Full of Luck Club 福乐 @Holland Village

So we were a day too early previously for its soft launch, and we were back today to check out this place on its official launch day!

Full of Luck Club Canto Kitchen & Bao Bar is opened by the same people behind Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant and it’s signature is mini Baos 包, much like the Little Bao in Hong Kong.

On a Friday early evening on its launch day, it was more than 75% filled on the ground floor, and we were led upstairs where there were plenty of seats.

A hugggggggeeeee cat figurine welcomed us as we climbed the stairs!

Once we were comfortably seated, we were introduced to the signature dishes, and given a few minutes to think about our choices.

The signature baos were going for 2 at $9.80++, so we got ourselves 2!

• Braised Pork Belly Bao 传统扣肉包: The bun itself was quite soft and the shape was pleasing to the eye. With bird’s eye chilli, we certainly did not think that it was traditional, as its Chinese name implied, haha! Hubby’s first bite sent his tongue to numbing spicy hell, so he could not really tell the taste. But doting hubby removed most of the chilli before I had my share, so I got a rather interesting bite of spicy, sweet (peanut sauce), sour (pickled lotus root), and salty (braised pork belly). The pork belly was quite soft, but the heat would have covered most of the taste if we did not remove them. Do ask for a less spicy version if you are not a big fan of chilli.
• Salted Egg Yolk Prawn Bao 金沙虾包: This time, we took out the bird’s eye chilli before any attempt to eat the bao. However, we could not quite taste the seafood flavour of the deep fried coated prawn. There was very little salted egg sauce, and it was more spicy and sweet than salty… The sweet peanut sauce did not blend in well.
• Deep-fried Squid with Salt and Pepper 椒盐鲜鱿 ($8++): We opted for this instead of the Golden Sand Corn with Salted Egg Yolk 金沙玉米, thinking that we might be too overwhelmed with salted egg yolk goodness (too bad we weren’t). This was a crispy and tough squid bits.. So our mouths got tired rather quickly…
• Hakka Crispy Kurobuta Pork Belly 客家脆肉 ($18++): This was not bad, and the pork belly slices were quite tender. Would be better if it was more fragrant 😛

So far, this felt a little pricey and yet not quite made our tummies satisfied. We decided to try a couple of dim sum, as we read somewhere that Li Bai was famous for dim sum… Strangely, this was also the only section where the staff did not introduce any signature items.

• Deep-fried Crispy Prawn Rolls with Mango 香芒炸虾筒 ($6++ for 3 pieces): This was delicious! We liked the crispy yet soft skin, and the sweet and slightly sour mango complemented the fresh prawn really well.
• Stir-fried Radish Cake with X.O Sauce XO酱炒萝蔔糕 ($6.80++): Another delicious item, it was fragrant and we liked the sweet and salty flavours. The Chinese sausage bits were light and delicious too!

For drinks, we opted for Mandarin Pu Er 陈皮普洱 ($6.50++, serves up to 2 persons): We rather enjoyed this refreshing tea!

Being fairly new, there were a little hiccups like staff not being too familiar with the menu, but in general the staff were pleasant and friendly. This is the first week of opening, and there was a 10% discount from 27 May to 3 Jun 2016. While making payment, we were each given a fortune cookie 🙂