Tim Ho Wan

Talking about Michelin starred award restaurants, Tim Ho Wan is the first dim sum restaurant being awarded the 1 Michelin star in Hong Kong. Because of this award, Tim Ho Wan rapidly became one of the most popular dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong as well as around Asia.

When Tim Ho Wan first came to Singapore with its first outlet in Plaza Singapura, there were long queues almost every single day and the wait was up to an hour to get a seat. I was one of those who made an effort to queue to taste the food there at least twice but as I wasn’t blogging then, I did not have many pictures.

Recently I had the chance to visit the outlet at Lavender and Tim Ho Wan has since opened up many more outlets that there is hardly any queue at the different outlets. The outlet at Lavender was similar to the first outlet which is relatively small and can only house 20 odd tables at any one seating

The menu had lots of pictorial representation and it was very straightforward for customers who are not familiar to dim sum. You can find the usual suspects for dim sums like steamed rice rolls and glutinous rice.

You get condiments at the side of the table like soya sauce, sweet sauce, vinegar, chilli sauce and pepper.

Porridge is one very important dish in dim sum and the Cantonese congee is usually smooth and thick with sweet flavours from the stock used to cook the rice. The rice here had the same delicious consistency but was slightly on the bland side. The ingredients were generous with lots of meat and century egg

The rice roll was smooth but I found it to be too thick so it because quite stiff instead of being thin and soft. The soy sauce used for the roll was not too bad but the thickness of the roll really spoilt the dish.

The steamed beancurd skin roll was flavourful and sweet with minced meat and vegetable fillings. The sauce complementing the rolls were of a thick hoisin sauce taste and was slightly on the saltier side.

The taste of the carrot cake was quite general and I found the sides not being pan-fried enough to have that crispy fragrant top. I had tasted much better carrot cakes.

They also served beef noodles with dark soup and my colleague mentioned that while the noodles were pretty decent and springy, the beef was not tender enough. The flavours were good but it would be perfect if the meat was slightly more tender.

The egg tarts were also quite general and nothing too special and the crust of the tart was hard instead of being crumbly.

During my meal, I enjoyed this dessert the best. This was the fried condensed milk tofu which was soft and sweet inside with a thin and crispy crust. With each bite, you can taste the sweet and soft insides which were very comforting.

Overall, there are a couple of dishes that were really nice and well-deserving of the award but there were also others where the taste is so generic, there was nothing too memorable or special about it. If there was a long queue, I will definitely not queue for it.

Address: 12 Kallang Ave, #01-01/02 03 Aperia, Singapore 339511

Operating hours: 9 am to 11pm