Wen's Delight: Wah Lok Cantonese Restaurant

11th Apr 2010

We love dim sum pretty much and the choice for our dim sum indulgence this month was at Wah Lok Cantonese Restaurant, located at Level 2 Carlton Hotel. An award wining Cantonese cuisine restaurant that serve traditional dim sum during lunch daily. This was a first visit for all of us and we really looking forward to this Sunday dim sum lunch since there were numerous rave reviews about them and also highly recommended by my buddy to try. So I made a reservation one week in advance for my family as I heard weekends are usually very packed. I was right, it was almost full house at 11.30am when it's just started for lunch. The restaurant ambiance is great, it's elegant, classic and spacious. We were given a nice big table in the main hall near the window.

The dim sum selections are the standard traditional fare nothing really fancy but each one was executed nicely. Nothing really no good and some of them are exceptionally nice that warrant a return visit from me. Generally I felt that the fried and baked items are done better than the steamed ones. Let's see what we had that day... be warned it's a long post!

Crispy Roast Pork - S$10.00++

Nice crackling skin but would prefer the pork to be leaner, a bit too fatty.

Marinated Spiced Pig's Shank with Jelly Fish - S$13.80++

Aunt Peggy liked the pig shank which I never try and we liked the jelly fish.

Deep Fried Silver Fish - S$13.00++

Very addictive! Very well fried as it was not oily at all. A must try!

Deep Fried Octopus Tentacies - S$12.00++

Another addictively delicious appetizer.

Steamed Prawn Dumplings - S$6.80++ (3pcs)

A must have for all our dim sum session and usually this will be the benchmark for the dim sum fare. As for Wah Lok's one was traditionally well executed but not the best one around.

Steamed Pork Dumplings - S$5.60++ (3pcs)

Another standard must have item. This was not bad too.

Steamed Scallop "Cheong Fun" - S$6.50++

The rice roll was smooth but too thick and floury for my liking and this was probably the only item fell below average.

Steamed Carrot Cake - S$4.50++

One of the signature dish but I find that the sauce was a bit too salty for me.

Steamed Glutinous Rice Wrapped with Lotus Leave - S$5.40++

A must have for my cousin.

Steamed Fish Head with Chilli - S$5.80++

Fish head is my all time favourite and this was fresh and delightful.

Baked BBQ Pork Bun - S$8.00++ (4pcs)

One of the being rave about item and I totally agreed that it was good. The thin bun skin hold the tasty moist char siew well and the baked pastry on top further enhanced the overall bun making it a signature dish. A must try!

Baked Egg Tarts - S$7.00 (5pcs)

One of the must try too! This was so good! The pastry was so light and flaky with the melt in the mouth egg custard. Can easily polished off one effortlessly and wouldn't mind to have a second helping.

Deep Fried Yam Rolls - S$5.70++

The lacy batter that coated the mushy yam was so light and delicate. A plus for being not so oily.

Deep Fried Prawn Dumplings with Salad - S$10.50 (5pcs)

Deep fried stuff are always easy to bit on and this was rather average, nothing to shout about.

Century Egg Congee - S$3.00++

Seafood Congee - S$6.00++

The texture of the porridge were thick and nice but preferred the century egg porridge which was more flavourful and rich. Also, they should at least add in some garnishing like spring onion instead of serving it plain.

Fried Vermicelli - S$18.00++

This was well fried with wok hei but a bit oily.

Deep Fried Mango Ice Cream - S$6.00++

Not as good as expected probably because I don't like dessicated coconut. The mango ice cream was not very flavourful too and was frozen hard. We had a hard time scrapping it.

Cream of Pomelo & Mango - S$6.00++

Very refreshing without being too creamy or sweet. I liked it. A nice dessert to end the heavy dim sum lunch and cleansed our palates.

Pickles at S$3.00++ and tea at S$1.00++ each. Wow, I think we over ordered for 5 of us as we were really very full, indeed a very satisfying dining experience except that one of the waitress was not very polite. Her face looked like the whole world owing to her. Still overall is a great place for good, hearty, traditional Hong Kong dim sum.

The total bill was about S$190 plus. Approximately about S$40 per pax which was quite reasonable for the quality and quantity. By the way, this was a treat from my uncle. Thanks Uncle! We all decided to take a break from dim sum in the next 2 months after this over indulgence...lol!