Dim Sum the Old-School Pushcart Trolley Way

Overall, the dim sum was just so-so. But it was cheap, which made the lunch a lot more palatable. There were only 3 items that were memorable.

1) Roasted Duck ($18). This was juicy, succulent

2) Prawn Rice Roll (most dim sum dishes are from $3 to $3.50), silky soft rice rolls with sweet crunchy prawns slathered with a soy marinade

3) Century Egg Congee, the porridge was smooth and delicate. I loved the crackers on top.

4) Ordinary: Siew Mai, Har Gow, Deep Fried Prawn Wrapped in Beancurd Skin, Roasted Pork and Bbq Pork, Steamed Glutinous Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf

5) Not Good: Steamed Bbq Pork Buns, Steamed Yam Cake

Check out the pics at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com

To be honest, I got a shock the 1st time I came here. The whole place looks rather faded and the carpets smelt musty. I came here on a friend's recommendation and was expecting the env to be something like crystal jade. And it's been a long time since I went to a dim sum place that has trolleys of dim sum pushed around.

I came here on a weekday before for lunch and on a weekend for an early lunch. Be prepared to queue up on weekends during the peak lunch hours.

The char siew bao and xiao long baos are normal. Not exactly fantastic. What I would recommend are the egg tarts, mango and almond puddings, pork ribs (!!!!), and the meat dishes. One thing about their food is that it is rather oily but it's okay to pig out once in a while. Just wash everything down with chinese tea.

Prices are slightly above average. Not too shocking. But given the location this is not a place I would frequent too often.

The main gripe I have is that the service is rather slow. My friends are I kept waiting for the trolleys to be pushed to our side. However the same old trolley kept coming. We feedback afew times to a staff member but no action was taken. In the end, it's faster to walk up to the trolley you're eyeing and just get what you want. The billing process is also very slow. It's faster to just approach them rather than wait for them to come to you. What was rather irritating and also funny to us is that the moment we finished eating, the trolleys we wanted before suddenly came up to our table.

Old School Dim Sum Rawks!

Red Star is pretty much like an old guard of the Hong Kong Yum Cha culture in Singapore with the waitresses pushing carts loaded with dim sum dishes aplenty.

I have to say that this review is probably biased thanks to these factors:

1. My friends and I went arrived early at about 8.30am, so we didn't have to queue up for our tables.

2. We were prepared for an extravagant session of yum cha, so that bill of $64 for 3 hungry guys wasn't too rude a shock.

3. We ordered Red Star's big pau for a friend who horlanded while trying to find his way over and realised how good a joke it could get. (Godzilla pau would be a more appropriate name.)

4. Not a lot of shouting across the place, despite it being somewhat of an old school yum cha place. (I readily stand corrected if I made a wrong assumption)

5. The lack of menus sort of added to the surprise of what the kitchen could offer and allowed for interaction with the wait staff.

6. They had a lot of interesting items coming from the kitchen, like banana and prawn fritters.

7. Other minor surprises came in the form of somewhat unconventional yum cha items like paper-wrapped chicken.

8. The quintessential yum cha items like har gow, siew mai, chicken feet, pork ribs and century egg porridge were perfectly made and tasted perfect.

9. It is gratifying to make people envious by retelling how good the food and experience was at Red Star.

One not-so-good point though:

1. The billing process was rather slow.

Located at a quiet corner somewhere near Chinatown, sits a traditional dim sum restaurant known as Red Star Restaurant. It is on the 7th floor of a multi storey carpark, quite a weird location for a restaurant. My girlfriend and I took a 7-10 mins walk from Chinatown MRT station (Walk along exit D).

The dim sum is pushed around in trolleys by waitresses, and the service from them is rather friendly. Feel free to ask them for more sauces if you want. Basically, we had prawn chee cheong fun, steamed spare ribs, siew mai, fried prawn dumplings, steamed prawn on tofu, bbq pork bun, century egg porridge and egg tarts.

Special mentions -

1)The egg tarts are a must-try. The egg custard is smooth and not too sweet. The crust is crispy and flaky. The egg tarts are usually sold out at about 130pm.

2)The Siew Mai is also one of the better dish compared to other dim sum restaurants. The meat complements the prawn very well.

3)The steamed spare ribs was good because the meat was soft and abundant, unlike some which has a lot of the ribs and very little meat and also very tough. But it is slightly more oily which is the down side.

Total bill came up to about $33 for 2. We left the restaurant satisfied and pleased that traditional dim sum still exists. Long live Red Star!