The hearts of Singaporeans skipped a few beats when they heard that one Michelin-starred restaurant, Tim Ho Wan, was opening in Singapore. Social media platforms were flooded with this piece of good news. The highly anticipated opening of Tim Ho Wan was marked in the calenders of all foodnatics and dimsum lovers and long queues were, of course, expected.
X went to queue at around 9am, two days after their official opening, and told me to go at 10am so that I could get more sleep [: He invited two other friends along so that we could try more items! When I got there at 10, the queue was already very long and I was very thankful that I didn't have to queue and could take my seat immediately
Tim Ho Wan's menu on a small clipboard
Their fourth heavenly king, the steamed egg cake, wasn't available then.
Barley- $2
Quite a thick and rich cup of barley.
The food took awhile to arrive.
Baked Bun with BBQ Pork (3 pieces) - $4.50
These slightly crisp, relatively thin and delectably soft buns
are filled with a sweet and generous filling that carried hints of chinese wine. I really love the texture of the buns! It's no wonder why these buns are so famous. They are terrific! The most magical char siew bao ever haha
Prawn Dumplings - $5.50
Fat, juicy and fresh prawns encased in a thin skin that were pretty satisfying.
Spring Roll with Egg White - $4.20
The spring rolls looked promising and they were lightly fried and very crispy. Loud crunches could be heard when we all bit into the spring rolls but disappointment hit us soon after as the tasteless egg white touched our palates.
Pan Fried Carrot Cake - $4.50
Even though there were several small pieces of meat present, they didn't add much taste to the bland carrot cake. X thought it was quite nice though haha
Pork Dumpling with Shrimp - $5
This was my second favourite dish of the lot! The big chunk of pork, mushroom and shrimp mixture was chewy, delicious and outstanding. I don't really like siewmais but I have to admit that these were really good!
Beancurd Skin Roll with Shrimp - $5.50
This is a must-have for me whenever I have dimsum! The ones at Tim Ho Wan were delightfully crispy and the small bits of vegetables which are embedded in the rolls provided a slight bitter edge when you bite into them
Beancurd Skin Roll with Pork and Shrimp - $4
This was the first time that I'm trying this dish and I thought it was pretty decent
Vermicelli Roll with Pig's Liver - $5.50
I'm not a fan of pig's liver but I have to say that I actually liked this one! The pieces of pig's liver were extremely soft and they do not really possess the strong "iron/metal" taste!
Vermicelli Roll with Shrimp - $5.50
The vermicelli roll had quite a good portion of shrimp in them. We could have used a little more sauce though!
Tonic Medlar and Osmanthus Cake - $3.50
Jelly like blocks with a strong floral and herbal taste that didn't quite tickle my taste buds but X and his friends enjoyed it!
Yam Puree with Sago (Hot) - $3.50
The texture of the yam puree was not what I had expected it to be. It was more like yam-water or something. It was super fluid and the taste of yam was minimal and it seemed like the dessert was diluted.
We had quite a disappointing experience at Tim Ho Wan. I guessed we had expected better, with all the hype and long queues. Also, our breakfast at Tim Ho Wan stretched from 10am to 1245pm due to a strange policy that they have. If diners want to order a second round of dimsum, they will have to wait for 45 minutes or more. We were fine with waiting, but its strange seeing items that we have ordered being served to the new diners who had just placed their orders. We thought that perhaps it's their way of regulating the crowd, by encouraging diners to leave. 45 minutes later, we checked on our order and apparently, it was not keyed into the system. We asked a few servers about it and they told us that they will try their best to fix it. In the meantime, we just see dishes that we have ordered being served to diners next to us. So we decided to cancel our order except for the dessert and another plate of char siew bao. Our orders finally arrived at 1230pm. Needless to say, we were not at all pleased with the service.
If you really want to try the dimsum at Tim Ho Wan, we suggest that you wait for this initial hype to die down and for them to have properly settle down before you visit.
68 Orchard Road
#01-29A Plaza Singapura
Daily: 10:00 - 22:00
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Love, K
K's rating of Tim Ho Wan : 7/10
