Gastroliterary 27: Asian iii

Hung Kang Teochew Restaurant, located at North Canal Road or near Chinatown.
Date: 28/08/2005
Reservations are recommended.

Food: 6.5
Goose with soy bean sauce ($35) is a recommended dish at this particular Chinese restaurant. The meat was tender with matching sauce and condiments like bean curd and coriander. It was simply a great opening as it was the first dish served. This was followed by fried prawn fritters shortly which was surprising not oily while oozing hot juicy meat within. Subsequently, there were dishes like stewed vegetables, cod fish, scallops. Although not close to disastrous, it turned out to be a little disastrous. There were much complaints about the quantity and the quality of the crayfish turned out to be unimpressive. The main catch was when the bill came. The crayfish for instance, amounted to $50 for less than 10 small-sized crayfish. I am unable to describe it well enough except to use 'disappointment'. The scallops which was pathetic in quantity and could taste no better a street hawker's food store was tagged a pricey $40. It really would be wonderful if the food turned out to be of substantial quality even if the price was high. After much negative remarks, the goose is really a recommended dish.

Service: 6
Service was pretty average here and they charge nothing for their service. Very terribly, just before the finale, a dessert, did not come promptly at all. Even after some complaints, it was not served. The manager was not at all apologetic for delaying their customer's precious time and wrecking their appetite. I would have been more generous in my marks if there was a hint of contrition but there was absolutely none.

Ambience: 7
The restaurant has 2 levels providing a typical Chinese restaurant ambience. There was a faint chinese music in the background which was shortly drowned as the restaurant got filled up.

Overall: 6
I was taken aback when I saw 'Best Restaurant 2005' sign before leaving the restaurant. Overall, the food was considerably costly and the quality they provided was not quite up to expectation. The 'Best Restaurant' tag can no longer be trustworthy other than another commercial gimmick. An interesting note, however, must be made was that, there was a welcome sign indicating a list of guests expected on that day.