Victor's Kitchen

For more info about the impression of a boss, feel free to visit my blog post here.

I had a good laugh when I saw their menu which came in a order form. We ordered two bowls of porridge. One was called Phoenix Porridge ($3.50) while the other, Nemo's Porridge ($3.50). In the Dim Sum world, Phoenix is just a nice way of saying chicken but nemo? I have never heard of anyone naming their dish after a clown fish! 

Victor's rendition does resemble the Teochew Porridge more compared to Congee. I am just happy to share both bowls of awesomeness with my makan makis.  

Victor's King Prawn Dumplings ($4.50) are anything but ordinary. They might not look set to impress the crowd but it speaks clearly in the taste. The prawns were exceptionally huge compared to most restaurants and siding more all the juicy and crunchy side too! A must-have if you ever drop by the kitchen. 

Another must have for Dim Sum at Victor, Tasty Queen Size Siew Mai ($4.00). Again looks can be deceiving. Just because it's not well plated means it won't taste as good. I am just happy to pay $1 for each yellow cuboid meat dumplings.

Indeed one of our friend would consider this yummy. Phoenix Claws ($3.00). Personally, I didn't really liked the claws prepared. Everything about this dish was good apart from the sauce that it was left simmering in. Just not flavorful for me. 

Sometimes I wonder how could a Chinese survive without pork in their lives. I mean I have pork for almost every meal I had and Dim Sum is no exception. The Steam Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce ($3.00) again is a must-have dish although, those chopped up red chili just spice everything up. I shall remind the staffs not to add them the next time I'm coming here for Dim Sum.

The King Prawn with Vegatables Cheong Fun ($4.00) employed the same humongous prawns featured in their Har Gau was wrapped with a few greens in rice noodle kueh and then nicely placed in a sea of soy sauce. Surely nothing to boost off until you try it yourself.

Victor's signature Dim Sum. The highly revered Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun ($4.00) or in my own dialect, Lau Sha Pau. The white bun was light and fluffy but that's the main point. The yellow liquid that flowed out was nothing short of Oomph factor. Extremely savory with a strong hinge of Salted Egg Yolk amidst the buttery creamy custard. We love these little buns so much that we didn't just order one basket. We couldn't settle for two and we ended up getting a third basket! That's nine lava buns in total and yea, that's how you be a boss!

We spend $40.30 for a table full of food for four people. (They don't charge GST or Service Charge too.) The food may fall short of glamorous compared to other popular Dim Sum restaurants.But for the quality that the Chef invest in is the reason why the kitchen is often found packed with people craving for their light hearted snacks which we call Dim Sum.

Had wanted to come here for a long time but it closes early on weekdays and there was a saturday afternoon which i came with my bf but was full! So we were looking for a place for dinner in Sunshine plaza and was happy it was half full (near closing time) on a sunday evening... The choices here are pretty limited but the shrimps they use are really fresh! Personally.. i feel fresh shrimps are a must for dimsum...and was very very delighted by their golden egg yolk lava bun! generous filling without the salty egg yolk taste being over powering... a really great balance since im really not a salty egg yolk person.. Best time to come is probably sunday evenings. =) 

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Simple decor with no elaborate design or menu, Victor’s Kitchen prides itself on authentic, tasty dim sum. Even at 7pm, the place was bustling with life. Servers were walking around, dishing out orders of piping hot dim sum, as a consistent queue was formed outside the shop. On the walls of the shop were posters promoting their signature Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun and indeed on every table, there was at least 1 serving  – testimonial of the popularity of the Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun.

The joy of eating the Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun ($4) started from the excitement when we broke apart the soft, pillowy dough to reveal a yellow, creamy fluid centre. Next, we would be welcomed by the aroma of the piping hot salty custard. While we enjoyed the process of sipping up the savoury custard, we realized that the fillings were rather oily and the sight of the layer of golden oil was a slight turn-off.

Victor’s King Prawn Dumpling ($4.50) didn’t turn out that huge after all. However, every prawn dumpling was generously packed with succulent, fresh and juicy prawns in a soft and thin skin. The prawn dumplings were pretty average, nothing extraordinary, but still a delightful dish.

The Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce ($4) looked rather interesting and was not something commonly found in other dim sum places. The sauce resembled more of the light soya sauce accompanying rice rolls (chee cheong fun) and was lacking in XO taste. The scallops and sausages did not stand out in this carrot cake. We did bite into little bits of sausages and strands of scallops. However, the bulk of the taste came from the light soya sauce. Texture wise, the carrot cake had a texture almost similar to chwee kueh – soft, smooth and almost like baby food.

First my friend ask me to go there, cos she found it at some travel guide book. We ordered and about 15 minutes after that, come our other 2 friends, ordering in separate time. They asked for sauce plate and chopstick, turns out no one of the waitress can speak English. So they do self service, go to the serve station and pick their utensils.

Food is no special at all. All things that we order, even the must try that has been reviewed in many media that they put on the wall, I ever bought that at hawker centers and didn't found it taste any different.

Soon as we finished eating, they throw us the bills to our table. We know it's late maybe they want to prep for the close. But the many paper bills is attached into one. I and my friend want to pay separately with our other 2 friends. We don't share food with them either.  So we detached them and grouped them accordingly.

At the cashier table, this lady is on the phone. We don't understand mandarin, but it seemed that she upset. We waited for her finish her conversation for about two minutes, standing at the front of her desk. Then she saw the detached bills, and then started yelling :WHAT IS THIS? IF YOU WANT TO PAY SEPARATELY YOU SHOULD TELL US FROM THE START!!! and then she yelled and yelled repeating the words, one group of the adjacent table, I don't know, from the sound I can tell that they persuade her to let it go, forgive us, like that.

Than I started to talk, I wanted to say that we are different customer from the very first time, they come later, ordering in a different time although we share table. From what I got she just doesn't want to be troubled to recalculate it again. But one sentence, and she shut me up with :"oke oke la, don worry"

I started to say to my friends in front of her, let's not to eat here again. And she say nothing. But that saturday, our night is very very ruined. We got out from the place with red faces, we still remember the high tone voice until now. Oh my God what a nightmare :(

On 26 Feb 2012 (Sunday), we went with two toddlers for lunch.  With three adults and two kids, we spent about $65.  Quality of food is only average, given that the pricing is around $4 per serving. 

Yes, there's a constant queue and we waited patiently for our turn.  Finally, we managed to get a table.  Unfortunately, they do not provide baby chair hence we stacked 2 chairs for each of the kid.  All went well until when we were 3/4 into our meal.  One of their server (old auntie) came and grumbled that we took two chairs for the kids and now they had a shortage of chair.  We were TOLD to return the extra chair.  For goodness sake, we were still eating!!!  Hence we ignored her.  The auntie never gave up.  She came back two more times demanding for the chairs!  That's it!!!  Although we had not bite into the famous golden lava bun, saving the best for the last, we call for the bill and left. 

Ironically, as we were leaving, a smiley mid-aged server came to clear the table and took the stacked chairs, commenting that we are leaving.  We told her we were FORCED to leave and said the service was lousy!  Immediately, the smile left and she murmured, 'You all don't understand.'  We were speechless...

Are there extra chairs around?  Yes, there was a stack at near the cashier.  Some tables at corners were not occupied and there were empty chairs too. 

The service attitude and behaviour are NOT acceptable.  If they do not welcome family with kids (that need two chairs to reach table), do make it up front to the customer or put up signage.  They have seen the stacked chairs from the beginning, they could have stop us right from the start.  Seriously, they wanted business but not customers, hence such disrespect for customers. 

Will I re-visit Victor's Kitchen again, even if I am alone...  Unlikely...   

First impression was that the place is packed with tables just 2 small stools away from each other. No such thing as privacy and quiet here as people are less than a tablet length away.

Onto the food, usual dim sum staple like the har kow failed to impress although the prawn inside was huge. The yutiao cheong fun & glutinous rice was also average, not too bad but not impressive. The HK style pan fry cheong fun was a little better. Don’t bother with all the porridge, which was bland Teochew style instead of creamy HK style congee. The only 2 dishes worth mentioning are the carrot cake and the golden egg yolk lava bun. The carrot cake was not the fried kind but soft mushy kind. A good different kind of carrot cake worth trying. The signature and best item was the golden egg yolk lava bun. Not a custard bun by any way but hot flowing sweet savoury butter and a bit of salted egg inside a bun. Extremely heavenly just lapping up the flowing goodness.

I won’t specially return to Victor’s Kitchen as the environment just does not fit the price of $3 - $4.50 for a basket of dim sum but if I do return there, it has to be for the golden egg yolk lava bun and nothing else.

Located in one of the quiet corners at the ground floor level of Sunshine Plaza, this hidden find was nestled among a few other small restaurants. With newspaper clippings plastered all over their glass shopfront, it seemingly gave an assurance that their dim sum were good or way commercialized.

Dim Sum which was usually associated with yum cha (drinking of tea) originated in the days of the Silk Road. Drinking of tea was thought to aid in digestion for the meals and was henceforth introduced to complement dim sum. Enjoyed typically as a morning-after-exercise meal for the elderly, our families however only dined on it on our weekend family day.

The high amount of saturated fat and sodium in most dim sum dishes suggested it being a snack or tea-time meal. Meant to touch the heart in the form of a light treat and not a hearty meal, the conventions of modern dining however spelt a whole new experience. It was our first time in having dim sum for dinner and being a planned trip down to Victor's Kitchen, we were really looking forward!

Seated at a corner perusing the simple menu, posters such as Great Buns and strikingly yellow. Must definitely drew our attention to their famous Liu Sha Bau, i.e. salted egg custard bun. Let us find out if Victor's Kitchen has the perfect ooze factor indeed!

My fiance who is from HK and had been eating dim sum her entire life definitely knows more about dim sum than I do, and her verdict may be viewed here.

Liu Sha Bau, Salted Egg Custard Bun (S$4/3pcs)

(+) Enjoyed the slightly sweet initial taste accompanied by a salty aftertaste.

(+) Molten state of the filling was slightly gritty and offered a varied mouthfeel

(+) Fluffy, soft plain bun helped highlight the thick rich filling.

(-) Took some effort to juggle the molten custard in the bun to prevent it from spilling.

(-) Was good, but definitely not as good as acclaimed and described.

(-) The poster showed it was cheapest at S$3.50, guess not anymore.

Verdict: 7.5/10

I have always thought that a dim sum chef should be assessed on 3 simple yet intricate dishes, namely har gao, siew mai and lo bak go. Classically the must-haves when one dines for dim sum, we certainly could not do without!

Victor's King Prawn Dumpling (Har Gao) (S$4.50/4pcs)

(-) The prawns inside were neither crunchy nor soft, wasn't sure what was the intended taste supposed to be.

(-) The dumplings were not well wrapped, one of it had the skin burst open.

(-) The skin of the dumpling was soft and thin but too sticky, leaving remnants at the teeth.

Verdict: 6.0/10

Tasty Queen Size Siew Mai (S$4/4pcs)

(+) Soft and juicy siew mai but really nothing too spectacular to rave about.

(-) Largely disappointed as it was nowhere close to the Queen Size stated in the menu.

(-) Considering this was one of their signature dishes, I was expecting more.

(-) Minimal amount of fish roe on the top surface.

Verdict: 6.0/10

Scallop, Sausage carrot cake with XO Sauce (Lo Bak Go) (S$4/bowl)

(+) Good mix of flavours, giving a very tasty spoonful for it was so soft.

(+) The XO sauce kicked in after a while and could feel the warmness growing in the body.

(-) It was so soft that it was mashy, which was not quite what we expected.

(-) XO sauce was barely evident in taste, tasted more like mere soy sauce.

(-) Did not taste any scallops in the carrot cake too.

Verdict: 7.0/10

Chicken and Sausage in Glutinous Rice (S$4/-)

(-) Recommended as a signature, this was a complete disappointment.

(-) Rice was not fragrant enough and relatively hard.

(-) Only 1 piece of Chinese sausage was found, as big as a section of your finger.

(-) Broken, loose and pathetic amount of chicken pieces, it was mostly rice.

Verdict: 5.0/10

H.K. Style Pan Fry Cheong Fun (S$4/-)

(+) I enjoyed the slightly varied texture in the cheong fun, with a light crisp surface.

(-) However, the inside of the cheong fun was not soft enough.

(-) Failed to bring out the much desired contrast in texture and mouthfeel.

(-) Sadly, not the authentic H.K style, especially the sauces.

(-) Lack of chili and peanut sauces for the real authentic deal.

Verdict: 5.5/10

Crispy Golden Shrimp Rolls (S$4/6 pcs)

(+) Could hardly go wrong with their fried dishes.

(+) Freshly fried only upon ordered, it was very crispy indeed.

(-) It was a bit too much on the greasy side for me.

Verdict: 7.0/10

Deep Fried Shrimp Dumpling (S$4.50/4 pcs)

(+) Like above, it was only freshly fried upon order, very crispy.

(+) Crunchy shrimps inside offered a very delectable bite to the crispy skin.

(-) Once again, too oily for my personal preference.

(-) Tasted some of the flour, maybe the skin was too thick or uneven mixture?

(-) We were served vinegar as accompanying condiments instead of mayonnaise, though was replaced after we requested.

Verdict: 6.5/10

In the mood for a cha chang teng H.K dining experience, we opted for the traditional drinks typically offered

H.K. Summer Ice Tea (100% H.K. Taste) (S$3/-)

(+) Unique way to maintain the coolness of the tea without diluting it.

(-) The milk tea was not fragrant, rich nor smooth enough.

(-) Tasted like 'milk-milk tea'.

(-) Certainly overpriced for the quality served.

Verdict: 6.5/10

100% H.K. Style Hot Ying Yang (Coffee mixed with Tea) (S$2.50/-)

(+) Tasted rich and fragrant and not overly sweet.

(+) Adjusted to my liking for I told them not to add any sugar.

Verdict: 7.0/10

H.K. Special Ice Lemon Tea (S$2.50/-)

(+) Refreshing and zesty punch to wash down the greasy food.

(+) The fresh lemon slices enhanced the tangy flavour to the drink.

Verdict: 7.5/10

When it comes to dim sum, we have an exceptionally high standard for it is one of our favourite dining options. Also, it helps having a gourmet wife from H.K who provided her opinions on how authentic H.K. dim sum should taste like. That being said, we were rather disappointed with our visit to Victor's Kitchen. The lack of typical must haves such as egg tarts and char siew sou aside, most of their signature dishes failed to deliver to our expectations apart from their liu sha bau and their fried dishes (which are generally safe options for dim sum anyway). Also, the lack of chili sauce was quite a taboo by my books. The only one available was a watery sweet chili sauce which definitely did not go down well with the dishes for me. The menu had a tagline which read: We serve the best foods, but not fast foods. I would attest to their latter half of the sentence, but as for the former, I shall leave it to one's discretion.

P.S: No service charge and GST were levied on the prices and this was highly commendable in today's dining in Singapore. Definitely value for money, which explained the brisk business, but it was a rainy day and we went early at about 6.30pm so getting a table was easy.

Full review and photos: http://foodiefc.blogspot.com/2011/11/victors-kitchen-sunshine-plaza.html

Victor's Kitchen located at level one of Sunshine Plaza specialises in serving authentic Hong Kong Dim Sum. I am sure that when Dim Sum is mentioned most of you would be thinking of the likes of Peach Garden, Peony Jade, Lei Garden, Red Star or East Ocean. What's the difference you may ask? Well, to me the Dim Sum at Victor's Kitchen is cheap and good!

Arrived at 1pm on a Saturday. Victor's Kitchen was packed! Luckily, the turnover is quite fast, found a table within 5minutes. Do expect to be seated next to strangers with narrow passage ways.

To order, you will need to get the order slip(menu) from the counter along with a pencil and tick the items along with the quantity you want. After you are done, pass it to one of the helpers and then wait. Can't help but comment, look at the disclaimer 'we serve the best foods, but not fast food'. Well, for good food, you have got to wait.

The H.K. Summer Ice Ying Yang comes with ice surrounding the cup of ying yang (also known as yuanyang; coffee with tea) . This way, the drink is kept chilled without diluting the the taste of the drink.

I am not a fan of glutinous rice and in most places, most of the glutinous rice was hard. But we had to order it as we were starving and needed carbohydrate. When the Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous Rice arrived, my first (negative) thought was 'Wa, so plain'. But well, this is amazing sticky, soft and fragrant. I was totally won over by this dish. The best glutinous rice I have ate! What a great start to my meal.

The Char Siew Cheong Fun was smooth and thin with pieces of char siew in it of course. It was average.

I was not fast enough in taking a photo of the Phoneix Porridge. This is what is left after the 3 of us too our portions. Phoneix Porridge consist of century eggs and chicken. It was quite plain tasting. For those who want a strongly flavour, can add pepper and light soy sauce. I quite like the fact that it was plain tasting as it complement the other dishes. Moreover, thought that it was cooked well as it was not watery. Remind me of Teochew style porridge.

My first time trying such a Siew Mai; Vegetable and Quail Egg Siew Mai.It consist of egg quail on top and  vegetable at the bottom. This is one dish that I dislike. Weird combination of taste that did not appeal to me. Moreover, though that the meat had a weird after taste.

I am the only one among us who knows how to eat this dish; Yummy Yummy Phoenix Claws. Lucky me, because it was yummy. A must order!

The Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun is another must order! Be careful when eating it. As inside, it is full of buttery runny custard that is sweet, salty and sinful! Shiok!

There was just 2 pieces of Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun which was filled with sweet and tender meat. After having the Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun, this was really just average.

The Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce was fantastic! I have never eaten something like this before. The carrot cake was soft and mashy (like mashed potato) soaked in their home-made XO sauce. Somehow, we could not detect any XO taste in it, it was more like soy sauce. Nevertheless, this dish wow us so much that we had to order an addition serving of this.

This time we were determined to find out the exact taste of the XO Sauce. Hence, we added 50cents for the above. And well, we were truely shocked. I really have no idea what this is. Its like preserved vegetable soaked in oil? Anyone knows?

The Yutiao Cheong Fun was soaked in thick black sauce. Personally thought that it would taste better if it was soaked in soy sauce. Most online reviews have raved about how good this dish was. Well, I beg to defer, this dish did not appeal to me at all.

Well, the Steam Chicken with Chinese Wine was our last dish. The chicken was tender and fragrant having been soaked and steam in the chinese wine. Quite a normal and common dim sum dish.

Overall, the dim sum served here is really good and value for money. It was so good that we ordered 3 times in total, adding some dishes and ordering some dishes twice! In the end we over-ordered. I will definitely be back for more. If you have never been here, time to give it a try. Or you will never know what you are missing!

Full review and photos: http://foodiefc.blogspot.com/2011/11/victors-kitchen-sunshine-plaza.html

Entering Victor's Kitchen is like entering a eatery in Hong Kong with the staff speaking in cantonese or cantonese-accented mandarin. This is probably one of the very few places in Singapore, that serves dim sum all day. And mind you, it's authentic dim sum. We didn't plan to eat here that day. But because it was a public holiday with many shops closed, we ended up walking in Sunshin Plaza looking for food and saw Victor's Kitchen. It was my first time and I had a good experience.

How many of the dim sum restaurants actually uses such big and juicy prawns? Not many. Being a huge har kau fan, it is a must for me to order har kau when I visit any dim sum place. And Victor’s King Prawn Dumpling（超级虾饺王，$4.50）is definitely one of the best I had in Singapore.

The prawns here are huge, juicy and crunchy, that looked like its going to burst out anytime. A pity that the skin was stuck on the metal pan, breaking before I could pick it up. But I would still come back for it.

The Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO sauce（XO 酱干贝腊味蒸箩卜糕，$4）is the first one that I will rave about. They made their own carrot cakes with scallop and sausage mash. I can't really taste the XO sauce but the carrot cake is smooth with a hint of seafood.

I did a search on Victor's Flowing Custard Buns（黄金流沙包，$4） and I realised the custard bun here is not always that "flowing". So I guess I am really lucky this time. I can't explain but the custard is so different from the ones I had.

Gently and slowly, I peeled open the soft and fluffy bun, the custard ooze out like gleaming lava and you can taste all that buttery sugary goodness with a strong hint of salted egg yolk. Ommmm...

For more photos, please click here.

Do not go on weekends and public holidays. There is no nai huang bao. The liu sha bao is just not as good, although many people think liu sha bao is nicer.

Recently it has been found that even on weekdays there is no nai huang bao. :(