Lunch at Tim Ho Wan, with a side of dim sum
I’ve been a huge fan of dim sum since I was a kid, probably because my mom introduced it to me whenever we’d visit family in Malaysia. So whenever it’s possible, dim sum for lunch is always a yes for me. And after having so much Japanese food in the last few weeks, it’s about time we switch it up a bit. So here’s my review of Tim Ho Wan, a Hong Kong dim sum restaurant chain.
But first, some brief background information on dim sum. Dim Sum is actually a range of Cantonese dishes that’s normally served and enjoyed during brunch time. It originated in Guangzhou and was typically found in tea houses, served with tea. The tea is considered to play an important role in dim sum, as they complement the meal and dishes served. There are a variety of teas that one can choose when dining at a dim sum restaurant, such as chrysanthemum tea, green tea, oolong tea and other scented teas. The dishes themselves can range from savory to sweet, from shrimp dumplings to sweet cream bun. The classic dishes of dim sum include har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings), shu mai (chinese dumpling), char siu pao (barbecued pork bun) and egg tarts, also known as the four heavenly kings. While most dim sum dishes are steamed, there are other dishes that are prepared differently such as siu mei (Hong Kong Style barbeque meat) and pan fried turnip cake. There are also desserts and cakes that one can order to finish the meal on a sweet note.
It had been a while since I had dim sum, so I figured why not have it for lunch. Tim Ho Wan is a restaurant chain, so the restaurant’s interior design is kept the same for all the branches around Singapore. We visited the branch in Tampines and one thing I noticed was how drab it was. Perhaps it was the rain outside and the lack of customers, but walking into the restaurant didn’t give me much hope for the food nor the atmosphere. As we were handed the menus, we were informed that ordering was done via QR code. The menu included the staples of dim sum, such as four heavenly kings, rice rolls, fried radish cake and congee, as well as noodles. They also had some branch specials such as the crab meat and shrimp baked rice in white sauce. Tempted, we ordered the special along with our usual order of shrimp rice rolls, shrimp dumplings, fried beancurd skin with shrimp and pork congee with century and salted eggs.
It wasn’t long before the food arrived. First came the pork congee with century and salted eggs. If you’re unfamiliar with what the eggs are, century eggs are eggs that have been preserved in a curing mixture (made of clay, ash, salt, quicklime and rice hulls) for several weeks to months. They have a dark brown egg white that has a jelly consistency and almost dark green or grey yolk. Some compare the taste of century egg to like a blue cheese flavor but with an ammonia scent. Salted eggs are also a preserved food, and made by soaking duck eggs (instead of chicken eggs) in brine and then packed in damp and salted charcoal. Like the name suggests, it’s salty in nature and isn’t advised to be consumed by itself, instead it should be mixed or cooked with other foods. To be honest, while my description of these eggs may sound unappetizing, it’s better to try it as they provide great flavor and can be very delicious. The congee was decent, it was made with real chicken broth and you could taste a hint of it, with some chicken strips revealing themselves as you take a spoonful. However I thought it lacked flavor and seasoning. Ironically, the salted eggs either didn’t provide any salt to the taste, or there wasn’t enough of it. The century eggs were almost non-existent as well, despite the photos showing a bit of them. The you tiao (deep fried dough) were crispy, but also quite oily and I didn’t quite like it. The pork was limited too. It just felt like it happened to be congee, featuring a little of everything else.
What’s next, the rice rolls with shrimp. Something to note is that rice rolls often have a sauce that is poured on top of them, some restaurants serve it with the sauce already poured, however Tim Ho Wan will pour the sauce at your table instead. Perhaps it’s to prevent the rice rolls from being too soggy or for presentation? Anyways, the rice rolls were glossy before the sauce was poured (I didn’t manage to take a picture before the sauce was poured) and was steaming hot which was a good sign. There were 2 shrimps per roll as well, which is amazing as most places would only offer 1 shrimp per roll. As I divided 1 rice roll into 2 halves, I could tell that it was a bit on the thicker side. The inner rolls didn’t manage to absorb much of the sauce so there was sort of a gradient of sauce, from the outer layer being dark to the inner layers being completely white. Nonetheless, it was very tasty, there was a hint of ginger with the shrimp that I liked because it enhances the shrimp flavor. The sauce was a bit salty but because the inner layers didn’t absorb the sauce, it balanced out quite well. This is one of the dishes that I find myself going back to every time I go for dim sum, so it was no surprise that I enjoyed it very much.
Up next were the har gow and fried beancurd skin with shrimp. The har gow arrived steaming hot in it’s steaming basket, shiny and glistening. The beancurd skin was just a little past golden brown but still looking great. The har gow skin was pretty thick, and it featured 2 whole prawns inside which I thought was good value considering the price. Some may dislike the thickness of the skin, but I quite enjoyed it because it had some chewiness to it. The beancurd skin with prawn was very crispy, although there wasn’t much filling nor taste and mostly just air inside. It didn’t look anything like the one depicted in the menu. One might argue that the items depicted in the menu isn’t a representation or whatever, but I wish I could’ve seen some color in the filling, or a bit more filling in the first place. It was oily as well and it wasn’t served with any paper (the kind that you put under oily foods) to soak the oil. That being said, although it was oily and lacking in terms of taste and filling, it wasn’t disappointing. Nope, that came next.
The crab meat and shrimp baked rice in white sauce. Look, everyone knows that unless it’s a high-end upscale restaurant or seafood restaurant, the word crab meat should be taken lightly because they usually don’t put real crab meat in, or if they do, it’s usually a very small portion. Unfortunately, I jumped the gun on this one because I wanted to try it. If you’re unfamiliar with what baked rice in white sauce is, it’s normally fried rice with white roux poured on top with cheese, baked until the top is golden brown. It’s delicious when done right, and can be a very filling meal on it’s own. This however, was anything but delicious. Let’s start with positives first, the visuals were decent, it was golden brown on top, and the cheese was bubbling when it arrived. That’s it. Moving on, when I put my spoon into the rice, it was so oily and wet. I figured that the cheese probably was the culprit of this, but something told me there was more issues under the surface. There was a ton of vegetables, in fact more vegetables than seafood. Some of them weren’t even evenly diced or chopped. For example, in one spoonful, I had 2 of green peppers, but one was much larger than the other. The vegetables weren’t cooked thoroughly despite being put into the oven, and they weren’t mixed well with the fried rice. The crab meat portion was small as expected, but only the left side of the dish had crab meat. The right side had 1 strand of crab meat, that was it. The prawns were clearly frozen, you could taste it. I honestly tried my best to finish it, the only good thing about the vegetables were that the tomatoes were sweet.
By the end of lunch, I will admit that I was a bit disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed the dim sum, but the baked rice was what ruined a good meal. The total bill came up to S$66.30, so was it worth it and would I go again?
If I were to omit the baked rice, I think it would’ve been worth it. As I mentioned it earlier, Tim Ho Wan is a restaurant chain, they have multiple branches around Singapore and I suspect that popular branches would have better tasting food than the one we visited. Instead of visiting the Tampines branch, I would visit another branch, for example the one at Changi Jewel. I’ve visited the Jewel branch in the past and had a better experience there. The Tampines branch felt tired and underwhelming, the dim sum was worth it for it’s price, but the special was nothing special.
I think I would rate this visit a 5/10. Baked rice aside, I enjoyed the dim sum. Maybe a visit to a different Tim Ho Wan branch at another time would inject a bit of excitement in me.
Follow me on Instagram
Or not..