Red Star is pretty much like an old guard of the Hong Kong Yum Cha culture in Singapore with the waitresses pushing carts loaded with dim sum dishes aplenty.

I have to say that this review is probably biased thanks to these factors:

1. My friends and I went arrived early at about 8.30am, so we didn't have to queue up for our tables.


2. We were prepared for an extravagant session of yum cha, so that bill of $64 for 3 hungry guys wasn't too rude a shock.


3. We ordered Red Star's big pau for a friend who horlanded while trying to find his way over and realised how good a joke it could get. (Godzilla pau would be a more appropriate name.)


4. Not a lot of shouting across the place, despite it being somewhat of an old school yum cha place. (I readily stand corrected if I made a wrong assumption)


5. The lack of menus sort of added to the surprise of what the kitchen could offer and allowed for interaction with the wait staff.


6. They had a lot of interesting items coming from the kitchen, like banana and prawn fritters.


7. Other minor surprises came in the form of somewhat unconventional yum cha items like paper-wrapped chicken.


8. The quintessential yum cha items like har gow, siew mai, chicken feet, pork ribs and century egg porridge were perfectly made and tasted perfect.


9. It is gratifying to make people envious by retelling how good the food and experience was at Red Star.

1. The billing process was rather slow.

We went to Red Star on a whim, for dinner, thinking that they would somehow still have dimsum, and expecting a restaurant similar to crystal jade. we were wrong.

BUT we nevertheless had an enjoyable meal.

I think there was a special chinese new year menu, full of sets, but we were only two people so that didnt really apply.

In the end we had:

Hong Kong Noodles ($12) (Small)
Sliced Fish with Broccoli ($15) (Small)
Deer Meet with Ginger and Onion ($15) (Small)

The sliced fish with broccoli was excellent. the fish meat wasnt the usual sliced fish you get from the fish soup. it was thick and a little chunky, but no fishy taste, despite the presence of fish skin. the broccoli was very good. not soggy, but crunchy and it was done very well with the ginger and garlic. not too overpowering. there were also mushrooms and carrots in the dish itself, we both enjoyed it very much. Reasonable portion at $15.

The Deer Meat with Ginger and Onion was decent also - deer tastes a little like a cross between chicken and pork - its not really chicken because its not so tough or lean, pork because well it feels a little fatty. my partner enjoyed it thoroughly, especially because he likes spring onion (he ATE all the spring onion up) and he doesnt like his meat so tough. it wasnt too salty, but as with the sliced fish dish, it was a little oily, though not fried. Reasonable portion also at $15.

The hongkong noodles however were a let down. there was next to nothing in it, and it tasted extremely starchy. for $12, we expected more, but the portion was small and there was essentially no taste.

As an appetiser they serve some pickled cabbage thing, which we enjoyed very much. We didnt have chinese tea at all, but had water, but the charge is still $1.20 regardless. Service was okay.

I'm disappointed i didnt get to try their dimsum, but since they open every morning and serve dimsum from 7am-3pm, we're thinking of going by there before i go to work.

It has been a while since I last visited. It seems to me that this place is cleaner, brighter & more organised now. The pushcart is always a draw for me since it's the very basic fundamental must have for dim sum.

We had a table of 7 and thankfully we reached around 10.45am & it was almost fully packed. The 7 of us can eat quite alot early in the morning as far as I can recall because we had 4 bowls of porridge, 2 baskets of har gaw, 3 baskets of siew mai, 1 basket of lotus leaf rice, 1 plate of fried salad you tiao, 2 plates of chee cheong fun, 2 baskets of char siew bun, 1 plate of roast pork with jelly fish (I only ate the Jelly fish), 1 plate of egg tarts, 1 plate of you cai, 1 plate of shrimp dumpling, 1 plate of fried wanton & dessert for all which include mango pudding, honeydew sago, almond tofu with longan.

It may not sound like or even be categorised as "ALOT OF FOOD" for many out there but it sure is alot based on the fact that 2 people, inculding me are supposed to be on a diet but then decided since it's Chinese New Year, what the heck!

I've always loved the dim sum they have because it's not oily, fattening, or too "jialat" as some would describe. The siew mai & har gaw is my all time favourite, but the you cai (green vegetable) & chee cheong fun got the thumbs up too. Out of the 2 deep fried sinfulicious shrimp dumpling & wanton...the award goes toooooo....shrimp dumpling..full & generous filling enough to make you want just that little extra piece even thou' it's not supposed to be in my diet plan. Anyways these are all the food I can recall.

The dessert was a bit of a let down thou'. The manago was at 1st welcoming as 1st bite was bland but gave off the aroma it should have after. However, it became too sweet to endure. The honeydew sago was so so but the healtiest of all cos it does not contain coconut. I had almond tofu with longan. The almond tofu was overpowering for my tastebud. Disappointing.

The pushcart aunties are polite & helpful..most time patient since we had quite a time deciding what we want & how much to consume.

Now I have a flashback of the old Mcdonald's commercial of the 2 chinese women wearing their cheongsum, waving silk handkichief calling out "lai ya..lai ya"...

think my family chose a wrong time to visit red star, first visit there. and the queue stretched down the stairs, not sure if it happens every sunday though. waited for bout 45mins, considering that the queue was moving at a moderate speed. when we finally got a table, clearly we were all starving so maybe this review isnt too reliable. hahah food tastes better when you're hungry!
anyway we started off with some pan fried carrot cake, char siew bao, har gow and siew mai. the carrot cake and har gow were ok, siew mai had really fresh prawns so it tasted very good. maybe it could have been bigger though. particularly enjoyed the bao, even though i dont usually eat char siew bao at all. hahah but the bao was really soft and fluffy and the char siew was simply good!
then we had some steamed dim sum, not very mentionable. must try is the chee cheong fun, tried the prawn and char siew ones, both were very soft and smooth. century porridge was smooth enough, but not special enough to make an impression. ended off with char siew puff and egg tarts. egg tarts were a bit too sweet, but the crisp and buttery crust made up for it! :D
spent total of $75 for 5 people, very reasonable and filling meal, with quality and quantity!

The last time i went to Red Star was a couple of months ago, and then didn’t have much pictures to show of due to the poor lighting. But today, i had a good seat with good lighting, so ladyironchef proudly presents the Dim-sum from Red Star. Taa-daa!!

Siew Mai

Well well, Siew Mai seems to be a must-have item for Dim Sum, if it is the garge to judge a Dim sum restaurant’s standard, Red Star definitely pass the test with flying colours. The Siew Mai is good, unlike the normal ones where eating one or two will makes you bloated, the one here are chewey, and after having two, another two shan’t be much of a problem.

Har Gau

Har Gau and Siew Mai always come togther don’t they. Har Gau Siew Mai. Thumbs up to the Har Gau here, a big prawn inside the skin of the Har Gau. Need we say more?

Chee Chong Fun

The clear winner in Red Star, it always get sold out faster than you saw it. Luckily today we didn’t have to wait for the auntic to come a second round.

Fried prawn

Dumpling

From what the staff say, this one is only available on Sat, so get em’ the next sat u go. The dumpling is really awesome! Rarely did i see any dumpling outside (except from my mom’s home-made dumpling) that has fillings so thick the dumpling skin barely hold it.

Fried You-tiao with mayo

American-roasted duck ($18)

Undoubtly the Star of the show, the American-roasted duck (no idea why it is american roast) was crispy and tasty. The skin was as crispy as one you would expect from a roast sucking pig. There is another version available, the Beijing-roasted duck. From what i gathered about Red Star’s duck, the American-roasted duck is crispier but fatter, while the Beijing’s version is leaner but not as crispy. However, at $18 for half a duck, it is too expensive and too little. At the same price, we coould even get a better whole roasted duck.

I was amazed when we paid up. Total bill was $69.85 for two person. The last time i was there, we onli paid $100 over for ten odd person. This time two of us manage to gobble up so much. But then again much of the damage was from the duck. 7 big dim sum, 3 small dim sum, and 2 others.

You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written above are my geniune feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or bias. Please do not feel emotional or distress should you have any violent objections. Kindly click the little X at the upper, extreme right of your screen if negative adjectives would be derived. Otherwise, feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )