Traditional Dim Sum from Central in Hong Kong - Luk Yu Teahouse & Restaurant (Ion Orchard)

Tucked away in a corner right at the entrance of the Food Opera foodcourt in Orchard Ion, Luk Yu Teahouse & Restaurant might be displayed as a mere dim sum takeaway stall. In fact, I noticed that most people buy the dim sum and eat at the tables in the foodcourt rather than head inside the restaurant's dining area. Maybe they thought that they had to pay extra to eat there? I also thought so at first but surprisingly, I didn't have to pay any additional GST nor service charge.

Actually, the reason why I was keen to try Luk Yu had to do with the fact that I had intended to visit its Hong Kong outlet when I was there at the beginning of the year. However, due to some last-minute changes to my plans, I had to give this a miss even though the guidebook I had highly recommended this for its traditional charm since it was established back in 1933. As such, I have no basis of comparison when it comes to whether the HK or SG version is better. In a way, that is helpful too because I tried the food with an open mind and wasn't too critical about it. Maybe I'll be less forgiving when I try Tim Ho Wan in Plaza Singapura since I was really impressed with what I tasted in HK.

Looking at the menu, it is predominantly made up of dim sum items taking up two-thirds of the page. The remaining space is for congee, noodles, desserts and beverages which you can see that there aren't too many choices.

Starting off the meal with a plum drink since it was pretty hot that day and I wasn't in the mood for Chinese tea. By the way, Luk Yu offers a selection of Chinese tea for you to match with your dim sum so you can check out the menu on the table. I was hoping that the plum drink would be a light and refreshing drink which could help to reduce the after-meal oiliness. However, it was a tad too sour for my liking and so I would have liked it to be slightly more diluted. There isn't much to say about the way the drink was presented which I suppose lies with the fact that Luk Yu is a teahouse after all so they would probably put more effort in the teapots and teacups used for Chinese tea rather drinks like plum juice which are commonplace everywhere else. Not that it bothers me though because I can understand where the emphasis would be placed on.

And next up are the dim sum items! I always like to order this dish of spare ribs steamed in black bean sauce whenever I have dim sum but not every place does this well enough. Either their spare ribs are too bony with little meat or too oily so I find myself being disappointed most of the time. Luckily, Luk Yu does fine in this dish with a generous portion of meaty spare ribs which doesn't leave an oily aftertaste at the end of the meal. However, if there's one thing I must point out, I think the evenness of the taste needs to be improved because the spare ribs at the bottom seem to have soaked up a lot of the sauce and became a tad saltier than the meat at the top which can taste less flavourful than it should have been so it's a pity that something like this happened.

Another staple dim sum item I must have will be the siew mai. Luk Yu's version seems a bit more meaty than "prawny" and gives the impression that the meat's taste has overshadowed the prawns within. Given that the size of the prawns is a little smaller than the versions found in places such as Crystal Jade, maybe that's why the taste leans towards the meaty side rather than the seafood freshness found in prawns. For people who prefer to taste big fat prawns in their siew mai, this version might not meet your expectations. Although I'm also the type who prefers the prawn taste to be stronger than the meat, I can still accept this version but if I have to eat multiple pieces of this in one seating, I don't think I would really enjoy doing this. Maybe one or two would do just fine for me.

I always like to have Cantonese-style congee with my dim sum so I ordered the seafood porridge here. It was a huge surprise to see so many ingredients inside this $6.80 porridge with at least four pieces of fish, prawns and scallops each. No doubt the prawns might not as big as those in Crystal Jade's version or that the scallops were actually sliced thinner (maybe into half of its original size?), I think it's a pretty good bargain after all given its price. Another good thing was to see the peanuts and crispy crackers on top of the congee when it was served. A lot of places don't serve peanuts with their congee so I was really happy to see that. The only grouse I have has got more to do with my personal taste though, the congee seemed a bit bland and I had to add some light soy sauce to it. In other places, I'm usually fine with no light soy sauce for my congee. As such, if you are one who likes lighter fare, I think this congee might just suit you.

On the whole, this outlet of Luk Yu dishes out decent fare at market prices comparable to the competition. The biggest selling points or should I have its advantages lie in the fact that it's right at the entrance of the food court and doesn't charge you taxes or service charge thus should attract a fair bit of customers. However, people seemed unwilling to enter the restaurant's dining area so it would be to the restaurant's advantage if they inform customers about the no-GST and no-service charge perks which should boost the restaurant's table occupancy rate. When I was there on a weekend evening, there were just three tables of customers including me so that's definitely on the low side.

Maybe it's time for me to consider going back to HK again to try the original Luk Yu? ^__^