Unless there's a very compelling reason, seldom do I return to the same restaurant within 3 months, let alone within a week!  But this was what I did for The Cathay, a mere 4 days after my first successful foray (this was Friday), but only because we held a vote and The Cathay came tops of the 4 available choices (it's probably not P-C to divulge the names of the losers). 

Anyway, this was going to be a dim sum lunch to celebrate two colleagues' birthdays (and I was thus without my Precious friends).  Contrary to the last time, the place was positively buzzing with activity: all visible tables were occupied, mostly by large groups, and the waitresses added to the bustle by scuttling about agitatedly. 

The shou mei tea was kinda weak and wasn't as fragrant as I'd hoped... but on to the food.  Gladly, they allowed us to order in precise numbers, instead of going by the baskets of 3s or 4s.  We had:

2 portions glutinous rice in lotus leaves ($8.40)

2 century egg porridge ($7.60)

8 steamed scallop dumplings ($11.20)

14 pieces deep-fried beancurd skin roll with shrimp ($19.60)

2 portions (ie. 6 pieces) pan-fried carrot cake ($7.60)

2 portions chicken with peppercorn dumplings ($7.60)

2 portions steamed rice rolls with scallop ($11.00)

2 portions mini pork dumplings ($7.60)

1 portion baked BBQ pork pastry ($3.80)

1 portion BBQ pork bun ($3.80)

8 pieces xiao long bao ($10.40)

1 portion chicken feet ($3.20)

2 portions mini egg tart ($6.40)

8 pieces custard yolk bun ($10.40)

8 tea, towel and water ($14.40)

2 pickles (boiled nuts - $4.00)

Becasue Singaporeans are mad for it, but also because of the competition, many places in Singapore now serve excellent dim sum.  I'd say that overall, The Cathay provides fairly good stuff, but it's not as impressive as it ought to be, given the quality of its a la carte dishes. 

In general, the skin of the dumplings is too thick, and the fillings/stock used (for the xiao long bao and other steamed dumplings) is a tad salty.  The only items that stood out were the beancurd skin with shrimps (hence why we ended up with 14 pieces!), the glutinous rice (nicely stuffed with an aromatic mix of meat, salted egg and shrimp) and the carrot cake (could be a little crispier, but it excelled in flavour).  Oh and the custard bun too.  Today it was better than it'd been on Monday, and I humbly take what I said: this one can rival the version at Imperial Treasure!  A pure delight. 

The rest of the items were, like I said, all right, but you can robably find better elsewhere.  The service wasn't as good today either, probably because they were so busy.  They made an error when calculating the bill, though: instead of the 6 pieces of egg tarts, we were charged for 6 portions!  It was a genuine mistake though, one that's easy to make when you're serving a table that ordered thrice in varying quantities, and we even got a voucher for future use.  For this meal, we paid $123 in total, because they were having a 30% discount promotion for lunch.  At $15 per person, it's great value!