Nestled along a row of shophouses, Desmond’s creation is a humble-looking establishment from the look of their entrance but the long queues during meal times will be a telltale sign of the popularity of the restaurant.
While waiting for our table, you can see that the restaurant is quite small and can only house 6 bigger tables and 3 tables for 2 persons. The restaurant is quite bare in decorations and resembles a basic coffee shop
While waiting, you can see that the restaurant has been awarded Michelin Bib Gourmand awards for both 2018 and 2019.
There is also multiple write-ups and reviews of the restaurant which definitely up my expectation of the food while I waited for them to prepare the table. The lady who serves us was very friendly and possibly the lady boss as many regulars were greeting her as they arrive. They claim to only take reservations for groups of 10 and above so all other smaller group sizes will have to walk in and wait for tables. Do note that the wait during meal times can be up to 30 mins.
The menu at Desmond’s Creation is very simple and there are only a few dishes per category with a couple of signature dishes where you can see on almost every table.
The first dish that came was the watercress soup broiled in this aged ceramic bowl. The serving of the soup is good for 5 persons with extremely generous amounts of watercress. The soup had very clean and deep flavours which were naturally from the watercress and the pork ribs. There was very little oil in the soup so it was very light on the stomach and yet extremely flavourful.
The next dish is the fried kang kong with sambal belachan which is not so much a Cantonese dish but a very Singaporean dish. The vegetables are not overcooked so there is still the nice texture and crunch as you bite into the vegetables but with no raw green taste. The belachan chilli is very flavourful but not overly spicy.
This next dish looks simple and is indeed a dish you might not find in restaurants often as it is considered a home-cooked dish. It is basically steamed minced pork with salted fish. This dish is usually eaten in the past at poorer villages as salted fish is cheaper than fresh fish and steaming it with minced pork gives it an all-rounded flavour. The one served here was absolutely perfect as the salted fish was very fragrance ( pungent to some ) the strong flavours of the fish was infused into the minced pork which was juicy and tender. This can easily be the best dish.
This was the prawns with tofu which is one of the highly recommended dishes by both the servers and the food reviews. The tofu is lightly fried till golden brown before cooked with huge succulent prawns in a thick egg starch gravy. The gravy had good umami flavours incorporating the egg and the sweetness of the prawns and the soft and silky tofu complemented the dish extremely well.
The last dish was the ginger chicken which is chicken chunks fried with chilli and special sweet ginger bulbs. Looking at the menu, we were expecting the ginger to be spicy and pungent adding some spiciness to the dish but instead, the ginger was slightly fermented and therefore sweet and tangy. The chicken itself was quite lightly flavoured with a sweet and salty balanced taste but the star of the show was the sweet ginger bulb instead.
Overall, the food at Desmond’s Creation is fantastic and I can say they really do deserve their Michelin award. If you are expecting fancy restaurant dishes, do look elsewhere as what they have to offer is simple yet absolutely delicious authentic home-cooked Cantonese dishes. What really endears me to the restaurant is their Cantonese name “Sik Bao Sin” which loosely translates to Ëat full first” as a Cantonese; being on a full stomach is definitely the most important thing.
Address: 592 Geylang Rd, Lor 36 Geylang, Singapore 389531
Operating hours: 11.45 am to 2.30 pm and 5.45 pm to 9.30 pm
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