emphasize how many people have been raving about the recent opening of the Michelin Star Dim Sum Restaurant at Plaza Singapura’s new extension. Only a stone’s throw away from my school, I haven’t had the time to visit this place because of the amount of time needed to queue for a seat, and it happened to be during my exam period. Yes, the average waiting time to get into Tim Ho Wan is about 1-3 hours, as crazy as you can imagine. Now that exams are over, I went ahead to give Tim Ho Wan a try and here’s my humble opinion about the food served!
Overall, I wouldn’t really say the food here is really worth a 2 hour long queue. But if you’re a morning person, you can drop by at 9am (it opens at 10am) and start queueing. Any later than that, you probably have to queue for at least 1 hour, minimum.
Despite being slightly overrated, I must say some of the dishes here are indeed fresher and tastier than other dim sum restaurants. But what are they exactly? Read on to know.
It was only 3 of us and we ordered quite a lot of food. The total bill fetched $67.
Price wise, it’ll be a little steeper than average dim sum restaurants like swee choon, prolly an average of 50 cents more per dish, but definitely on par with hotel dim sum restaurants I must say.
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| Credits: Tim Ho Wan |
If you haven’t heard about it, Tim Ho Wan actually had this Big 4 Heavenly King Dim Sum, and just like any typical Singaporean, we tried all of them. Here’s what I think.
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| 香滑马来糕 Steamed Egg Cake (1pc) $3.80 |
The Steamed Egg Cake was definitely too overrated. It does look smooth on the surface, feels smooth while chewed in the mouth, but the taste doesn’t please me very much. The sweetness level of it was a little too much, it feels like an overwhelm of brown sugar in this piece of egg cake. It kind of taste the same as any hot steamed malay cake actually, nothing special about it, though I can’t deny it was indeed very moist and soft.
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| 黄沙猪润肠 Vermicelli Roll with Pig’s Liver (3 pcs) $5.50 |
The Pig’s Liver Vermicelli Roll on the other hand faired better. Fresh sliced Pig’s Livers are wrapped with silky smooth vermicelli roll, allowing it to glide down your throat oh-so-easily. I like to eat the vermicelli roll with the sauce that comes with it. If you’re not a fan of pig’s liver, you can try the Vermicelli Roll with BBQ Pork ($5.50) instead.
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| 黄沙猪润肠 Vermicelli Roll with Pig’s Liver (3 pcs) $5.50 |
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| 香煎菠萝糕 Pan Fried Carrot Cake (3pcs) $4.50 |
Another king dish of Tim Ho Wan is the Pan Friend Carrot Cake. I’m pretty sure that Radish was used because there were prominent strands of radish all within the Fried Carrot Cake. Although the strands of radish added texture to the very soft carrot cake underneath the pan-fried layer, I thought it was a little towards the bland side though.
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| 晶莹鲜虾饺 Prawn Dumpling (4pcs) $5.50 |
Though not under the king dishes, the Prawn Dumpling was amazingly good I promise!
I am always not a fan of prawn dumpling because for one to be really nice and delicious, it requires very fresh juicy prawn wrapped in thin layer of luminous skin. At Tim Ho Wan, the prawn dumplings indeed caught my by surprise with its chewy and non-sticky texture, wrapping around a huge succulent prawn.
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| 赛螃蟹春卷 Spring Roll with Egg White (3pcs) $4.20 |
A usual spring roll often than not has radish, cabbage and minced meat within the fried crispy roll. But the one here isn’t quite the same. Instead of minced meat, it’s stuffed with crab meat and egg white, and for this reason, it gives a rather different taste. I’m glad to say the spring roll wasn’t too oily and yet it was really crispy enough even after airing for a good 10 mins.
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| 鼓汁蒸凤爪 Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce $4.00 |
As for the chicken feet, or some people may call it Phoenix feet, they were another pleasant dish for its sweet and tender skin and soft bones, submerged in the black bean sauce. It’s a little spicy but definitely worth it even if you don’t take spice.
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| 鲜虾腐皮卷 Beancurd Skin Roll with Shrimp (Deep Fried, 3pcs) $5.50 |
I actually ordered both the Deep Fried and Steamed beancurd skin roll but I realise I didn’t take a photo of the steamed one, so let’s make do with the deep fried beancurd skin roll! While I quite like the fresh Shrimp hidden within the beancurd skin roll, the skin was a little tad dry to my likings. The steamed Beancurd Skin Roll with Shrimp ($4.00) faired better as it wasn’t too dry. In fact, it was a little slimy but still taste good!
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| 鲜虾烧卖皇 Pork Dumpling with Shrimp (4pcs) $5.00 |
| Pork Dumpling, or a name we are more familiar to – Siew Mai, has never ever appeal to me. I would till give it a try as always but they all failed. That’s partly because the yellow skin used to wrap the siew mai often taste weird. Right here, I’ve finally found one that doesn’t have that weird taste anymore. For some reason, I couldn’t identify the weird taste, could be the taste of the meat filling itself has successfully covered the weird taste coming from the yellow skin, perhaps? But for a person like me who has never liked siew mai, telling you that here at Tim Ho Wan, it was good, you probably wouldn’t want to miss it.
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| 鲜虾烧卖皇 Pork Dumpling with Shrimp (4pcs) $5.00 |
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| 荔茸西米露 Yam Puree with Sago (hot) $3.50 |
We also ordered this dessert and it turned out to be a disappointment. It taste almost like a melted yam paste, but an extremely diluted one. It could be better if it’s a little thicker though. It taste pretty bland too, not a good one to order.
If you have been paying attention, you must have noticed I’ve missed out the most important star dish of Tim Ho Wan. That’s because I always leave the best for the last!
Baked Bun with BBQ Pork
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| 酥皮焗叉烧包 Baked Bun with BBQ Pork (3pcs) $4.50 |
| If I really have to mention that ONE dish that is a must-try, it has to go to their Baked Bun with BBQ Pork! No wonder there’s a limit order of a plate (of 3) to each person, The soft crispy skin on the outside, probably coated with sugary butter, gives the bun a sweet finishing touch. Yet on the inside, the bun was stuffed with BBQ pork, completing the fusion of sweet and salty taste.
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| 酥皮焗叉烧包 Baked Bun with BBQ Pork (3pcs) $4.50 |
Nothing can really describe how surprised and in love I am with this bun. Instead of the usual steamed bun, this was baked, giving it a very soft and tender bun skin. If not because of the limit order, I would have taken away more than one set of buns, because they are really too great.
Tim Ho Wan actually sits 100 diners. If you have noticed, the queue was really long outside on this Saturday when I visited. I estimate the last person has to wait for more than 2 hours.
Overall, like I’ve mentioned, Tim Ho Wan can be a little too overrated. But undeniably, some of the dishes are indeed different from other dim sum restaurants. Just to conclude for you, the must try dishes (in my opinion) are:
1. Baked Bun with BBQ Pork
2. Pork Dumpling with Shrimp
3. Prawn Dumpling
4. Vermicelli Roll with Pig’s Liver
Hope you liked this review! Remember to follow me on Instagram (@chiamhuiy) to receive live updates of me eating food and more food! 😀
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Hui Yan-
