Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe (Whitesands)

Open 24 hours on the weekends and till 2am on weekdays, Xin Wang HK cafe has opened 10 separate outlets in Singapore since its inception in 2007 and has also expanded its operations overseas.

Location: Pasir Ris Central Street 3 #01-14 Singapore 518457

Contact: 65833611

Website: http://www.xinwang.com.sg

Price range: $10-20 per head

Cold Water ($0.40++)

For the record, i really dislike paying for water at a restaurant. Its water, in Singapore, the tap water is safe for drinking so yeah, paying for water is a bad idea.

Seafood Hor Fun ($9.80)

The seafood hor fun came with generous portions of squid, shrimps and beansprouts. Its a little salty but otherwise, rather decent.

Shrimp Roll ($2.50)

Oily and very crispy but tasty and sinful in equal measure.

Custard Bun ($2.50)

There's too much dough and not enough custard in these buns. Add the fact that its extremely oily and you have the recipe for disaster.

Pork Chop Baked Rice

The pork chop baked rice is a mixed bag. On one hand, i like the cheese and sourish tomato sauce mixed with rice, on the other hand, the pork chop is too tough to bite. Add them together for an average dish.

Bill

The bill after discount and a voucher to have a free main course of the same value turned up at $17.85.

Ambiance: 6.5/10
Service: 6/10
Food: 6/10
Value for money: 6/10
Overal Score: 6/10 (not an average)

Last word:

It wasn't a bad meal by any chance but the full value of that meal would have been $30 if it included the cost for the pork chop baked rice. And i really wouldn't find paying that amount worthwhile.

HK Wang Zhai Tea Room (White Sands)

Hong Kong food in Singapore is more or less dominated by a few names which i feel personally, still have not done the subject matter much justice. Wan Zhai Hong Kong Tea Room is a new addition which has yet to be highly commercialized but is it any good or does it fall into the same trappings as all its predecessors?

Location: Pasir Ris Central Street 3 #02-04/01 White Sands

Contact: 6581 8804

Price Range: $8 per head

A humble namecard

Peanut Ginseng Soup (Free with Baked Rice)

I have to say, i'm totally surprised at how tasty this soup is. It doesn't look like much but its packed with taste. The ingredients inside are plentiful (peanuts and some chicken meat) for a free item. No points for presentation but looks can be deceiving indeed.

Wasabi Seafood Baked Rice ($8.20)

Another Look

The serving of baked rice is reasonable though hardly big. The reason i ordered this was because i've never tasted wasabi baked rice before so it was a novel concept for me, plus the fact that i quite keen of wasabi. The ingredients used are exactly the same as the HK Signature Hor Fan featured below, 2 mussels, 2 prawns and a smattering of fish. The unfortunate thing is that the ingredients definitely did not taste fresh to me. Prawns were powdery and lacks any crunch whatsoever, fish wasn't sweet and the mussels were a tad rubbery. The rice was normal and the wasabi was toned down for local tastes so it didn't have the kick i wanted. Average at best.

HK Signature Hor Fan ($6.30)

As mentioned above, the ingredients are the same 2 mussels, 2 prawns and some fish and the freshness is still below average. Taste-wise, the hor fan looked blackish and had a lot of pepper in it. My gf didn't finish this so thats a testament of how 'good' it is. To me, it wasn't worthy of the word 'signature' at all with its not-too-fresh ingredients, bad looks and worst of all, simple inadequate, salty and overly oily taste. The baked rice was better and that was already only an average offering.

Bill

The bill came up to $14.50 for 2 people but somehow, i still found it too expensive. The only good thing for this place is the soup sadly.

Overall Score: 5.5/10

Last Word:
Hong Kong food is just not getting the attention and franchises over in sunny Singapore. To date, i've tried a few Hong Kong cafes and honestly, they are either too expensive, food offerings average or just plain bad. If anybody knows of a good place i can review, please let me know. Till then, my word on Hong Kong food in Singapore is that there is yet to be one worthy of the name yet.

C-Nai Hong Kong Cafe Xpress

Featured on HDB Tai Tai sometime last month, September, piggy ole me was once again influenced into trying out a commercially reviewed joint for its food. Quite simply, the tv artists raved about its food and value for money. I was there to discover if what they touted was indeed true. (On a side note, the real reason i wanted to go was due to its cheap shark's fin noodles which really intrigued me to no end.)

Location: 1000 East Coast Parkway Marine Cove (Next to Macdonald's)

Contact: 64440123

Price Range: $15-$20 per head

Website: www.hkcafe.com.sg

Entrance

Signboard

Interior

We arrived on a rather awkward timing since it was a weekday afternoon but there was already quite a crowd within. Seats were aplenty though as this happens to be the biggest in its chain of restaurants in Singapore thus far. The interior was spacious and cozy with a very friendly male waiter who took the liberty of introducing us to his favorite and generally more expensive items. Established in 2004, simply enter their website to see them tout in bold letters "The Most Highly Recommended Hong Kong Cafe" How much of it is true? I'm not able to say.

Menu

Namecard

A great way to kill the world

Random ramblings. Why do they need a piece of paper to tick our orders and later follow up with 3 pieces of paper to note down the exact same orders? And all it does is lay on the table to be thrown away later. I've not seen a worst use of paper since....ever. Bad practice, really bad practice.

Mango King ($5.50)

The menu states: "Special blended mango juice with fresh mangoes and mango ice-cream" and thats exactly what it is. And truth be told, its probably the best item we had that day. Mango pieces were clearly visible but were sour and in actuality, the amount given was quite stingy. The mango ice cream was great however, lightly sweet with a soft mango and vanilla fragrance. The ice blended portion needed more work and the mango syrup simply wasn't good. At $5.50, i'd say they are pirates.

HK Fried Carrot Cake with XO sauce ($5.50)

The first that hits you is how small the portion is. You can practically count the number of carrot cake cubes. Portion aside, the dish came smelling heavenly. Taste wise though, the oil took up a huge part of it and where's the XO sauce? The carrot cake was firm and soft at the same time which made eating it a breeze but still, despite its generally sweet and soft texture, the residue of oil it leaves behind won't leave a good taste in your mouth.

Gold Medal Macau Baked ($14.80)

My gf had this. Let me explain the process involved in preparing this. Firstly, get ready made pasta, dip it in hot water and later cold water, lay a chicken chop, porkchop and some prawns and squid. Then separately put three different sauces, tomato, cream and curry sauce on the respective items and finally, add a layer of mozeralla cheese. Bake for about 5 minutes and serve the customer. Sounds decent right? However, they did not thaw the chicken and pork chop well enough, the also skimped on the baking process to speed things up and the pasta was not cooked properly. In its defense, the tomato base tasted good and the serving of meat is decent.

HK Street Shark's Fin Soup La Mian ($10.80)

This was what i came here for and this is the reason why i will not be back. The serving on television showed entire pieces of shark's fin which is obviously absent here. What was served was minuscule and insufficient. Worse, the La Mian was horrendously overcooked till it tastes soggy and the soup base was bland and tasteless. I don't know how they dared to feature this on television, this is plain bad.

Bill

An unsatisfying meal came up to $39.20 dollars without GST.

Score:

Overall: 5.5/10

Last word:

Disappointment stabbed at me as i left the place. I had high hopes for it since watching it on television but as usual, commercial reviews seem to overate these places at times. Maybe its because they get the food for free, or maybe they are paid to eat which thus skews their perception, but a paying customer like myself will tell you to stay away from this place. The pricing is ridiculous and the food laughable.