In the recent few years, there has been an increase in the number of Chinese restaurants serving authentic Dong Bei cuisines. Dong Bei is a region in China that includes part of Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning. Dong Bei cuisines are usually heavier on spices and flavours. The popularity of the cuisine from the different regions of China started with Sichuan boiled fish and Mala Xiang Guo ( spicy stir fry pot). Just a matter of weeks and you see this dish popping up everywhere from town to heartlands to even our local hawker centres
One such restaurant is immensely popular amongst Chinese tourists and those working locally in Singapore. On top of that, Singaporeans are also widely fond of this restaurant due to their huge variety of cuisines from different regions of China at very affordable prices. Every evening, the Oriental Chinese restaurant is packed full and every weekend, you are guaranteed to see a long queue. From the initial 1 shophouse, the restaurant has now expanded to over 4 shophouses
We were shown to a different shophouse at the adjacent street when it was our turn. This 2 storey unit feels like an apartment that was vaguely renovated for the purpose of a makeshift seating area for the restaurant. There is a total of 2 rooms which has 3 – 4 tables for bigger groups. There is 1 staff stationed in each room to take orders and service the customers in the room
The menu is in these plastic folders so the number of dishes is quite overwhelming. You can point or read out the orders to the staff even if you do not read Chinese since all dishes have accompanying pictures. On top of that, you can order one of the most popular items; the barbeque skewers from the paper order chit
As we had a friend who could not take spicy dishes, we order some non-spicy choices. From the top left; we have the stir fry pea sprouts which was very light and crunchy and fresh, tomatoes fried with eggs which personally to me slightly more to the bland spectrum. Next was the garlic stir fry kailan which was also crunchy and fresh. Lastly was the fried mantou with condensed milk which was very addictive as the stickiness and sweetness of the condensed milk paired very well with the crispy bun
Some of the appetizer dishes we had were the spicy cold sea kelp, spicy and sour potato and spicy chicken with black fungus. The dishes were generally on a medium spice level which is not too burning but requires to be paired with rice to bring down the heat. The dishes were very flavourful and hit the right notes of chilli heat and bringing out the other flavours
We had the fish maw soup with scallion pancakes as well as the spicy stir fry pork with mushroom and peppers. The scallion pancakes were particularly very crispy on the outside with the inside soft but with a nice chew which brings out the fragrance of the scallions. The fish maw soup was thick with a lot of ingredients and tasted better with more vinegar added. The stir fry pork was slightly too oily for my taste
The last batch of dishes was the Sichuan boiled fish, Mapo Spicy tofu and the skewers. Unfortunately, while we were there, the barbeque machine broke down and the kitchen could only manage limited skewers for each table. We ordered the spicy potato, chicken gizzard, pigskin as well as oyster mushroom which was all generously peppered with cumin and chilli powder before well barbequed over a large fire. The Sichuan boiled fish was not spicy enough according to my friends as I am not a fan. Surprisingly, the Mapo tofu was very delicious with just enough savoury flavours intertwined with the light chilli punch
Overall, I really loved eating here at Oriental Chinese restaurant as we get to taste the famous dishes from each different region of China since we are unable to travel now, Most of the dishes are nice simple food resembling dishes you get from a local Chinese family. The fact that the dishes are all extremely pocket-friendly makes it a good choice to satisfy that craving. Everything we ordered above only cost us SGD 124. Our entire table was filled to the brim and yet we paid less than SGD30 for 5 of us. It is definitely on my favourite restaurant list to satisfy any Chinese cuisine craving. The opening times also makes it a good choice for late-night supper outings
Address: 193, 195, 197 New Bridge Rd, 059425
Operating hours: 11am to 6 am
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