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<\/a><\/p>\nWe reached about 7pm and immediately found out it was a\u00a0big mistake to not make a reservation before hand. The restaurant was bumping! and was also told\u00a0waiting time\u00a0could be more than half an hour. My usual self will definitely leave but since it is for a special\u00a0occasion and the dishes\u00a0served\u00a0looks really appetizing, we decided to give it a try.<\/p>\n
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This place which is just located downstairs a hdb flat is rather unique, I wouldn’t expect a Teochew restaurant to be there, honestly. There were red latterns hanging around, which created a very cosy ambience.<\/p>\n
The wait wasn’t that bad actually because it is quite windy, they have large ceiling fan and also standing cooler\u00a0to ventilate the whole area, you can choose to sit either outside (with ceiling fan) or inside (with air con). And you can also see every table that came are large families, many tables were celebrating birthdays for the old folks too. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n The photo below looks empty because we were actually one of the last table to wrap up our dinner because we ordered quite a lot of food, but you can see there are actually quite a number of tables there.<\/p>\n After about 45 mins wait,\u00a0we were seated comfortably near the cooler, we were given some braised peanuts ($1.5) as appetizer to whet our appetite. The dishes came quite quickly because the waitresses has been taking orders during the waiting time. It works as a good strategy\u00a0to keep the customers from leaving and also quicken the whole dinner.<\/p>\n We were first\u00a0being served with the Cold Dish ($35) , which consist of prawn salad, Vietnamese spring roll, jelly fish with dressing and also\u00a0fried\u00a0Ngoh Hiang. We decided to order this dish mainly because for the jelly fish, because we have not eaten for a long time.<\/p>\n The dish however did not goes down well\u00a0at all. The only one that I find was marginally okay,\u00a0was the prawn salad, which is something that could never go wrong, boiled prawns mixed with salad cream topped with cucumbers & mango cubes. The Ngoh Hiang was mediocre, tasted slightly better with the sweet sauce but nothing to shout about. The jelly fish was way too chunky and thick, instead of tasting the crunchy ribbons like jelly fish,\u00a0you feel like you are biting through “ropes” of rubber bands.<\/p>\n The worst was actually the vietnamese spring rolls, although the netted skin was crispy as what you expect. The main problem was the fillings. There were fresh prawns in there. I was busy looking after my son during the meal and just chowed down the whole piece, thought it was a bit fishy at first, but the rest of us, did bite half of it and found out the prawns are all uncooked! That’s what it is, we immediately told the waitress and they apologised. The thing was that they served us a total new plate, however, by then I already do not feel like touching it at all – period.<\/p>\n Dinner went smoother after this.\u00a0They\u00a0came fast & furious,\u00a0and luckily some commendable dishes finally appeared.<\/p>\n The cripsy Teochew pork knuckle ($10) \u00a0is similar to those that you buy from cold storage, or eat at any German restaurant, I was quite surprised that they serve this in a Teochew restaurant, didn’t know it\u00a0was also a Teochew delicacies. Anyway, this is one of my favourite dish. This boneless version comes with crispy pork skin with lots of meat. Some of the meat can be a little tough, but most of it are tender, and goes very well with the sweet sauce or the chilli sauce.<\/p>\n Next came the must-have of every Teochew dining experience. Teochew steamed fish ($38) , we choosed promfret and it comes in a huge plate with salty preserved vegetables, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, chinese mushroom and also some pork fats. Besides the ingredients, the fish comes with this broth which has been infused with all the good stuff in it.<\/p>\n Taste wise, my mum thought it was just okay, but I must say the fish was extremely fresh, the flesh was firm and plentiful\u00a0for us to share and the broth goes well with it. I actually end up slurping all the broth in the end, because it practically taste like some really good fish soup.<\/p>\n Alright come this dish, I was torn between ordering sweet & sour pork or the pork ribs. Ended up with sweet & sour pork ($8) but probably a wrong choice. The meat for the sweet & sour pork are all lean meat, which was something I am not used to. The really nice ones that I have tried are with crispy coatings encased with some belly meat, which has some fats in it so that every mouthful is tender yet succulent and not very oily.<\/p>\n This version already failed because the meat were tough. The sauce also was not tart enough and tasted like coffee ribs, which we suspect the chef cooked this right after he served coffee ribs without cleaning the same wok.<\/p>\n Next we have sauteed asparagus ($12), we wanted to have asparagus with scallops, but somehow our order was lost in translation, and ended up with just plain sauteed asparagus instead. And we have no regrets to it at all!!\u00a0 This is really one of the best asparagus I have ever had!!! Everyone at the table, all agreed with me.<\/p>\n The asparagus was thick, yet so crunchy and fresh, it was cooked perfectly, I suspect they boiled the asparagus half way and then sauteed for a short while to let it cooked till fragrant. I am telling you, this is a dish you must not miss. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n We also ordered braised duck with sea cucumber, as we saw other people had it and looked quite nice, we have half a braised duck with sea cucumber ($36). I personally didn’t like sea cucumber so I didn’t try that, but I did try the vegetables and the braised duck.<\/p>\n The braised duck was a little tough, and the sauce was a little too salty too. My mum said it will taste really good with plain porridge, so we decided to take it back home instead so that we will still have room for other dishes. (Actually the funny thing was that after bringing this back home, the next day we cooked it further, and it tasted much better, great to goes with soup kway teow. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0)<\/p>\n We had a choice of either ordering the dry chai po kway teow or seafood kway teow ($8) . But my husband wanted something soupy so we chosed the latter. In the next table I did see diners ordering the chai po kway teow. The noodles look like very sticky and thick, actually it doesn’t look bad at all, and looks like something that will goes well with the meal.<\/p>\n The seafood kway teow came with prawns, meat, fish slices and couple stalks of kai lan vegetables. The flavour was what you will expect, sauce infused with the ingredients, topped with some green chillis and you are good to go. This one is slightly different. The kway teow was very chewy and thick, which my husband like, but not too much for me and he gobbled up everything instantly.<\/p>\n Since it\u00a0was my mum’s birthday, we decided to order some longevity buns to go with the dessert. It cost $6 for half a dozen so $1 each. Size of a quarter palm size each. Took about 10 mins for them to steam up, and the buns were fluffy while the fillings tasted great. The fillings was not very sweet and the amount is proportion to the buns, so you won’t end up scooping out a big chunk of the fillings.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n