Victor's Kitchen

I've had good dim sum not only in Singapore but in many countries. And Victor's Kitchen is authentic Hong Kong dim sum for sure.

The unique steamed carrot cake is my favourte. It's by far my favourite dim sum dish anywhere. The milk tea's good. And these are but some of the many good stuff on the menu.

It's cheap especially for the quality you get. Expect to wait on weekends. Service is so-so. But and wife and I get better service simply because we're frequent customers.

I dare say it's the one of the best places for dim sum across every price range. Even if they doubled the price, I'd still go.

Dim Sum Joint at Every Corner, You'd Find it if you bother.

Be it Good, Better or Best, Does Victor's Pass the Test?

At 3pm on this Sunday afternoon and having eaten nothing the whole day, I was hoping that my virgin trip to Victor's would provide me with the necessary sustenance to fulfil both my insatiable need for good Dim Sum as well as my daily nutrition. After all, Dim Sum has and will probably be my perennial choice for brunch, lunch or high tea for many years to come.  

Lunch started off well with the Deep Fried Cheong Fan. I found this deeply refreshing compared to the generic steamed Cheong Fan. With a nice crisp outer layer, the taste and texture evoked memories of the last time I had such a rendition. My only gripe was the meagre portion of Char Siew filling whose existence was only discovered slightly later when I noticed the small red pieces hiding within the translucent skin with my 6/6 eyesight.  

The Steamed Shrimp Cheong Fan paled in comparison to the Deep Fried version. Now that I think of it, I didn't seem to have eaten any shrimps. A case of insufficient filling or bad luck?

Things went downhill from then on. We had 4 other Deep Fried items. So far, I have found it difficult to screw up deep fried Dim Sum since most taste good in mayo or vinegar so I was pretty surprised by the sub-par deep fried items here. The Deep Fried Prawn in Beancurd skin was barely passable. The beancurd skin was not crispy enough and this prawn roll was possibly one of the skinniest one I have eaten so far with a filling that was lacking the juicy sweetness. The Deep Fried Wontons were ok but suffered from a serious excess of Wonton Skin that was not encasing any filling. Deep Fried Prawn Dumplings had a thick armour shell, twice as thick from the ideal standard. The Yam Spring Rolls was passable.

Har Kao(Steamed Prawn Dumpling) wasn't done well. They got the thickness of the skin right, but the skin broke easily and some of the Har Kao's skins were already broken when it arrived initially, probably due to overcondensation during steaming causing the Har Kao to turn soggy. One of my prawns was also stale.

Siew Mai here is bad. Marginally better than those frozen supermarket ones in terms of quality of ingredients used, the siew mai here was nevertheless dry with the strong floury taste.

Steamed Carrot Cake was one of the better Dim Sum today though it is nowhere near great. They got the basics for this down though.

I love congee but not the ones here. The Century Egg with Fish Congee wasn't appetizing. It was too watery and there were bones in my fish slices. I felt that the congee wasn't as fragrant in the absence of the side of you tiao and spring onions.

We also ordered the Steamed Chicken in Rice Wine and Hong Kong Style Chicken Rice. They were essentially the same sans the white rice. Hence, we felt scammed to order the 2 same dishes that we didn't fancy and ended up leaving most of the 2 dishes untouched.

The Glutinous Rice here is slightly dry and hard. Not worth wasting stomach space over, unless to block off some of the worse dishes here. Left quite untouched too.

Another one of the better Dim Sum here is the Steamed Spare Rib. Generous with the garlic and spiced with chili padi, I was unfortunate enough to choke on a chili padi but this was good enough to warrant taking a second piece.

Surprisingly, what I felt was the best item here today was the home brewed lemon tea. It was authentic with lots of lemon pulp unlike the really sweet ones normally found in food courts or coffee shops.

Sitting just in front of the cashier, service was swift and the Auntie was very friendly and took the time to reccomend Dim Sum to us despite with the eatery operation at full capacity. Definitely great for those who want to catch a quick bite.

Dim Sum here isn't worth raving about when there are so many other chinese restaurants, even award winning ones, that offer a much better range and quality of dim sum at a slight premium. However, I might just stop by to takeaway a lemon tea on a hot day if I'm around the area. 

Always wanted to try the dim sum here but had never gotten the chance as it was not near work and what is dim sum if you eat alone?

Finally, on this fateful Sunday, while waiting for some friends to finish their anime shopping, me and 3 other friends decided to take a seat wanting only to try their custard buns after hearing rave reviews about it but ended up ordering quite a few dishes when we just had lunch barely 30 mins ago at Fish & Co!!!

Dim Sum just never seems to lose its appeal on us... We ordered the standard to assess the quality of Victor's Kitchen, namely; har gou, siew mai, spare ribs, custard bun, chee cheong fun and fu zhu roll.

Their main highlight other than the custard bun was their King size har gou. It was decent and filled with loads of prawns. The skin is tendered and not overly thick. However, it is not crystal clear and thin as paper. The siew mai has a mixture of pork and prawn and is pretty decent. The custard bun is indeed different and "lightly creamed". The bun is soft and fluffy and not too overpowering with regards to the custard within. The spare ribs, chee cheong fun and fu zhu roll are also pretty standard. Not much variation so nothing much to wow about.

The place is rather big but just meant for you to sit down and dine so nothing much to talk about ambience. The staff are also pretty friendly and was easy-going as we initially had intended to take away and they have no problems with us suddenly switching to dining in.

Overall, not a bad dim sum place and prices are pretty reasonable as well.

Armed with a list of "must tries" from the reviews on the restaurant on HungryGoWhere, we headed down to Victor's kitchen for a colleague's birthday lunch. And boy, it does pay to be well-prepared - 95% of all items ordered were hits!

The Glutinous Rice was amazing. The soft, malleable rice and generous filings aside, this large lotus-leaf wrapped dumpling had a HUGE whole salted egg yolk inside! It's like your traditional Cantonese rice dumpling, but bigger. Despite all not being fans of Glutinous Rice, we all absolutely loved this and devoured it in no time. Awesome.

Another hit was the Char Siew Pau. The skin was fluffy and light and strong enough to withstand the grip of the chopsticks yet delicate enough to break open with just a little more pressure enforced. Unlike most other dry and artificially sweet red char siew, the insides of this pau was glistening with moisture and full of oyster sauce goodness. One of the better Char Siew Pau's I've had in Singapore.

The Prawn Chee Cheong Fun was a thin, semi-translucent skin wrapped around a fat, fresh, succulent prawn sitting atop a small mouthful of vegetables. The Pork Ribs didn't look too pretty, but was well-marinated and steamed til nicely tender. The Fried Prawn Dumplings were crunchy on the outside without being oily and filled with a chockful of succulent prawn bits.

The HK Iced Milk Tea was a chilled Milk Tea served in a bowl of iced water, ensuring that the tea remains cool without being diluted over time. The Mango Sago was not too sweet, extremely thick and made for a satisfying sweet end to the meal.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that we went knowing what to order, but my first encounter at Victor's was a very pleasant one and I'll definitely be returning for more. (:

It's not a typical Cha-Chan-Ting. Not a place where you want to see perfect dimsum setting like any of the big daddy, Crystal Jade, Imperial Treasure nor Ding Tai Feng.

Setting is just no frills, I have a shop space, a place to cook, a place that show some pictures of my products, a place for the customers to sit-eat-pay-goodbyes.

My husband & I have major craving for Victor's dimsum all the time. Well, we feel that some of the dim sum is better that crystal jade and of course cheaper than crystal jade.

I would not say it's dirt cheap nor very expensive. I feel it's @ the mid range, you have to pay for good & fresh food! Try their har-gaw, you'll know how fresh and big their prawns are.

Service wise I would say it's ok! They are not people in nice ironed uniform, it's just like a little family business. Food served, drinks served and I hope you have a nice meal. Hello... they do not charge extra on tax or service. At least on your first visit, at least they will say hi, ask you to take a seat. When you re-visit them countless times and they recognize you, like us. Victor will go, "Hello, hao-pang-yao!" (And yes, my husband & Victor has some how became BFF coz both were chatting in Cantonese when ever we patronize them.)

This is not a place you'd expect much service - it's a basic, closely packed, coffee-shop like place whose draw is its hand-made dim sum without the ++ for the usual dim sum restaurants. So with our already very low expectations for service, it's quite a feat to still underperform.

Yes, there was the usual lunch crowd, but we had to repeatedly remind them about our drinks and porridge which did not come even after we had finished off the rest of the food and waited for quite awhile. When we asked the waiters, whose attention were hard to catch (they would rather absent mindedly wipe already clean tables than acknowledge your waving), we either got irate looks or responses along the line of "i don't know, the item did not come out (from the kitchen)". Our drinks only arrived when we gave up and went to the counter to pay our bill.

They were also stingy with the utensils. Had to go up to the counter to ask for extra bowls as we were sharing porridge. When we got tiny ones that could only hold about 2 spoonfuls and asked for a bigger one (which were available and in clear view next to the stack of tiny ones), they said no (in a curt fashion, frown included) as those were only for desserts.

Foodwise.....I ate there twice and admittedly it was only so-so. The signature items (those with 'Victor' in the name) were good to eat but nothing to shout about given the price. Each dim sum item is about 3-4 on average, which is on the high side given the location and lack of both ambience and basic service (ie you get your order).

Haven't been to Victor's Kitchen for about a year, surprised to find that they have moved into a bigger place instead of the previous 3 small shop spaces.

I think the food's still quite good, true the place's quite squeezed and they don't provide serving plates.

Here's some of the items I liked.

Chicken glutinous rice - the rice is done just nice, moist and flavorful

Char Siew Cheong Fun - good chunks of char siew

Sausage Carrot Cake with XO sauce - really smooth

Summer Ice tea - this is like ice milk tea but thick and quite flavourful

Check out the attachment for the latest menu/price list.

My friend had a craving for dim sum at this diminutively scrubby joint situated at the ground level of Sunshine Plaza and so we arranged for late lunch to avoid the madness of office crowds.

It was my first time here, in the building and I must say I was a little ambushed by the plebeian eatery. It reminded me of my school days where I used to dine at the eating shops at topmost level of Far East Plaza where one conveniently rambles into the beanery and peruses the laminated but battered menu filled with food pictures left on the make shift tables. Here at Victor’s Kitchen, instead of the above mentioned menu, we were given small order sheets of photocopied papers to indicate the quantity of dim sums ordered. Also, be prepared to share tables with other groupies. This must be the most lok-kok place I ever had dim sum, other than at coffee shops. Except that at coffee shops, I get to sit at my own private table with my family and friends.

When I first saw the menu, I was very disappointed that no char siew sou was served here. What?! Victor doesn't serve my favourite dim sum?! Hmpf!

Har Gow, one of my must order for dim sums, was grandiosely named Victor’s King Prawn Dumpling ($4). Despite ingesting big succulent prawns, there was a hint of unctuous taste that was still bearable savoured.

Not a fan of carbo, I only sampled tiny morsels of the Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous Rice ($4). I found the sticky rice alright, being soft and mushy with salted egg yolk, chicken chunks, bite piece of chinese sausage. I’ve had better.

Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce ($3.80) was an interesting aberration to the norm pan fried version. It came looking like a soft dried paste in the dish. Contrary to the pictures seen in the shop, the carrot cake was not doused in the reddish XO sauce. It came separately in a condiment dish instead, which I found a lil too stingy as I took a liking to the spicy hay bee hiam sauce since carrot cake itself was bland and tasteless. I didn’t see any scallop nor sausage in the carrot cake at all.

Steamed Spare Ribs with Black Bean Sauce ($3) was nothing to shout about. Actually I wouldn’t even whisper about it. The first piece I ate hardly had any meat on it and the other I tried had lotsa fats on it. Taste was so-so.

Crispy Golden Shrimp Rolls ($3.50) was light and crispy but the shrimps were rather unimpressionable in size. I really didn’t have much collection of the fillings. The sweet vinegar on the side added some punch to the dish.

The prawns in King Prawn with Vegetable Cheong Fun (S$3.80) were nothing majestic albeit being fresh and succulent. The size was a far cry from the picture above the kitchen area. I like it still cos the cheong fun skin is smooth, soft and thin and went well with the salty soya sauce it came in. The veges also added an extra healthy flavour to the dish.

The first piece of Youtiao Cheong Fun ($3) I had was soft and soggy. I was aghast! I decided to give it another chance as I waited impatiently for other items to be served. I picked at the corner piece and indeed, the you tiao within crackled with crispiness in my mouth. Phew. I liked the contrasting combination of the crunchy fried dough sticks and the smooth silky rice rolls, dipped in both the salty soya sauce and the sweet black sauce. Very provocative!

HK Summer Iced Tea ($2.50) was, in my humble opinion, mediocre, tasting exactly like teh tarik. Presentation wise, the plastic glass of milk tea was immersed in a dish filled with ice & water. While I appreciate that this method was to prevent melted ice from diluting the tea, I was more concerned about the splashing of iced water after the ice melted in the shallow dish on the rickety table.

Others: Chinese Chrysanthemum Tea ($1)

What I like about this eatery is that the orders are freshly prepared and they arrived steaming hot. There is also no GST or service charge (rightly so since there was not much service to speak of, in the first place).

I wouldn’t mind coming here for lunch again if I work nearby but I don’t. And I don’t see myself coming all the way just to have fair to middling food in a coffee house environment. For the price paid, I reckon I'd be better off with Zhou's Kitchen's high tea dim sum buffet at $12.90++.

Right after spending $88 at the Sumomo Okomiyaki, we left with half-satisfied appetite. Decide to go for a 2nd round. Oh yes.... my kids can really makan. Maybe this is why we never get very rich ... sigh!

The cafe is walking distant from Sumomo, and we can see the crowd almost immediately after walking into Sunshine Plaza.

Since this is 2nd round, we decide to start small, and ordered the following, and spend $22 with no drinks.

* Teochew Fen Guo
* Siew Mai
* Signature Carrot Cake with XO Sauce
* Mango Sago Dessert with Pomelo (x2)
* Steam Egg with Ginger Juice

The dim sum items were as good as the amount of ratings received on this website. Mango Sago is good too. Only disappointment comes from the Steam Egg with Ginger Juice. The texture is nowhere smooth. Its mushy, overly sweet with very faint trace of milk taste. While my mind starts to wonder if they have delivered me the right order (as there's no ginger taste at all), it came in explosive force at the bottom. Terrible.

In all, we all agree that we should return soon for full fledge of dim sum meal... minus the steam egg of course... Laoye warned that it should not be frequent as value still thread along the thin value line.. prices not that cheap when compared to the restaurants... I somewhat agree.

Having read several good reviews abt victor's kitchen, i decided to have tim sum here. This place is located inside sunshine plaza, almost hidden n u would have to search for it. It looks like of old and run down but there are lots of customers!

Ordered the Custard bun, which lots of custard flowing out. A must order! It's seen in almost every table.

The deep-fried prawn dumpling ($4). 4 prawn dumplings which was crispy but a little oily. The prawns were fresh, bouncy and crunchy. Like this!

The svc here is EFFICIENT but not as friendly however, they are not unfriendly becos they r very busy during lunch hr, svc would not be as good.