Hk Wan Zhai Tea Room (White Sands)

Hong Kong food in Singapore is more or less dominated by a few names which i feel personally, still have not done the subject matter much justice. Wan Zhai Hong Kong Tea Room is a new addition which has yet to be highly commercialized but is it any good or does it fall into the same trappings as all its predecessors?

Peanut Ginseng Soup (Free with Baked Rice) - I have to say, i'm totally surprised at how tasty this soup is. It doesn't look like much but its packed with taste. The ingredients inside are plentiful (peanuts and some chicken meat) for a free item. No points for presentation but looks can be deceiving indeed.

Wasabi Seafood Baked Rice ($8.20) - The serving of baked rice is reasonable though hardly big. The reason i ordered this was because i've never tasted wasabi baked rice before so it was a novel concept for me, plus the fact that i quite keen of wasabi. The ingredients used are exactly the same as the HK Signature Hor Fan featured below, 2 mussels, 2 prawns and a smattering of fish. The unfortunate thing is that the ingredients definitely did not taste fresh to me. Prawns were powdery and lacks any crunch whatsoever, fish wasn't sweet and the mussels were a tad rubbery. The rice was normal and the wasabi was toned down for local tastes so it didn't have the kick i wanted. Average at best.

HK Signature Hor Fan ($6.30) - As mentioned above, the ingredients are the same 2 mussels, 2 prawns and some fish and the freshness is still below average. Taste-wise, the hor fan looked blackish and had a lot of pepper in it. My gf didn't finish this so thats a testament of how 'good' it is. To me, it wasn't worthy of the word 'signature' at all with its not-too-fresh ingredients, bad looks and worst of all, simple inadequate, salty and overly oily taste. The baked rice was better and that was already only an average offering.

The bill came up to $14.50 for 2 people but somehow, i still found it too expensive. The only good thing for this place is the soup sadly.

Hong Kong food is just not getting the attention and franchises over in sunny Singapore. To date, i've tried a few Hong Kong cafes and honestly, they are either too expensive, food offerings average or just plain bad. If anybody knows of a good place i can review, please let me know. Till then, my word on Hong Kong food in Singapore is that there is yet to be one worthy of the name yet.