Hojiak Chinese

Enjoyed the dory fish with mala soup base although it was a little on the salty side. The portion is good for 3-4 persons to share if you order additional sides for the soup.

Enjoyed the roasted duck very much ... crispy skin and succulent meat. The signature chilled tofu was very good too. Some hits and misses for the dim sum dishes though.

Order the trio set of braised pork rice (luroufan), oyster mee sua and chicken rice, which is a good way to try the variety of main dishes they have. The side dishes of Taiwanese sausage and braised intestines are good too.

Finally get to try Darling Dumplings, cos the queue is always so long on weekdays. I chose the Miso Mushroom Noodles with Sichuan Dumplings and Longan Osmanthus Pu-erh drink for my lunch set. Despite the name of the restaurant, the star of the meal to me was not the dumplings. They were okay but I was more impressed with the springy noodles which was well seasoned and topped with a generous amount of braised mushroom. The lovely pu-erh drink was prepared individually by the glass and I could distinctly taste the flavor of the tea, longans and fragrant osmanthus.

The 4 of us are not big eaters so we ordered the set for 2 and topped up with 2 more bowls of porridge. Wanted to try something new so we ordered the stir fried lala which was so shiok! Think they fried the lala with finely chopped basil, pork lard and garlic - which we happily ate with the porridge. 😜

This platter was part of the set menu we ordered - flavorful black ink sotong sausage, good sio bak and tasty meat roll.

The cold crab was fresh and enjoyable with the sauce provided.

The custard was soft and not too sweet. The yuzu jam at the bottom added an interesting dimension to the taste.

The duck was tender and juicy. On its own, it was a little bland. Have to dip it in the calamansi-infused hoisin sauce and eat with the subtly flavored calamansi buns and condiments.

Ordered their lu rou, triple fried yam, Taiwanese sausage patty and braised cabbage. The lu rou had a nice tinge of dang gui flavor, good fat-to-meat ratio, and was braised to the tenderness I like. The Taiwanese sausage patty was nice though salty, which was expected. The braised cabbage was good too but I find the serving small for $10. The triple fried yam was average and uninspiring.

This is their newly opened second outlet and it’s the first time I’m patronizing this restaurant. The cost of our meal - 4 dishes and 2 bowls of sweet potato porridge ($3 each) - came up to almost $50. They have a set for 2 at $50, which is a good deal but we didn’t order that cos it looks like way too much food for 2 persons. Not sure about the concept at their Circular Road outlet, but the Suntec one is self-service - not just collecting your food but returning your tray and utensils as well. While the food was tasty, we find the price point too high considering the self-service concept, ambience and portion size. Wouldn’t mind eating here again but it wouldn’t be a place I’ll frequent.

Deep fried tofu “bowl” with sweet, savory and spicy prawns. Not bad.

Nice flavor but the lean part of the meat was a little tough and dry.