‘Homely’ Luncheon

We were invited to lunch ‘inspection’ by our boss once again and this time was rather different as we had to pre-order our set lunch in advance.

When we arrived at Xi Yan located near Tanjong Pagar, I felt that I was returning to my childhood house… it was a shop-house like restaurant where you have to climb a pile of pine wood stairs before you reach the entrance.

I was really amazed by the place as it did not look anything close to a restaurant but a shop-house I used to live when I was a child. The pine wooden flooring and the cool looking wooden windows (repainted and glassed) gave me a homely feeling. There were only 6 tables in total and that was the reason why reservations and pre-ordered menus are necessary.

It was a pre-ordered set lunch and appetizers were served shortly after we were seated. Soon after their in-house appetizers, our Furong Chicken Soup was served. The taste of the soup was really tasty though the appearance of it wasn’t appealing. There was only ONE special meat ball (which consist of scallop, pork, chives, prawn etc)… it was indeed tasty.


Here comes my favorite dish….Green House Tomatoes in Wasabi Sesame sauce. My goodness… that was the sweetest and the bestest tomatoes I have tasted in my life man!!! My tongue was shouting ‘WHAT WAS THAT YOU ATE!!! I WANT MORE’…It was sweet, soft and juicy especially with the unique wasabi sesame sauce. This is a WINNER!!!!

Our next dish was Stewed Beef Shin with preserved tangerine peel. The beef was extremely tender and very interesting combination with preserved tangerine peel. By the way, those three dishes I mentioned above were just the appetizers from our set menu….

Pagoda Dongpo Pork Belly with preserved vegetable stuffing & mushrooms were the first of our main dishes. To our surprised, the pork belly dish was decorated like a Pagoda… well, just as the name of the dish… it was very delicious and I simply enjoyed the preserved vegetables with belly…. YUMMY!


Roast Chicken with lemongrass and shrimp paste was pretty normal and the next dish was Steam Fish in Spicy Chilli sauce on rice noodle. Mmmh…. we were shocked to see the huge fish head covered with chili oil… tasty but we were too full to finish… but when the last dish arrived… Stir fried mushrooms with pickled cucumber, it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOD!! Very plain but heavenly tasty!



The dessert was awesome! Water Chestnut sorbet with bird’s nest shooter! It was refreshing after a full course lunch and bird’s nest… What can I say!! FANTASTIC!

Simply great luncheon indeed and might bring family there for lunch again as dinner is really COSTLY!