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Dining out: Dinners with Tung Lok

The Tung Lok group excites me. Simply because, it's wide range of restaurants appeal to a whole range of diners. From the dim sum fanatic to the vegetarian foodie of blue blood descent. Tung Lok does it all, and all in good style and charisma. Each of it's restaurants collecting accolades and special mentions in its respective food departments.

This time around, I managed to steal a first time visit to Tunglok Signatures and an 'not-so-welcomed' re-visit to Lingzhi Vegetarian Restaurant with the family. In a bid to claim the two hundred and more in value of vouchers, we scheduled two Tung Lok visits in a span of a weekend! Talk about striking when the iron is hot.

So moving on to food. First stop, Tung lok Signatures, we chose the branch located at the Central Mall (the other is situated at Vivocity) because of it's convenient locality.

Tung Lok Signatures serves up a collection of signature dishes from the various Tunglok outlets. A versatility and diverseness of cuisine has saw to the quick success of the restaurant. Combined with tasteful decor in house and a delightfully chic ambiance, I could clearly understand the popularity of the restaurant with families and secretive dates alike.

So starting the drum rolling is steamed angle luffa ($18.00) with fried compoy chips. This dish was outstanding with the said chinese okra slices tender and smooth, the soy like sauce with a tinge of pungency from the raw garlic, complimenting the steamed greens.

Next up, the sauteed black pepper beef ($28.00) was another great dish with the aroma of freshly ground pepper combined with a bright splash of colorful vegetables. More importantly, the beef chunks though large and rather unevenly sliced, were deliciously tender.

The next three dishes were a major disappointment, the first, the crispy roast pork ($10.00) literally chip my tooth upon the first bite. I suppose, they could have used a little help from a better cut of pork. The layers of fat between the crispy skin and succulent meat roasted to an almost non-existence. The second dish, the fried golden salted egg yolk prawns ($28.00) had a beautiful flavor and complex saltiness from the salted egg yolk, however, the grease sipping out from it scared the heck out of everyone except my younger brother, an avid fan of all things deep fried. The Pig Shank slices in Chili Oil ($7.00), oh gosh...I would just send you running in the opposite direction .

The remaining of our dinner fared much better. The half BBQ peking duck ($30.00), was both affordable, yet not stinching on quality. It's crisp skin wrecking havoc in my mouth as the gregarious flavors spoke volumes with the sweet hoisin sauce stuffed in fluffy pancakes.

Desserts was a sweet affair with a chilled pudding ($6.00) from the special menu. A green tea panna cotta with red bean endings. I loved this all except for the coarse stewed red beans at the bottom of the parfait glasses, non-complimentary to the quivering yielding soft pudding
above.

Our next Tung Lok venture brought us to Lingzhi Vegetarian Restaurant. Yes, you heard me right, it's vegetarian! The carnivorous likes of me protests quietly, it's dull screams smothered by the power of natural greens. What I enjoy most about Lingzhi is its dedication to produce top nosh vegetarian fare, encouraging the use of a wide variation of fungi and veggies alike. For all who have their initial reservations about this cuisine, rest assured that you would be nothing but impressed at the end of the meal. Not a staunch convert, but at least piqued by the experience.

Self deception. Yes, these sauteed monkey head mushrooms with dried chili can pass off as a close relative of the dish, sweet and sour pork. I kid you not, the somewhat hideous fungi has a texture similar to the sinful dish of rainbow reds. Yummy and incredibly huge in portions, this can easily feed 4 people.

The best dish of the night and certainly the most surprising was the satay. Sad to say, the fried sluten disguised by the generous coating of thick satay sauce was a major turn off for me.

The best dish and possibly the safest bet for the night was stewed eggplant with beancurd paste ($16.00). Thick, luscious and spicy with the likes of mushrooms and tender potatoes thrown into the warm depths. The eggplant was gorgeously cooked through without being overly mushy. The side of fried mantou, a practical tool for soaking up the gravy.

The braised wild morel with chef recommended sauce ($24.00) was a mediocre dish. Honestly, I do love asparagus and mushrooms, but you do reach a stage in a meal where, your stomach flips at the sight and taste of this moreish earthy treat.

on hindsight, the signature fried brown rice with mixed vegetables was a ravishing dish, with standards of a good fried rice applicable to the mixture of unpolished brown rice. aromatic, with each grain of rice exuding a foxy gleen of oil.

Desserts was an incredible as well. A roll of mango puree, and fine grained coconut. This literally melts in your mouth at lightning speed. Be sure to pick up the pace when grabbing your portion as well as this dish is sure to be a quick seller with seconds.

So there you have it. two meals in the name of Tung Lok. Advocates of exceptional cuisine and a all rounded fine dining experience. Signing out to relieve my induced fullness from this incredibly long review. Cheers mate.

Tung Lok Signatures
The Central #02-88
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
Tel: 6336 6022

Lingzhi Vegetarian Restaurant
238 Thomson Road
#03-09/10 Velocity @ Novena Square
Singapore 307683
Tel: +65 6538 2992

Labels: food, restaurants

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