*Thick creamy congee with lots of ingredients to choose from
*Food takes its time to cook - longer wait than you'd expect
Our third time here for a 3 person family dinner. First time writing a review
What draws us back here is really the congee base. It is a thick consistency that they put ingredients in, reminding us of the homely, grandma style congee that you'd have when you were recovering from the cold/sore throat.
We had:
Clotted pig's blood congee ($21), added extras: dried oyster ($9) and shredded lettuce ($3)
The beauty of this shop is customising your congee to the extras. The huge bowl of congee that fills you up. The 5 pieces of clotted pig's blood is silky smooth, tofu like texture, but not much flavour. The 3 dried oysters are tiny, but provided a punch of sea saltiness that would be welcome in a more robust congee (perhaps a seafood congee). The shredded lettuce provide a little bit of colour and guilt free intake.
Sliced abalone and scallop congee ($33)
The abalone slice is generous - they give you 3-4 slices of the real thing. You also get 4 pieces of whole scallop - they taste fresh, but it's the more firm texture, not the hokkaido type scallop.
Sliced abalone and Scallop congee ($33), added extras: lean pork ($4)
You may want to take a closer look at home to customise to get the bang for your buck. The price for the extra abalone ($6) is cheaper than the scallop ($10), so here's our take. The 4 slices of abalone and the 4 pieces of scallop is also generous, and the pork is according to the menu, fresh. I didn't get to taste it, so I won't comment on it.
Congee takes time. So here were the appetitisers intended to tie us over time:
Stir fried XO vermicelli ($20)
They actually stir-fried a lot of plain vermicelli, and keep it warm, then re-stir fry it with XO sauce for this. This is your average, nice thing to kick start your taste buds. It's not spicy, but a little kick. Spicy hot lovers will find this plain.
Blanced lettuce with oyster sauce ($18)
Your average blanched vegetables with a generous dollop of oyster sauce.
This night was busy, and they had to wash up more lettuce and stock up to meet the customer demand.
Fried dough stick "油炸鬼" ($7)
They ran out of the other fried doughnut "牛利蘇", so we only got this. It's not super crunchy, but is still good for soaking up congee.
Overall:
A local place for getting that creamy congee with the ingredients that you like but might not get to customise. Just don't expect to be gone in a hurry.
Other Info. :
Originally Mum found this place handing out flyers, and we wanted a pick me up from sore throats.
[b]Waiting time:[/b] Eat in is not particularly fast for a congee place. We took about 30-45 mins. Expect to wait longer than you think for food, and expect to chase the waiters for the food to come.
If you want faster, try ordering takeaway.
The waiters are constantly trying to keep pace with the hectic dinner crowd, so often they are trying to balance the number of people hurrying them up, and the capacity of the tiny kitchen.
It is chaotic food management, slightly improving as the time go by.
[b]Tips:[/b] Ask for a ticket if you eat in, and make sure the staff [b]know[/b]. I had to ask for the ticket number twice as they only recognise your face and number of people.
[b]Interior & Seating: [/b]Seating is tight, and the interior is a modern Hong Kong style cafe (茶餐廳). The chairs are leather cushioned so it's still comfortable.
(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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