Xin Wang opened a new outlet in Vivocity in August this year with a modern yet refreshing look which is somewhat different from some of their other outlets.
The outlet is quite tastefully decorated in modern cubicle seating and metal industrial lights with a feature wall of Hong Kong newspapers and lighted cut out the silhouette of the lion dance.
Xin Wang has also revamped its menu with a more visually attractive look as well as introduce a few new dishes which has more local flavours being introduced. Some of the favourites are still kept on the menu while some of the not so popular dishes have been taken off the menu.
For a start, the dim sum selection is still huge and one of the popular dishes is the lava custard steamed bun. For a light tea break snack or breakfast, the bun is soft and the salted egg lava custard flows right out of the bun when you take a bite.
This menu is new and is great as an appetiser or snack. It is basically thinly sliced lotus root fried till crispy and coated with light chilli powder and spices. The lotus root is crispy like potato chips and is extremely addictive.
Another common menu people order is the baked rice or noodles which is also typical in many Hong Kong cafes. The rice or noodles is baked in a pretty baking dish with the protein of your choice and loads of cheese on top. There is a nice burnt and crispy layer of cheese when the dish is served. Personally, the dish can be a bit dry as the rice has not much gravy but the cheese is nice and creamy which compensates the dryness slightly
Hong Kong cafes are famous for their instant noodle menus which generally comes with many different kinds of toppings to the basic humble noodles. The usual toppings include fried luncheon meat, fried eggs, spicy pork cubes. They also have braised beef brisket topped on the familiar curly noodles. The beef is tender and the sauce complements the dry noodles completely.
Xin Wang also has a few noodles dishes which is very popular. This noodle in tomato broth is fairly new and it comes with thin pork slices. This dish vaguely reminds me of tomato hot pot and it could possibly be invented due to the popularity of tomato-based soup in recent years. This dish is quite disappointing as the tomato broth was quite bland and light. The pork slices were also limited with only 1 stalk of vegetable. It would be more ideal if the soup broth has stronger tomato flavours.
Another noodle soup dish that is very popular is the noodles in papaya broth topped with luncheon meat, corn, vegetables and papaya. You can have other versions of this dish with instant noodles or pork chop or chicken chop. The white and milky soup is clear but surprisingly sweet and refreshing. You can vaguely taste the natural sweetness from the papaya which has infused into the soup.
This dish is pretty new as well and is often found in many hawker centres or food court. This is called the crispy noodles with seafood gravy. The noodles are fried till crispy and hot starchy gravy with loads of seafood is laid on top of the crispy noodles. What you get is basically a nice crunch of the noodles together with the other ingredients. The best way to enjoy this dish is to allow the noodles to soak in the gravy for a while so while it is still slightly crispy it has soaked in enough gravy to give it a layered flavour. This dish is pretty good accordingly to my mum and is comparable to some of the best ones found in hawker centres.
This is the first time I ordered pasta at Xin Wang and it is very disappointing. While I appreciated the service staff who was willing to customise the pasta to our dietary requirements ( vegetarian ) the cream sauce was overly bland. The noodles were cooked moderately and there were good amounts of mushrooms and tomatoes given but the sauce was so diluted it hardly stuck to the pasta at all. I will not comment on the taste since this is not the usual menu as I changed it to vegetarian but the consistency of the sauce was just terrible so I will not recommend this at all.
Finally, for desserts, they have this crispy red bean pancake with roasted sesame. The pancake was fried till golden brown and crispy and the red bean filling was generous and sweet. This was quite a good version of the red bean pancake served
A winner with both the young and old, their shaved ice dessert is huge and comes with a giant scoop of ice cream. There are also various toppings like sweetened beans, jelly, nata de coco, corn puree and shaved peanuts. The serving is huge so it is good to share this among 4 -5 people especially if you order this after a full meal.
Overall, the food at Xin Wang is not too bad and it has a nice and comfortable ambience for meals. For another review I wrote previously on another Xin Wang outlet, you can read here. Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe
Address: 1 Harbourfront Walk, #02-85, Singapore 098585
Operating hours: 10 am to 10 pm
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