Loy Sum Juan is a favourite of the family. We love the har cheong kai, their steamed fish head, their steamed garlic prawns amongst several dishes. I was first introduced by a former boss...AMB: who brought me, then a rookie sales person, to celebrate a big win. LSJ was then located above some shophouses at Outram Park. HDB has since redeveloped that block, and the restaurant moved to the top floor of Tiong Bahru Plaza. We were regulars then. I blogged about them in the Tiong Bahru outlet in 2008.
They then moved to their current location in Murray Street about 2 years ago, and I have become less regular, but the owners, now second generation, still recognise me.
My sister decided to do a banquet style dinner for her birthday, so the whole clan trooped down.
Typical of a Chinese banquet, we started with the cold appetizer dish:
The dish is not atypical. Some salad prawns in the middle, sliced jellyfish, with a cup of stir fried eggs, strands of sharks fin, bean sprouts, golden medallions of pork, Peking duck and deep fried fish skin in a Thai sauce. Quite nice, and a good way to start the dinner.
We next had sharks fin in chicken broth and thick soup:
This was again fairy typical. Shredded sharks fin, in a chicken broth. The broth was thick, and very flavourful. Nice, thick consistency, and very tasty. This is not superior sharks fin, where the whole fin is served in one piece, but these were loose strands of fin...though reasonably generous in serving size.
We also had the Tau Tay, steamed Teochew style:
To the Teochews, I guess the Tau Tay...a kind of promfret, but with a rounder nose, is supreme. The meat is sweet, smooth, and very clean tasting (if fresh). This was quite good, except the fish was slightly over cooked, robbing it of the rich smoothness characteristic of Tau Tay. But it remained quite delicious.
Sliced abalone with broccoli in brown sauce:
This was a superb dish. The brocolli was cooked just right, not overcooked...it had a crunch, and bite, and tasted very fresh. The abalone was tender, and sliced thinly. I imagined it to have been braised in the brown sauce with rich chicken stock, as I can almost taste the chicken. Nice!
Prawns, deep fried was next:
The prawns were fresh, large and succulent. What can I say, when the prawns were such quality...unless the chef overcooked the dish, it was bound to taste good...and indeed it did. Excellent.
The vegetable dish was baby kailan with mushrooms and beancurd
The baby kailan was very fresh, and again the chef showed his mastery of the fire...blanched just right, crunchy, cooked, but not overcooked into a mush. Very nice vegetables. The braised mushrooms were also very good, as were the cubes of bean curd. Braising for perhaps a long time, bubbling away and absorbing the richness of the stock.
The dessert was a kind of twist on the old Ohr Nee:
Instead of plain ohr nee, this one came cooked with cereal. A nestum like cereal was added to the mix. For me, this is only midly successful. The cereal gave the yam a nice complementary flavour, but it was too sweet almost to the point of being coy. For me, not their best dish.
Overall, a nice banquet. Considering that I had loved their cze char style food earlier, their restaurant banquet style food was also worthwhile.
Loy Sum Juan
28 Murray Terrace
#01-01
Tel: +65 6221 2257 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +65 6221 2257 end_of_the_skype_highlighting Mon–Sun
11.30am–3pm, 6pm–10.30pm
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