Monday 3 June 2013

Tim Ho Wan

Have you all been checking out this blog to read about the famous Michelin Star Dim Sum, Tim Ho Wan? Here we go!

First, what exactly does Michelin Star mean? According to about.com, Michelin is the brand of a tyre..remember the mascot is a white fat marshmallow-look-alike character? Well, Michelin Star has something to do with the company as they started reviewing fine dining in 3 stars system to encourage road trips since mid 20s. The reviewers were supposed to judge based on food quality, technique, personality and consistency of food, NOT interior design , table setting or service quality.




Ah huh! So don't expect good service and nice ambience ok! Also, be prepared to wait for at least 1.5hrs to reach your turn..I've tried twice and gave up due to hunger, but I succeeded the 3rd time. We started queuing at 10.30am so that we can have a chance to start eating at 12pm..how crazy was that?! Well, someone gotta do it so that other people will know more right? Luckily my buddy rushed to the place to spend time (he even spent me drinks) with me while queuing, otherwise I will give up again and decide on other food.
 This was where I started. Not very far from the entrance but it still needed 1.5hrs!

 Almost there..queue started to extend.

Look at the amount of manpower in the kitchen..*counting the total salary payable just to staff*

The interior is small and cramped. I remember customers got to push the table out to one side in order to squeeze himself out of the seat..quite embarrassing...

Most customers came in a big group, so they can chat and eat at the same time, and therefore the long waiting time for the queue..

It was really really noisy..besides the noise from the chattering, the loud background old school cantonese songs were annoying too..gave me migraine. Everyone MUST take picture with each dish arrived and put into their facebook and tag their location etc..and therefore the long waiting time for the queue..


The basic table menu has no price indicated, just a reference. The actually menu (very small size double paged piece of paper) was passed to us when it was about our turn so that we can choose the food we want first before we are seated.

Tim Ho Wan has the 4 heavenly kings dishes..we only ordered 2 of them as we were not very interested in the other 2. So they are:
Baked bun with BBQ pork (3 pieces at $4.50)
 The bun was small, crispy outside and slightly oily..take note that you are allowed to order only 3 pieces per pax.

Pan fried carrot cake (3 pieces at $4.50). Their turnip was in chunks instead of the traditional strands..hmm I prefer strands as I always had in Hong Kong. To me, shredding turnip to strands shows effort and hardwork.

Since we had 3 pax here, we ordered more to have a good taste off! There are quite limited number of dim sum to choose from though..and a lot from the menu were already sold out!

 Prawn dumpling ($5.50).

 Prawn dumpling with pork ($5)

 Vermicelli roll with BBQ pork ($5.50)

 Beancurd skin roll with shrimp ($5.50)

 Pork rib with black bean sauce ($4.20)

 Vermicelli roll with shrimp ($5.50)

 Chicken feet with black bean sauce ($4)

Beancurd skin roll with pork and shrimp (steamed $4). Now I realized they entered this extra dish into our account..

Well, I think as an experienced dim sum eater, I have very high expectation from this Michelin Star dim sum. Besides finding the place too cramped and noisy, the dim sum were kind of average.small and some were too salty, some were too oily and gluttony. There were no surprises from the dishes. However if you are those who still want to try for once no matter what other people say (taste is very subjective), just go..They will be opening another branch at Toa Payoh Entertainment Center in July, so perhaps this one will not need to queue so long..One plus point of the restaurant, the food came quite fast. the tea refilling was promptly too. I just hate the loud background songs and long queue. If you wana have a date there but have no patience or possess bad temperament, you may want to reconsider this place in order not to show your "true color" to your date..hahaha..

Oh ya, no reservations, no take-away.

So here are my views:
Ambience 2/5
Food 2.5/5
Service 3/5
Price Slightly steep
Toilet Availability 0/5 (Please use Plaza Singapura's toilets)

Check out their website at http://www.timhowan.com/
So did my review change your mind?  
xoxo

5 comments:

  1. I love food, but I will not queue beyond 20mins for any restaurant. There are many eating places with good food, I don't believe in having to queue to pay them. Judging from your review... I will just pass this place even if I have dim sum craving. Heard that Regent Hotel Summer Palace dim sum, or Carlton hotel Wah Lok dim sum also not bad! Let's go try one of these days!

    /Snake fearer

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  2. my friend also said so so only except the bbq bun. ~auntie~

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  3. i prefer crystal jade bakery's bo lo bun.

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