Wah Lok Cantonese Restaurant

For full review and photos, please visit http://shirlynnyang.blogspot.com/2012/05/wah-lok-carlton.html

Had visited Wah Lok a few times for now, and each visit makes my tummy happy. I simply love the dim sum here!

Had har gao, steamed carrot cake, roasted delights, sharks' fin dumpling soup etc. All were yummy! There's really nothing to fault here. 

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ohmygosh. this must be one of the most decadent chinese lunches i've ever eaten!! hahaha. i felt like i was eating some sort of wedding dinner-esque kind of lunch. no need for introductions here. it is WAH LOK CANTONESE RESTAURANT in carlton hotel. okay fine, i should probably introduce it a little since they were so nice to us (: (: wah lok is one of the pioneers to introduce authentic cantonese cuisine into singapore! the plush opulent interior can be likened to stepping into one of those grand chinese palace dining rooms. we felt like royalty! the restaurant is famous for its cantonese dim sum and quintessential, authentic cantonese cuisine.

we started off with the bo lo bao, which is one of my favourite dim sum dishes. the bun was soft and fluffy with a thin delicately sweet crusty top which broke easily when we bit into it. the charsiew inside was simply delicious, very soft, with just the right amount of fat and lovely sauce, such that it melted in the mouth.

the next dish, braised shark's fin wrapped with egg white dumpling in superior soup was probably the most interesting sharks fin dish i've ever tasted! for the first time, the shark's fin wasn't found inside the soup itself! the soup was a heartwarming thick chicken broth that was fragrant and tasty. the shark's fin was encased in the thin egg white dumpling, and mind you, it was a very generous amount of shark's fin!

the baked cod fish wrapped in banana leaf with chef's sauce is one of the best fish i've ever eaten!!!! :D save for the fact that it had a ton of bones in it (i would have definitely preferred a fillet), the fish was delicious. it had a slightly smoky flavour from the baking, and the sauce seemed kinda caramelized, which added a lovely taste to the fish, which was really soft and perfectly done (:

the braised homemade beancurd with vegetables was a very simple and homely dish which i loved. i tried it in another restaurant (which i didn't review...argh! kill me xP) and it was equally lovely (:

the fried rice with diced preserved meat was so fragrant, that once it arrived at my seat, the flavour just wooshed into my olfactory senses! haha i'm trying to sound cheem, but i think i just failed. anywayyy, it tasted as good as it smelled. every mouthful of rice was full of the lovely aroma and flavour. it was just delicious!

we ended off the meal with the baked custard pastry and osmanthus cake. i liked the crusty pastry with the smooth custard inside. and the osmanthus cake had a really interesting flowery flavour that ended off meal perfectly with on a lightly sweet note (:

JUST AWESOME. :D

This is one of the few places that just does not skip a beat. Everyone on staff could be a grandparent or at least, a da-yi. That said, the service is warm and comforting unlike most high traffic chinese restaurants.

While the restaurant is patronised by a fair majority of chinese/asian customers, they did not flinch on the special requests - "no pork, fork & spoon please!, can I have a piece of ice in my chinese tea?"

The food offerings were steller, the char siew is a touch on the sweet side but that might be a personal preference, the dan-tart was scrumptious and delightfully flakey.

All sorts of yum. Absolutely my must-go chinese restaurant the second I hit Singapore!

Business lunch at Wah Lok was delicious! We got a set lunch at $45 per pax. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to scrutinize the menu or take photos. Will be back (if my pocket allows).

I have recently made a reservation at Wah Lok. Being one of Singapore’s finest Cantonese restaurants, winning Singapore Tatler Magazines “Singapore’s Best Restaurants” for 19 consecutive years since 1991 and “Singapore’s Top Restaurants” by Wine & Dine for 13 consecutive years since 1997, naturally I had the expectation that this meal would be all out to impress my in-law and my wife who are no gourmet critics; but knows how to enjoy good food.  Even though the reputation of Wah Lok is great in Singapore, my in-laws, from Indonesia, have not heard of the restaurant. My wife and I had a hard time to convince them from other alternatives which we more regularly patronise, such as Li Bai, Summer Palace or Lei Garden. Finally they were convinced, after we showed them the many magazines and newspaper that featured Wah Lok heavily as one of the heavy-weight  Chinese restaurant in town.

I was pleased when making the reservation for the CNY eve afternoon; knowing that Wah Lok's acclaimed dim sum (which have impressed me some time ago when I had a casual business lunch at the restaurant) and other ala carte dishes would still be available if we prefer not order the CNY set dinner.  Little did I know that the meal which I've planned all out to impress the whole family, turns out to be my (and certainly for my in-laws and wife) worst dining experience. 

All names of the staff of Wah Lok who served us are intentionally not named in this email, which I hate to call it a complain email, because I think our bad experience is not attributable to any one of them and each of them should not be held personally responsible for it.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were greeted; or more likely "frowned" upon by the captain of the day. She was certainly not expecting a easy day ahead as CNY eve is understandably one of the busiest day for chinese restaurants; and more so this year with the recovery in the economy and more people choosing to dine in hotels and higher end restaurants.  She looked extremely grouchy when we gave our names and told her to hang on a little while, while my little one was just coming back from the washroom.  Ms Grouchy, as she shall be called, did not even offer the simplest Chinese New Year greetings like "Gong Hei Fatt Choy" or "Keong Hee"; or even in plain simple English; if Ms Grouchy is not Chinese or we were wondering if she had from her hectic schedule forgotten that CNY is around the corner. My in-laws were taken aback as my wife, trying to ease the tension, initiated to greet Ms Grouchy "happy new year". That was when Ms Grouchy turned her head as she led us into the restaurant., and reciprocated in a rather unwilling way.  The whole day is ahead of Ms Grouchy and must have got into her right from the start, as we were among one of the earliest guests; arriving on time at our reservation for 12pm.  Maybe she knows that we are not ordering the $8,888 CNY dinning set; which fortunately or unfortunately she will not have the good fortune to serve such guests at this restaurant. And I mean its not entirely her fault.

I may have exaggerated here, but nothing beats the old saying "the guest is always right".  When we were brought to our table, a very much more welcoming waitress was setting up the table for us and bringing our tea. I asked for my favourite 秀湄（sau-mei) tea, and was promptly served. The tea tasted bad... I mean real bad, too thick and tasted awfully close to teas for ceremonial offerings. We couldn't take it after the second cup and the waitress gladly served us another pot of tea with our alternative choice. Good service, and the waitress, whose in her fifties, (and endear-ly to be addressed as "Waitress Auntie") deserved her Ang Bao. My in-law promptly gave her a red packet as a token of appreciation. You know its CNY and its always better not to bring things out of proportion, as the saying goes: 大事化小； 小事化無。

Next, its time for us to order our lunch. Although Waitress Auntie was nice and brought us the CNY, ala carte menus, unfortunately, she was unable to help us with ordering the food, that was when we realised she may only be a temp or is new to the restaurant. She immediately seeked help and asked another waitress to attend to our order.  My wife ordered the CNY set for 4 and wanted more dishes to compliment the set as there were 5 of us. She liked sea food and in particular fish. The waitress spoke in her Malaysian accented mandarin (and hence to be known as "Ms Malaysia", no discrimination here) that the restaurant's specialty is the cod fish in BBQ sauce. When asked how the fish will be done, Ms Malaysia said in the "but of course" tone: ”炸囉！“（deep fried) as though that was the only method to cook a fish. My wife likes fish but hates them to be fried. That was when I took over the menu and noted that it is described in the menu as baked in BBQ sauce. That was when my wife looked almost pleased, as there were clearly a lack of fish dishes apart from steamed fishes. Fried fish was certainly not in the menu; which Ms Malaysia might have really got it wrong here, clearly reminiscing her junk food, fried fish, from "Chippy".

We were famished by the time the food ordering was over. And when the food, dim sums were the first dishes, (even though we ordered 魚生 Yu-Sheng)  finally arrived, strangely our appetite took a turn and did not become better since.  In all honesty, my wife and I are very particular about our dim sum; and its not about big names that we are after, but the basic freshness: fresh ingredient, freshly done and freshly served, are the underlying differentiators. For the same reasons that's what keeping us going back to Li Bai and Lei Garden for their dim sum almost weekly.  In all fairness, later did we realize, apart from the famous steamed carrot cake, which my little one mistaken it for goo (or baby food); the 菠蘿"Po-Lo" buns and 蝦餃 Har-Kow were not too bad compared to the main course.

Attempting to distract them from the average tasting dim sums, I was reminding my in-laws that the Yu-Sheng served here is of Soon-Tuck 順德 style something unique from the regular Yu-Sheng that Singaporeans are used to. My in-laws finds this tradition bazaar as the quantum of fish is usually very small and the tossing and other ingredients usually does not raise their interest. Perhaps I was setting the expectations too high after seeing a featured picture of this famous Singaporean CNY dish from Wah Lok: served in thick sashimi slices.  I was still trying to figure out why the expectedly first dish: Yu Sheng, which never fails to raise the atmosphere in a CNY meal, was not served before the dim sum; and just when I was about to asked, a grumpy waitress but not as grouchy as "Ms Grouchy", brought our dish, which was the least recognizable from whatever picture I've seen in the magazine. The presentation was awful and looked simple with only sliced carrots, crackers and loads of sesame.  The fish slices were also thin. I immediately thought they served the wrong dish or I've come to the wrong restaurant; but was immediately convinced I did not from the many accolades and awards hung at the entrance of the restaurant.  The taste was forgivably plain and could have been quickly forgotten as the second dish was immediately served even before we finished the Yu-Sheng; not that we did at the end. 

The second dish was shark's fin. Perhaps the best cutleries and serving dishes were reserved for that night's dinner. The glassware used for serving the shark's fin, made the dish looked cheap.  The taste was ordinary to say the least, as I noticed my in-laws drowned theirs in vinegar.

The next dishes, which I shall not elaborate failed to impress both in presentation and in taste: The poached scallops tasted a tat too healthily blend, with no taste/seasoning absorbed, not that there was any sweetness in the scallops original taste we think the chef was trying to preserve. The 茶皇雞 Tea-braised chicken, is no unfamiliar dish but the one served tasted too similar to 豉油雞 (soy-braised chicken) which is served at the coffee shop at Seah Street, a stone throw away. The soy braised chicken looked far from a delicacy and tasted unforgivably sweet. My in-laws thought that it was weird that one of Indonesian's favorite seasoning kecap manis was used in this dish. 

The baked cod fish deserved special mention. We realize we cannot quite blame Ms Malaysia (above) why she thought the fish was fried as the generous sliced cod was served in an unfamiliar texture and colour! It was orange. Try as I might, I was not going to try offering my in-laws an explanation any more creative answer as orange is good; for prosperity and good luck for new year! I find that the presentation again was far from acceptable. I don't think I've ever seen it served with broccoli as well.

Finally the only edible dish lobster noodle was served. My little one was just as hungry as all of us began uncontrollably munching down this dish. Saving grace, far from it.  But it didn't end there.

I think it was the CNY thing again that everyone appeared calm and looked pleased at the dining table, a good tradition and upbringing from Chinese families. I was surprised we lasted so long without asking to see the manager or giving up at the meal. We were patiently waiting for our desserts though I've asked 2 waitress to check on the order. When it finally arrived, that was when my wife displeasure was more apparent. There was no familiar large casserole/dish of mango pomelo sago but individual bowls were being served to us; much like some eatery style where they pre-scoop their desserts to save time during lunch crowd at a factor canteen or  void deck buffet.  But what made my wife's eyes roll was that another grouchy waitress, which there are getting too many for them here for our liking, planted each bowl in front of us with a thump! Almost what a Chinese waitress in China would used to do, but less prevalent nowadays as they are also being trained to be civilized and well-mannered.

In all fairness, I did not order the most expensive set but at close to $500 for 5 for the bill, I think there is far too little the restaurant had done to impress us and effectively prevented my wife's iPhone camera from flashing, with her recent habit of posting pictures of good dishes onto her facebook account.

It really left me nothing much to say but Wah Lok, would certainly be on the last of my list of consideration for my next Chinese dining option; and certainly not to return with my in-laws back so as not to bring back the memories here.  

Wishing the restaurant Prosperity and Good Luck in the year ahead. 

When many is raving about the dim sum of this place, I am not impressed. Being a Hong Konger, I do have a high standard for dim sum. But I am not being harsh here.

The siew mai's meat was not fresh and we have to returned the food and canceled the order. The newton hawker centre char tao kway is alot better than the XO sauce carrot cake. The har gau, well so so...not wow considering the price we are paying at Wah Lok. We also ordered the seafood mee sua...well, I'd rather pay $4 for the char bee hoon downstairs my house.

Only 2 items are worth mentioning -  char siew pastry & char siew bao...

There are definitely better places for dim sum in SG...

used to be fan of this place and visited it every couple months. But the last visit (late last year or early this year) put such a bad taste in our mouth, we have not been back since. 

well, to start with, the standard of food has dropped significantly. Then comes the slow service. lunch was 2 hour long, not because we were slow or ordered a lot but because they were super slow. full house hardly any excuse for being THAT slow.

AND they screwed up our order. Our last dish (chicken) came nearly 30 min(abt 40 min after we ordered it) after the second last dish (dim sum) and was not cooked through. 

Actually, after abt 20 min of sitting around waiting for the chicken with a full stomach and super long lunch, we were naturally impatient and indicated that we want to cancel the dish. But they told us that they in  the midst of cooking it and it was nearly done, effectively forcing us to accept the dish and wait SOME MORE. 

The biggest problem is it actually took another 15min for the dish to arrive (it was just half of a spring chicken (a very small one). the kind that is supposedly roasted but is actually fried. do you really need 45 min to fry a small spring chicken??? they probably only threw in the chicken AFTER we complained.

PLUS, the meat on the inner side of the chicken was half cooked and bloody...i do not believe that it is the kind of standard one would expect of the place. 

food not cooked through is a obvious miss and it was just plain dishonesty and waste of the customers' time for them to do what they did. 

That few extra bucks they could have earned from it cost them our support.taking the cost of chicken off the bill was hardly enough to entice us to go back...ever. 

Went there a couple weeks ago with a party of 12 adults for Saturday lunch.... It was a crowded restaurant so make your reservation early. We got a nice big table by the window & the dim sum was generally good. 

We had the usual traditional/regular items like harkou, siewmais, pau, chickenfeet, plainporridge, cheechiongfun, yamthingy... 

However, the bill came up to $500, which is inflated in part by a roast duck & the siewbaks.  Faint.

 

What happen to Wah Lok? I used to like Wah Lok dim sum. Went there last Sunday. It is still as crowded. However, the standard of the food and service had dropped significantly.

The steamed raddish cake used to my family favourite - soft and delicious. Now, they are hard and barely meet the previous standard.

The most disappointing aspect is the service. A simple request has to be asked for more than 3 times before they are delivered. They are short handed!

 

 

This place is good cantonese cuisine!Just had lunch here and came back feeling very full and happy:)

My family wanted dim sum and after tossing around ideas like Goodwood Park and Mandarin Oriental, we decided on Carlton's Wah Lok for our craving fix! Here's what's good:

Char Siew Sou: This was a little greasy but in that exquisitely sinful manner and the mix of all that flaky pastry with the sweet tender char siew just sent me into a gastronomic land.

Bo Lo Bao: You can only find this here at Wah Lok. It was really impressive, like your normal Hong Kong Bo Lo Bao, but with a pork filling. It was not messy too, the amount of filling was just right. However, maybe a more butter and crunch would have been better.

Century Egg Congee: On it's own it's okay, with it's own subtle flavours but do pair it with the long beans (pickles) they serve before the meal  or grab a plate of pork ribs from the carts going around to make it more flavourful!

Egg Custard Pastry: I didn't really like this because I expected it to be more runny and warm but instead it was kind of just like a dessert version of the egg tart, which I also tried. The Egg Tart was pretty standard, nothing much to shout about.

Har Gau: My mother loved this, and i must say the shrimp was generous and its sweet taste not overshadowed by the lovely thin skin that didn't leave you feeling full of starch.

Xiao Long Bao: I just enjoy puncturing the skin so much. I don't know, the stock inside seemed to oily for me, i prefer it flavourful but clear but the meat inside was tender and the skin chewy to the right extent so not much complaints here too.

Mango Sago & Pomelo: My brother had two servings of this. Recommended by the manager, i must say this was quite well executed and pleasant. But then again, how can mango cubes, sago and cream with pomelo pulp go wrong!

Pork Ribs: You can skip this and go for something else instead, maybe some yam thing which i unfortunately forgot to order!

Yes so that's it. Dessert took quite a while to come but other than that, it was great! The manager was really casual and friendly and obliged to our requests and even chatted with my father in canto. Nice Sunday lunch indeed, :)