Yum cha, or dim sum, was my first real introduction to authentic chinese food. It became a regular saturday morning ritual for my friends and I, soaking up the friday night with a mix of steamed and fried dumplings, served off trolleys by uniformed aunties, all washed down with tannic chinese tea where the teapot would pour half of it over the table rather than your cup. Bliss. It had the advantage of also being cheap. You could order forever and the bill always came out to about ~$20-25 per person. However, I have yet to find quality dim sum at a good price in Singapore. Sure, I could go to a hotel and drop $100 on some amazing dumplings, but I don’t really want too. The closest I have had was in Penang where some coffee shops serve dim sum in the mornings, brought around on huge flat basket trays.

When I saw this shop, I was not expecting much, after all to make profits on $1.30 per dish, costs have been minimized to within an inch of their life. My dim sum testers are always the siu mai and har gow. If you cannot do these staples good, what hope for the rest? So I thought why not try? Can’t lose. But this stall does have 20+ options at $1.30. It really is impressive.

I started with the siu mai. Now I was impressed. The wrapper was still firm and not soggy. Has a nice bite to it. The pork mince was sweet, with a nice blended texture, no chunks. The small pieces of shiitake mushroom added balance with savoury flavours. The saltiness of the roe on top was the figurative icing on the cake.

The har gow was decent. The prawns were thick and meaty and more importantly not overcooked. The wrapper was the let down, thin and sticky. It has dried out too much and was hard to peel off the paper liner of the basket. Still, I’d prefer that to a thick gluggy wrapper any day of the week.

Amazing value dim sum at a price that cannot be beaten! Sure you can go get better ones for $6. I’ve also paid a lot more for worse. I’ll be back, especially since I now know its 24 hours. Perfect supper.

Price: $1.30 per dish

Coffee shop: 123 Koffee Corner
Address: Block 123 Bedok North Street 2, 01-142, Singapore 460123
Hours: 24 Hours