10 Sinaran Drive #01-73 Novena Square 2, Singapore 307506
Tel: 6893 1123
Website: http://www.tunglokteahouse.com
We were craving for some nighttime Dimsumt for our family dinner, and I remember TungLok Teahouse (review here). Sadly, the outlet at Far East Square has closed, therefore we visited the Novena Square 2 branch. Set in bright colours and period decor, the restaurant serves up an array of creative Teochew dishes and Dimsum items retaining authentic taste of yesteryear.
This restaurant is pretty technology-savvy, its menu wholly on electronic tablets; and if you sit beside the conveyor belt, your food items will be sent from via the belt straight to your table. The only inconvenience about their cute "train" ordering system is that you could only put in 4 orders each round, even if you want, say, 4 Pu-er Tea, you need to press the order 4 times, send it in, before selecting another order.
We started with Marmite Coated Silver Bait (SGD$8.00), battered and dotted with sesame for the extra crispiness. Texture was very nice to bite on, but we thought it was a tad sweet (ain't marmite salty?).
The Deep-fried Salted Egg Fish Skin (SGD$8.00), served in a small metal bucket, was delicious - crackling yet not overly dry; there was a gentle moist to it, and the salted egg flavour was rich but not overpowering. This was very addictive.
Next, Har Gao aka Steamed Shrimp Dumplings (SGD$5.80 for 4) - fresh shrimps wrapped in translucent crystal skin, was quite tasty as well.
Baked BBQ Pork Buns (SGD$5.80 for 3) reminded me alot of Tim Ho Wan's baked BBQ buns - crusty exterior, sweetened minced pork cubes within. These were good enough, though I though THW did it better.
Xiao Long Bao (SGD$5.80 for 4) - meat buns with soup within, was made up with tender meat and flavourful broth that exploded in the mouth.
Siew Mai aka Steamed Pork Dumplings (SGD$5.80 for 4) was made up of melty minced pork meat and a fresh shrimp- plump and tender, pretty good.
Following that, we had Steamed Chicken Feet (SGD$1.80) was palatable - the soy sauce and chilli seeping into the succulent chicken feet nicely; we ordered another serving.
Yang Zhou Fried Rice (SGD$16.00) - grainy fried rice with eggs and shrimps, tasty but somewhat greasy towards the end of the dish.
Then we tried the Teochew-style Flower Clams Porridge (SGD$9.80) - funnily, this dish turned out to be my favorite item of the night despite the fact that it was either ordered wrongly or delivered to us by mistake (no one remembered ordering it). The broth was saccharine in an addictive manner, as were the flower clams; the minced pork bits were tender and lent texture to the porridge.
Mini Piglet BBQ Pork Buns (SGD$5.80 for 3) was too adorable to resist, made in the likeness of piglets complete with ears, eyes and nose. BBQ diced pork burst filling was quite generous when we bit through the cute exterior. They also have the cute panda buns with black sesame but we could not stomach anymore food.
Final savoury item for the night was the Duo BBQ Meat Platter (SGD$22.00) - Irish Duck and Char Siew. All of us preferred the duck with its moistened texture. Pity that their meat platter did not include Roast Pork Belly, or allow for three types of meat (we did not try the Drunken Wine Chicken).
Moving on to desserts, we had both the hot ones and cold ones. Black Swan Durian Pastry (SGD$5.80 for 3) was almost too pretty to eat. The graceful neck and head part was plastic decor (either that, or extremely hard icing sugar) - the body was a plump, piping hot durian paste coated in charcoal pastry that was crispy. The combination was utterly heavenly.
Then there were Nourishing Red Dates Cakes (SGD$4.80 for 3) - I really dug the sticky, chewy texture of this cake, while redolent of red date flavour, was not cloyingly sweet. It was very pleasant to eat this, and we enjoyed it very much.
Moving on to cold desserts, Chilled Purple Rice Puree (SGD$6.00) - in the menu photo, it was served in a wine glass, but sadly it was not served that way in reality. It was exactly like "Pulut Hitam" (black glutinous rice dessert with coconut milk), served with a scoop of ice-cream. Pretty tasty dessert, and we appreciated that it was not too sweet too.
Finally, Chilled Snow Lotus Pudding with Ice-cream, served in Young Coconut (SGD$8.00) - another refreshing dessert to cool the palate after all that yummy seafood and dimsum items.
Tsing Tao Beer (SGD$9.00 per can) was our accompanying drink throughout the scrumptious meal. They served it to us can and mug - instead of helping to pour the beer in, like what other mid-to-high class restaurants do.
Anyway, overall dining restaurant was pretty delightful. We like how they serve dimsum throughout the day, unlike most Chinese restaurants that only serve dimsum for lunch or tea-break. Service was pretty prompt, and food quality was pretty satisfying too.
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