I was hunting high and low literally for a good and cheap dimsum place..well at the back of the mind, I'm still going to try Royal China and Hua Ting someday..! Names like Bosses Restaurant, Ah Yat, Dragon Gate..Lao Beijing were thrown up, and then the Dad decided to surprise us with a recommendation -- Fortunate.
After all the advertising, we still got the timing mixed up. I was told 330pm on the phone and when we arrived, it turned out the high tea started at 3pm. $1.99++ per plate of dimsum..that sounds like a steal...!
Two options thrown to us;
- Share a table and get it immediately
- Wait for 15-20 minutes for a table to ourselves
Very old school, very Red Star..but I'm loving it!
No stamps, just pen scribbles.
The must-have chilli sauce and mustard.
The pot of chrysanthenum tea that I could barely taste and the plate of oily peanuts that comes with it.
Plastic cutlery...
The thing about having pushcarts is...everyone clamours for its attention. Each time it appears, the food more or less disappears by the time she makes a round. Possibly the kiasu mentality of hungry Singaporeans, you basically order whatever you see, rather than what you really want for fear of that item not appearing again and also the "$.199" price tag that makes it cheaper than it seems. To prove my point, we missed out on the dimsum-must haves ; eggtarts and fried yam balls (woo kok) simply because we didn't order them at first sight!
Make a guess the number of plates four of us polished off, note it's NOT a buffet..funnily, we ate as if it were one...
Octopus balls with mushrooms
Pasty chewy ball with a sliver of mushroom. Not a favourite.
Overpriced small bowl of century egg porridge. The rice grains are cooked so soft, tasted like thick gruel.
Looks like soon kueh, tastes like one. Vegetarian dumpling stuffed with mushrooms, bamboo shoots, carrots..I like the chewy thin skin.
Another very similar dumpling that's filled with chives and prawns. Not too bad but there were fatty bits mashed in as well.
Shark's Fin dumpling that didn't taste like one. Rather I couldn't taste the shark's fin, just meat.
The honourary Siew Mai. Juicy as it looks, meaty it is with fatty bits too. I slurped it down all the same.
One can not sit through dimsum without ordering Char Siew Pau. Fluffy pau with well seasoned char siew, the char siew sauce isn't overbearing..a delightful pau! Good enough to warrant seconds!
Zi Bao Ji or Paper Wrapped Chicken, beneath the oily wrapper lies an equally oily chicken wing chopped into three parts. The meat's tender, juicy and tasty. The oil gets to you somehow.
A closeup of the meaty chicken part.
Another honourary, Har Gao. Paper thin skin hugging onto a ball of prawn-meat mix. Just alright.
Fried Prawn Dumpling, well it's fried. And it's a prawn dumpling. Served with mayo..just o-k.
This Glutinous Rice aka Zhen Zhu Ji, is my favourite! The portion's big enough for four, glutinous rice steamed till fluffy and soft, there's chicken slices, mushrooms, salted egg...only grouse, there were gooey blobs inside. Otherwise, the most value for money.
Fried Jiao Zi with vinegar. Chewy skin with meat filling, we ordered it for the sake of it. Forgettable.
Looks most unappetizing..banana-red bean pancake. The wafer thin popiah skin with a generous portion of red bean paste and banana slices cleverly weaved in, deep fried and sprinkled with crumbs. The second favourite of the meal! I dig how the red bean isn't cloyingly sweet and how well it goes with banana and the skin. Albeit oily, we risked the ripping stomachs for a second portion!
Their famous durian fritter! We saw it lining their wall of fame before entering the restaurant and it's cooked upon order. Limited quantities available.
A stab at the fritter reveals a creamy durian pulp. A slight bitter taste to it, possibly due to the raw durians used. Not D24 quality but it's not too bad. The crispy exterior gave this an added crunch.
Mango juice with pomelo and mango cubes
I was amused how they poured this dessert from a jug. Not too bad, the slightly sour dessert aided in digestion..
Gui Lin Gao topped with honey. Tasted more like black jelly.
If you guessed correctly, 19 dishes we had! Definitely shy of the 30+ plates we had at Zhou's Kitchen but we were very full. I skipped dinner thereafter. $53 for 4 pax, that's a steal though they probably reduced the number of dimsum within the basket.
Price aside, Fortunate's dimsum is decent. Hits and misses for sure but no frills service, no frills settings (yes, no table cloths) but food is more than no frills.
Note that selected items are charged at full price, there was only one item that day; prawn-banana pancake.
This promotion is on for a limited period only.
High Tea
3-5pm
Reservations are highly recommended
Fortunate Restaurant 幸福饮茶
Blk 181 Lorong 4 Toa Payoh
#02-602
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