The quality and reasonably-priced dim sum from Hong Kong Zhai House of Dim Sum are a hit with everyone at home, even the little picky-eaters!
UPDATED: 16 Jan 2023 (Updated with newest pricing & delivery info)
Our last order of Hong Kong Zhai's ready-to-eat items was a few years ago. Prices have since increased but the food is still tasty. Hence, there is no change to my review below except for updates on its prices.
Original post: 1 Aug 2020
My family grew up eating dim sum and one of my favourite childhood memories is dining with my parents and siblings at restaurants that serve dim sum on pushcart trolleys. These days, we seldom eat dim sum as our kids prefer other cuisines and with covid-19, I'm wary of taking my parents out for dim sum (not that we'll all be able to sit at one table 😆).
Frankly speaking, I find restaurant dim sum is not the cheapest dining options. I had searched a few restaurants that were delivering dim sum so as to try those we hadn't tried before but I either found the variety ho hum (some only had limited sets for delivery) or they were really expensive. So in the end, we went back to Hong Kong Zhai House of Dim Sum which we had ordered before and enjoyed, and found very reasonably priced in comparison.
Anyway, on to the food. You can order a la carte items from its online menu where majority of items cost around $5 each or you can order the very good value party sets, which caters from 3 to 30 pax. Rather than order the set for 8-10 pax (I tend to order a bit more so we have some leftovers for lunch the next day 😋), we ordered two of its family sets where each set at S$68.80 caters for 3-4 pax (prices have increased by around $27 per set (!) since we last ordered in 2020). The portion are about right for eight pax and we still had a bit of leftovers.
The reason for ordering the sets is because I wanted variety over quantity. You are allowed to change two items in each set (out of the eight items in the set), meaning by ordering two family sets and changing two items in each set, I get 12 different items. This is the list of items in the family set (before item changes):
We are pleased to say that every item in this list was delicious. Below are the steamed items - siew mai, chicken bundled with yam and carrot, beancurd skin roll and shrimp dumplings. We particularly love the shrimp dumplings for its fresh tangy prawns and the chicken bundled with yam and carrot - something new to us - which was tender and flavourful.
Also from the list are these fried items - fried carrot cake (not too oily) and fried shrimp dumpling (very crispy skin and fresh prawns).
My girls are rather pick eaters and not big on vegetables but they love these chives dumplings. Hubby and I are not fans of red bean but we couldn't get enough of the crispy banana red bean paste.
Egg tarts are also must-haves when having dim sum and these were equally good with their flaky buttery crust and smooth sweet tart centres.
The triangular yam pastry and rectangular char siew sor (BBQ pork pastry) below are the items we had changed for - both had very fragrant crusts and rich fillings. The two round buns you see there are Polo char siew buns which I had ordered extra for the kids. They weren't big on char siew in buns so the adults gladly ate them.
We also changed for a steamed char siew rice roll and ordered an extra steamed prawn rice roll. We'll probably only order the prawn variety the next time round, not because the char siew version wasn't good, but we found the prawns really fresh and paired really well with the soft rice rolls and salty sauce.
There are another two items we'd forgo the next time, which is the BBQ pork buns, lotus paste with egg yolk buns and phoenix claw (chicken feet), not that they weren't tasty but we found them quite ordinary and there are more delicious items to order.
Hong Kong Zhai operates out of it's central kitchen in Bedok North, so you can't actually dine there. But it delivers at around $16 per trip. We found that a little expensive, so we opted for self-collection.
Btw this is not a sponsored post, okay? We really found Hong Kong Zhai to be one of nicest dim sum around - I used to say cheapest around too but after the hefty price increase, it's probably not the cheapest around anymore. That said, we still went back to them for their tasty dim sum though at the current pricing, I might scout around to see if there are other options. 😄
Disclaimer: We paid for our food, and my opinions and reviews here are strictly my and my family’s own.
©Vivian Teo. All content and photos are copyrighted to Vivian Teo unless otherwise specified.