I've been asked a number of times by a few friends if I've had dim sum at Wah Lok (Lvl 2 Carlton Hotel, 76 Bras Basah Road, tel : +65 6311 8188). Well, I haven't until today.
This was their steamed radish cake. I was hoping that it would impress me like the ones from Wai Kee, but this was really just a nicely done version that we have locally. Nothing more.
We ordered some bolo buns with char siew fillings.
The fillings were quite sweet, but wasn't cloyingly so for me. So I guess I liked that, but didn't quite think so much of the bun itself.
These were described as deep fried octopus tentacles and was on the chef's recommended menu. It was surprisingly not so expensive for a recommended dish. Lol. But seriously, this rocks. It's actually, deep fried octopus tentacles with prawn paste. And that prawn paste really elevated the flavours.
These are one of my yardsticks at dim sum. I don't know why since it's an illogical method, but I'm pretty sure many other people measure the quality of their dim sum experience by the standards of har gao of the eatery, amongst others. These were just okay I guess. Definitely had more satisfying ones.
Deep fried century eggs which tasted pretty much like how they looked. To be a little more specific, they were rather decent if unremarkably so. The brown stuff on top are hae bi hiam (chilli dried shrimp).
I forgot what these vegetables were, but this dish tasted a lot better than the looks suggested. The light brown broth was actually a full flavoured savoury chicken soup.
Lobster mee pok. Not bad, but nothing to get excited over as well.
While it cannot be seen on the picture, these cheong fun (rice flour rolls) are stuffed with scallops. Quite liked them.
The other common yardstick of many, also one of mine, siew mai. My expectations may have been elevated by all the queries about this place, but these were really just okay.
These are chicken and diced abalone pies. Sounded and looked better than they tasted. While it was obvious that there were meat inside, it was a little difficult to tell which was chicken or abalone. The pastry had a heavy cloy of oil which wasn't pleasant.
Phoenix claws which were competently steamed and flavoured. I rather enjoyed these.
Passable egg tarts.
These were known as mei ren yao (美人腰), or beauty's hips? They were essentially pastry puffs that were filled with custard and topped with what tasted like burnt cashews. The custard quality tasted retro if you catch my drift. While I couldn't say that I disliked them, I probably will never order them again.
The fillings of their liu sha bao were disappointing. It was a simple case of having a mixture with too much custard and too little salted egg yolk. It turned out to be too sweet and flat to be enjoyable. With these buns on everyone else's menu, I had expected Wah Lok's rendition to be competent.
Some large dumpling in broth. This one was really quite good.
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