Once in a while when we want to have a good meal Chinese style, we'd go to Dian Xiao Er and order their set meal. I like it that the price and number of dishes on their set menu is planned according to how many people there are, and I absolutely love almost all the dishes, from the soup to the fish, vegetables and of course their specialty duck. I also like that there's the healthy family set. It's no doubt why everytime we go to Dian Xiao Er, we order the family set. A suggestion - they should provide dessert at the end of the set meal! Makes the meal more complete. 

I like their soups. I never fail to finish every drop. Nicely brewed. Their white rice, though something seemingly very simple, is also of superior quality. Impressive rice. The Baby Kailan with salted fish and lime was super appetising and opened up my appetite. The Kailan was cooked just right everytime I ate it, with the added crunch. I normally prefer Mongolian Spare Ribs to Dongpo Ribs. The Mongolian Spare ribs were marinated well, though a little spicy (absolutely bearable) and on the oily side. On to their famous roasted duck! Crisp skin, wonderful sauce, tender meat, and not oily! But sometimes their meat were cut into portions too small - and the portion for 4 may not necessarily be enough for big eaters!

Ambience wise... a little like eating in a village with their traditional setting (stools) with some mini calligraphy (though not the cutlery and utensils). Service was ok. But there was once when an auntie served us and kept emphasising that a glass of water costs 30 cents! I think she wanted us to order other drinks instead of plain water but we already said we wanted water. It was irritating to hear her repeat the price. Other than that, the others were mostly PRCs and they were generally ok.

Recommended for family lunches/dinners.

waited for almost 20mins (on a Saturday night) before we were seated, people behind us were seated first - reason being the 4 seaters were available faster than the bigger tables; in our case, my nephew had tagged along and we became a group of 5. Shud look into expandable tables to accommodate the number of diners.

Apparently, many were also concerned about the air-conditioning in the eatery as i heard many people requesting not to seat near the a/c units.

The food came pretty fast after we placed our order. Serve staff were very good and attentive - from the accent, seems that most were from China.

Food was overall nice but my family members said it was abit on the salty side, but i did not notice that.

Had the crab meat sharks fin soup but felt more like egg and crab soup, but still got few patches of sharks-fin. The Dong-Po pork belly was quite soft tender, but still a few notches lower from what my mom had in Shanghai. I also felt that the marinade had somehow overpowered the taste of fresh pork.

I am not a duck person as i disliked the "blood" taste, but the dang-gui duck we had was done quite nicely. When it came out, there was still smoke coming out from the duck and it was good when its hot. However, the meat part which was soaked in the sauce quickly became ambient and started to give out that cold bloody taste, but to a minimal.

The Deep Fried Cod in black sauce came quite late as the last dish ... almost 15 mins or so but it was done nicely too - crispy on the outside but wet and juicy on the inside - but my family again said the black sauce was on the savory side.

The jie-lan veg was good according to my family ... done in a nice way. The green shredded veg was flash fried for crispiness and then the jie-lan stem was placed in the center and the doused in sauce and smothered with pork floss. Sorry, i don't take veg so i can't relate much.

Total spent for the meal was including 5 drinks and towels and GST/Service charge.(with my Groupon for the duck)

When Dian Xiao Er is mentioned, the first thing in mind should be its roasted duck! The ducks are so well roasted such that you'll have to keep going back whenever you crave for duck meat! Of course, having said, there are other places which offers even better roasted ducks but this is definitely among the top and one of the best I've tried so far.

The $10++ lunch time promotion set is absolutely value for money as it comes with a soup of the day (chinese soup of course), vegetable of your choice, a plate of roasted duck (pretty generous portion) and a bowl of plain rice. It also comes with tea which can be refilled.

The service staff are mainly Chinese from China and most of them are very friendly and polite. They are also pretty attentive to your needs. You'll feel the warmth when you enter. Well trained I must say.

One bad thing about Dian Xiao Er though, you got to pay $2 for a plate of peanuts and extra $0.30 for your wet tissue as they are not included in the service tax. So be warned about that!