Food: Tim Ho Wan

Food: Tim Ho Wan

Hi all again! Its been a while since I did an update on food, but after hearing about the hype about Tim Ho Wan, and finding out that there was one in Toa Payoh which incidentally is pretty near where I live, I decided to give it a shot to see whether this place is worthy of the legendary queue that the branch at Plaza Singapura is. Of course this review is on Tim Ho Wan and its food in general although I ate at the Toa Payoh Branch. However, there is no reason to suggest that the standard and style of food is different although there will be adjustments in other criteria depending on the location.

This time I took pictures a plenty of everything I ate :)

Heres the logo for those who still dunno what i am talking about

So here goes the review:

Here is the menu, you can zoom in and take a look

The first picture is basically the menu. It seems like in Tim Ho Wan, this is the entire menu already. As you can see the there is maybe about 20 items at most which I guess is a fair enough variety, although i distinctly remember that if you eat dim sum at other places there is just a bit more variety such as when you eat in Malaysia or Hong Kong. Even some other outdoor coffee shops in Singapore has a slightly larger spread.

Nonetheless lets try looking it as quality over quantity.

Baked Bun with BBQ pork

This is supposed to be their signature dish, alongside their egg cake, vermicelli roll with liver and turnip cake. I only tried the bake bun and not the rest just for your information. Admittedly however, their bake bun was cooked fresh, and has very good texture. Its the first time I ate a bun like that as compared to our usual white colour bao at the other dim sum places. It is also quite filling and the "filling" was nice and hot. If you were to visit, you should go there and try this, but given the choices in the menu I believe you will buy one set at least.

Beef Balls with Beancurd Skin

This was another dish that I never ate before. I ordered it cause it was beef. Cooked in different style with the beef held together by some kinda glutinous goo. Sadly, this one was way off my expectation in that I didn't really taste anything at all, neither was the meat chewy or anything like that. The texture was too unimpressive.

Siew Mai or Pork dumpling with Shrimp

For people who know me well, they will know that this is the thing I will eat when ever I go for Dim Sum. In fact this could very well be the only thing I eat and I will still be satisfied! This siew mai is a little different from what i am used to as there is a relatively stronger mushroom taste. Coupled with the provided chilli sauce which is not your "Maggie" brand, this was pretty nice. At least above average in taste. Not sure how you would react if you hate mushrooms though...

Vermicilli Roll with BBQ pork

This Chee Chong Fun with BBQ pork is ordinary to be honest. The sauce that is provided as the gravy is not really strong on taste and in the end it merely tastes the way a CCF is supposed to taste. Nothing too impressive but it will do as the source of carbo.

Prawn Dumpling

This one was pretty good. The prawn feels very nice and chewy and even the dumpling skin is pretty chewy with good texture. It is also relatively larger then other prawn dumplings. Its a must try if you were to go there. At least get one basket.... well with a menu like that you will get one basket anyway

Rice with Beef and Fried Egg

 I bought this because I thought i might not have enough food to be full. However this proved to be a mistake. This rice with beef is the same beef as the one above, and the sauce provided is most likely the same as the CCF one. So put rice with tasteless and strange textured beef along side unimpressive sauce you get a clump of beefy rice. Probably not a necessary buy over there unless you really like rice. If you like beef you also probably wont get your fill from here.

All in all for food in terms of taste, texture and variety, I would give this....

Food 3.5/5

Atmosphere 3/5

As far as the atmosphere is concerned, the place is generally cramp both in TPY and PS which would mean its small, and crowded feeling. However the arrangement of tables and chairs do allow a fair bit of space between tables so you don't feel entirely congested kudos to them. Of course this does mean that people will have to queue longer for their food but overall it will probably help the full experience. The staff are pretty fast to respond and in generally good workers, the kind that will attend to your needs and not the kind that will purposefully look away from you. It's a workable arrangement for maximum efficiency and the food will come pretty quickly as  you expect in a Dim Sum place.

Price 3/5

This is where I think there could be some improvements. For two people eating there you would probably expect to spend about 20 per pax. We spent about 50 for two people for the above mentioned dishes. The price for one basket of stuff is about $4.20 although admittedly they do come in stack of 4 instead of someplaces where they come in 3s. Still there are some Dim Sum places outside that charge quite a bit cheaper in those coffee shops. I would say that you will get what you pay for in terms of food quality and the concept that this is something brought over from Hong Kong with a more restaurant atmosphere.

Of course for Singaporeans however, or at least the lay person, it could always be cheaper :) especially when you read the next section.

Accessibility 2.5/5

 The locations of the two branches in PS and TPY are fantastic, easy to access to via MRT especially for PS. The TPY branch needs about 3 mins walk from the TPY MRT but it is relatively convenient. Tell me if you need directions cause in this time and age, you probably could just use the location that I provided in this blog and google map it.

That being said. The queue is probably the main determining factor of whether you would actually want to come here to eat or not. Both sides have excessive queues which will be filled up during peak times like dinner. Probably expect to wait for even more then 1 hr which was what my friend told me when he queued at PS. I personnally skipped all the queue when I went there to eat at 3 pm so this could be a way you can experience THW without this hassle.

The shops are obviously too small for the expected crowd but that being said, expanding the shop without consideration could harm the food or service quality.

Overall

Food: 3.5 (Food has the Hong Kong taste, but not everything is entirely palatable or tasty)
Atmosphere: 3 (Also has the Hong Kong feel, not too crowded but I wont say its very comfortable)
Price: 3 (Noting that things come in 4s and not 3s, there is a slight premium price on its branding and restaurant like status.) 
Accessibility: 2.5 (Queue is the deal breaker in this case and it has a easy to get to location, but once you are there, you need lots of time to GET IN)

Overall: 3 (This score is a good reflection of what I believe you should do. 3 means its a place you should at least go to once, in fact go there during your weekdays off and skip the queue. Had this place have zero queue, I probably would go there more often but factoring the queue and the not too exemplary quality of food, you could coax yourself into alternatives elsewhere. It doesn't seem to have reservations either. Malaysia and Hong Kong would have better overall packages that you could live with. I personally don't feel any extreme urge to eat there again unless I have friends who do want to try it out for experience sake or they are great fans of some dishes. Even then, probably not during the peak hours.)

Ate at Tim Ho Wan before? Wanna share your experience? How was your queue there? Share them with us in the comments below...