Dolly Kitchen @ Shanghai Dolly

Convenient choice for pre and post party dining

The plus about Dolly Kitchen is that its a convenient choice for pre-party dining. The place is in fact a full fledge restaurant with dedicated chefs and service staff but has a much smaller seating, perhaps at 60-70 pax, with the place dressed in mostly black. 3 couch seats provided a haven from possible large noisy crowds from Shanghai Dolly downstairs.

The menu is mostly local with a dab of western dishes to suit the crowd. Very quiet on a Thursday night, with us being the 3rd table occupied; 2 staff were quite sufficient to manage. Stuff that we had (no need to review the Yusheng la):

Crispy tofu topped with cucumber, onions and roasted peanut sauce ($8) - very innovative replacement for gado gado. Honestly, the fact that they were the same thing didnt connect until it came. The tofu was dissappointingly soggy and bland; the peanut sauce didnt offer any lift to the whole dish either.

Pork or chicken satay (1/2 dozen) ($8) - quite tasty actually, with the sides of the meat nicely charred.

Prawn noodle soup with pork belly, kang kong, beansprouts, fishcake and prawns ($10) - the larger than usual portion of noodles came in a concentrated stock, which was so good we asked for extra portions of the stock by itself, which they obliged at no charge. Nice.

Bak Kut Teh - braised pork spareribs in 5-spiced herbal stock ($12) - didnt try this at all but presentation was worth some points.

Cod with potatoes ($26) - The only western twist to the dinner turned out good. Sizeable portion of the fish in a teriyaki sort of sauce that came accompanied by 4 nicely browned potato medallions.

Other than the gado gaod, we liked most of what we had, although some will probably balk at paying $10 for a typical hawker fare. But hey, you\'re paying for the comfort and ambience too. Its also a good choice for post-party supper as it stays open til 3am, and it\'ll save you all that stumbling in and out of taxi from too much alcohol. I\'m tempted to try the other stuff next time.

We paid about $60 for 4 pax but only because we had a 50% discount. Plus we had Yusheng so to me, prices are still considered reasonable.