SIN: Yum Cha Restaurant
Green-coloured siew mai, anyone?
Located in the heart of Chinatown, Yum Cha has always been popular with its affordable High Tea Buffet priced at S$21.80 for adults and S$16.80 for children below the age of 12. You can expect more than 60 dim sum items to choose from, and I'd decidedly chosen 10 items from the menu to be reviewed even before I ordered any.
Located in the heart of Chinatown, Yum Cha has always been popular with its affordable High Tea Buffet priced at S$21.80 for adults and S$16.80 for children below the age of 12. You can expect more than 60 dim sum items to choose from, and I'd decidedly chosen 10 items from the menu to be reviewed even before I ordered any.
Spinach Siew Mai
Green siew mai, anyone? The fibre-fortified pork dumplings were pretty juicy, having an adequate amount of pork meat each. Instead of crab roe, a cut of carrot was used to beautify each of them.
Yum Cha Prawn Dumplings
The har gow had somewhat translucent skin which wasn't overly thick. While the prawn inside each dumpling was quite big, it could definitely be more succulent. I found that they were better than the ones I tried at Tim Ho Wan in HK.
Steamed Ginseng Chicken Balls
The steamed chicken balls were enjoyably chewy and meaty. They had absorbed the slightly thick and flavourful gravy well, which was delicately bitter due to the small amoung of ginseng used.
Phoenix Claws
While I'd really love to have chicken claws which had a more substantial amount of meat, I was pleased with the gravy which was robust and adequately spicy. The aroma of pepper exuded by the dish was pretty heady.
Garlic Soft Shell Crabs
As I moved on to the deep-fried dish, I found that the soft shell crabs were kinda too oily for my liking, even though they were crunchy. My stomach also said, "More garlic please!"
Prawn and Mango Sesame Fritters
A refreshing twist would be the fritters filled with sweet prawn and a slice of mildly sour mango each, having a skin which wasn't too thick. Besides that, they were half as oily as the soft shell crabs.
Century Egg and Lean Meat Congee
I was glad that the congee wasn't watery, but there wasn't anything special about it. They could definitely be more generous in giving lean meat and century eggs, but I appreciated the spring onions and deep-fried wanton skin.
Daily Double-Boiled Soup
Limited to one serving per person, the soup of the day was chicken with turnip and corn. While there wasn't anything wrong with the taste, I was wondering whether it was truly double-boiled, for the chicken meat wasn't as tender as expected.
Baked Mini Egg Tarts
For dessert, I first tried their egg tarts, which apparently could be sweeter. The crust was light, being more crispy than crumbly. Granted, I'm pretty much in favour of Portuguese egg tarts compared to their Chinese counterparts.
Lemongrass Jelly with Fruit
To cool down the stomach after the torrents of food, I had a refreshing and aromatic lemongrass jelly with canned fruit and basil seeds. It wasn't overly sweet, and chilled just right.
Melon's Rating
Taste: 7.5/10
Ambience: 7.5/10
Service: 7/10
Overall: 7.5/10
The quality of the food, albeit not supreme, has been maintained for years. Whenever I'm craving for unlimited servings of dim sum, I'll go to Yum Cha Restaurant. Pika's advice: Do note that the High Tea Buffet is only available at the Chinatown branch. The branch at Serangoon Gardens Country Club offers A La Carte Buffet Dinner instead.
Yum Cha
20 Trengganu Street
Singapore
(Mon-Fri: 11.00am - 11.00pm; Sat-Sun: 9.00am-11.00pm)
*Prices quoted are subject to 10% service charge and 7% GST.
Have a nice meal,
Cliff(y)
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