Tim Ho Wan 添好運 @ERA Centre

New branch at Toa Payoh

Simple decor but great food

It’s Tim Ho Wan @Toa Payoh this time! In case you didn’t know, Tim Ho Wan is Hong Kong’s most famous dim sum restaurant because it is one of the cheapest One-Star Michelin restaurant in the world!

We discovered that it was finally opened to public yesterday (8 Sep 2013), so we decided to just pop over to see what’s the crowd like! The queue was not too bad, considering we got seats within 30min, close to 8pm. That was also because there were only 2 of us; bigger groups had to wait longer for a bigger empty table. They also placed stools outside the restaurant so we can just sit, chat and wait.

The decor inside is simple, and very much like the branch in Plaza Singapura (PS). The kitchen is 1/2 open and you can really see the actions and the steam in the kitchen if you are seated near the serving window. Considering the continuous flow of customers, the service here was great, and once you are seated and ordered, food appeared rather promptly.

There are certain dishes unique to this outlet, so of course we ordered all of them 😛

Steamed Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce

Steamed Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce (鲍汁闷凤爪) is nicer than the one we tried at Olympian City, Hong Kong! Couldn’t quite taste the abalone flavour but I liked the salty-sweet taste of it, much better than the usual chicken feet dim sum!

Of worthy mention is the Steamed Spinach Dumpling with Shrimp (鮮蝦菠菜餃). Filled to the brim with really green spinach, each dumpling was plump and juicy. The very thin dumpling skin was translucent and glistening; slightly chewy but yet would not get stuck in the teeth… totally loved it!

Fried Noodle with BBQ Pork and Soy Sauce (叉烧鼓油皇炒面) was pretty nice… in a instant-noodle kind of way (I adore instant noodles by the way).

Deep Fried Dumpling with Salted Meat (家鄉鹹水餃)… this was really delicious!! Eaten hot, the sweetened crispy skin complemented the savoury fillings very well! Underneath the skin, there was this thin mochi layer, something like the red bean pancake that we had at 京華小吃, but much more crispy instead of soft-mushy… so I really liked this much more 🙂

Steamed Egg Cake, Spinach Dumpling, Fried Noodle, Vermicelli Roll with Pig’s Liver

Deep Fried Dumpling with Salted Meat and Pan Fried Carrot Cake

Next came the Big 4 Heavenly Kings…

The Vermicelli Roll with Pig’s Liver (黃沙豬潤腸) was also excellent, with very tender, slightly pinkish liver. Loved the Pan Fried Carrot Cake (香煎蘿蔔糕) too! This one had a very good balance of sweet and slight bitterness, and was pan fried to perfection, crispy but not burnt. Better than PS! Olympian City still had the best Steamed Egg Cake (香滑馬來糕)… just couldn’t find that perfect balance of caramelized sweetness and fluffiness locally 😦 it was still nice, but just not that nice… oh well…

Legendary Char Siew Bun

Juicy ingredients in a crispy skin

The legendary Char Siew Bun (酥皮焗叉燒包) here was nicer than that at PS and Olympian City, but still we think the ones at Mongkok was still the best. We recalled that the buns seemed darker in colour when we tried them for the first time, but all seemed to be paler nowadays. Nonetheless, the juicy pork pieces in the crispy, flaky skin never fails to tantalize our taste buds for more!

Beancurd Rolls with Pork and Shrimp

The other 2 dishes Beancurd Rolls with Pork and Shrimp (美味燜鮮竹卷), and Siew Mai (鮮蝦燒賣皇) were pretty much the usual fare, not too bad, but nothing to rave about too…

Now waiting for the 3rd branch to be opened… hahaha!