Dian Xiao Er 店小二 (Marina Square)

Dian Xiao Er is definitely the restaurant I frequent most. Visiting at least once every 2 months for the past 3 years since my gf love the herbal duck a lot. Honestly I feel that they should give me their membership since I visit so much. (Or perhaps the ministry of good boyfriends should give me a medal.)

Anyway, will review the most recent visit then.I took up their family set meal (for 2 pax) and top up to change a few items.

What I ate:

1) Steam rice 

2) Top-up Angelica herbal duck to 10 wonder herbal duck

3) Baby Kai Lan

4) Chose mongolian spare ribs

5) Top-up 2 soup of the day to 1 Fish Maw with chicken (requested them to use chicken instead of crab cause of my allergies)

As usual, had a sumptuous meal. My gf even drank the last bit of the herbal duck sauce. She likes the herbal duck a lot...so much so that she volunteered the last few big pieces of mongolian spare ribs for me so that she can 'attack' the duck -_-!

Strongly recommend those who have not tried Dian Xiao Er to do so, the herbal duck, mongolian spare ribs, dong po meat, fish maw, fish slices and many other dishes are really good and must-try.

 

Celebrated my dad's birthday 2-3 weeks back. We had the set meal (which had 7-8 dishes I think), drinks and ordered extra bowls of rice; spent about $200 altogether. We liked the duck ALOT! Every other food was above average. We were quite pleased with the food there. The portion was good too. I wouldnt mind going back again!

Met up with friends at marina square yesterday. We reach around 7. No queue, table for 4 was available. My previous visit was around 6 months back. Had a good impression then.

We ordered executive set for 4. Price was 120+. Dishes include roasted duck (angelica herb), broccoli with scallops, steamed cod fish with soy sauce, baked prawns, sharks fin soup. Desert hashima with red dates and ginseng and some drinks.

The duck portion was much smaller as compared to previous visit and it did not taste as good also. The herb taste was bland and meat was not tender. 5/10

Broccoli with scallops was normal. 6/10

The steamed cod fish was the best dish. It was fresh and the sauce was good. 8/10

Baked prawns was average. Felt it was slightly overcooked as meat was tough. 5/10

There shark fin soup tasted more like fish maw soup and got abit of fishy smell. 4/10

Desert normal. 6/10

Service was prompt and in general polite. However the food disappoint. No discount on bill but was given $10 voucher.

Exemplary service. Great food. I'll definitely come back

Was celebrating a friend birthday and decided to settle for Dian Xiao Er.

Tried the set dinner meal with seven or eight dishes. Dong bo rou is very well done. Not very oily. Rest of the dishes are pretty nice too.

Deco wise just have the feeling of those inn in ancient time.

You can't help but take a second look at Dian Xiao Er when you walk past it. Every bit of the shop is designed to look like an old inn you watch in those ancient chinese shows. It isn't just a passing novelty, I still enjoy the experience every single time I am there.

The duck meat with herbs is a must-try. The meat is tender, fragrant and really sweet. The Mongolian spare ribs is another must try. It's well roasted, really tasty and yummy. I was also bought over by the spinach with three kinda of eggs. It was my first time trying that dish, and I've been ordering it elsewhere but none as good as my first at Dian Xiao Er.

Service is quite good. They will always remember to refill your tea and are pretty responsive.

One downside of visiting Dian Xiao Er is that because of the huge crowd and long queue, I always feel a little rushed to finish my food. The servers seem pretty eager to clear my plates. But you can't really blame them because the queue is always very long!!!

For those of you who haven't been there, you should really queue for once and try the food.

It's been a long time (2yrs) since I've eaten here.

Nice revamp to the menu that surprised me!

Food

We took the executive set for 5 pax, generous portion of food. Nice herbal roast duck that is not too strong to suit every one's taste bud.

Ambience

Not much change still decorated like Long Men Ke Zhan ^^

Value

Take the executive set that is slightly more expensive but better food.

Service

Prompt to serve and courteous service provided.

I was first introduce to this restaurant by my boyfriend then, now husband. I only eat my mum's braised duck without skin and very seldom do I eat duck meat outside until I came to Dian Xiao Er.

I love their duck meat especially the roast duck, the skin of the duck is crispy. Yum yum...

The last 2 visit to the restaurant, my husband and I had their set meal (4 dishes + rice)and we love it. I think it could be served for 3 instead of 2.

They now offer some discount for their set meal which I feel that it's worth it.

Oh yes... I forgot about their service. It was good at Marina Sq. Their staff were friendly and they tell you what dish it is when served. They topped up plain water without requesting for it.

Some of them do offer to inform us of their CNY promotion where there are discount now. Once cross over to 2009, no discount available.

Had our dinner at Dian Xiao Er today.

We ordered Dong Po Pork, Chinese Tea, Sweet Celery, XO seafood fried rice and Xiao Er's beancurd. The Dong Po Pork was less tender than the one we had at T3 but it has less fats on it. Overall, it was still as good.

The waiters and waitresses were very professional and took pride in their services. They will automatically pour tea for you when they noticed that your tea cup is half filled and also will clear the empty dishes after the last piece of food has been taken.

Overall, the experience I had is as good as the one I had in Dian Xiao Er (T3).

Great job guys, keep it up.

We actually went to this place because a friend of a friend decided it’s a good place to eat. Since I've never been to any of the outlet before, so here we go. The waiting time was not too long, since we reach there around 8.

We ordered (For 5 hungry people)

1. Herbal Roast Duck

2. Fragrant Nestum Prawn

3. Mongolian Spare Ribs

4. Deep Fried Kai-Lan with Meat Floss

5. Sesame Deep Fried Chicken x 2 (I explain later)

6. Buddha Jump Over the Wall (for 1)

7. Winter Melon Soup (for 3)

8. Soup of the day, boil spare ribs & vegs (for 1)

Note: We ordered all Medium size, except for the soup, that only got 1 size.

Anyway, if you are a roast duck fans, you won’t be disappointed. Its fragrant, got crispy skin, tender meat and glaze with the herbal sauce. If they have the pancake like Beijing Roast Duck, you might mistaken this for Beijing Roast Duck. I give it 9 out of 10.

The Fried Kai-Lan with meat floss is something unique. They only use the stalk of the Kai-Lan, stir-fry it and top it up with meat floss and black fungus.

The nestum prawn, spare ribs and sesame fried chicken are good but nothing to special to write about. No comment on the Buddha Jump Over the Wall since it was not me who ordered it :( The winter melon soup is nice and tasty, since it’s boiled with dried scallops.

Service:

The staff are friendly and attentive. However, I personally feels that the staff are over friendly and over attentive that you don't have the privacy when you are eating. I think that the staff still need to find the balance on the service part.

The staff ask if we have UOB card since we order the deep fried sesame chicken, we said no at first, but inform her immediately after we realise that one of us have UOB card. However she said, the order has been put in the computer, and can't be change. So we end up with 2 plate of Deep fried sesame chicken.

To their credit, we wanted to order the winter melon soup at first, but it was all out. Subsequently, she found out that new batch of soup is ready, so she check with us if we want to order the soup and so we did.