Victor's Kitchen

The cravings for dim sum meant that i am always on the lookout for places be it restaurants or eateries which can answer to my stomach’s calling. Victor’s Kitchen has been around for quite a while now, and has been labeled with the “good dim sum at affordable price” tag.

Located at Sunshine Plaza off the corner atBencoolen street, it is a no-frills, grab-your-seats kind of place.Victor’s is divided into two seating area, with both holding a maximumof maybe fifteen people each. Seats are limited, you must be preparedto queue up for them, and squeeze in the small seating area. Well, morelike a small eatery than a cafe or restaurant kind of environment.

Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous rice ($4)
I always like glutinous rice, dim sum style. Opening the leave thatwrapped the rice, the aroma of the glutinous rice flowed out, and itwas just so good. The chicken was tender and the chinese sausagepalatable, the fragrant and soft rice, all the combinations made theglutinous rice a praiseworthy dish.

Tasty Queen size Siew Mai ($3)
You don’t say you eat dim sum if you did not order siew mai and hargau. Nicknamed the queen size siew mai, its actually the normal size iguess that’s why they didn’t named it as King size siew mai instead.

The pork meat in the siew mai is very lean, not those fatty type. Theportion of prawn to pork is actually very low, so not much of prawntaste, its the more porky kind.

Victor’s King prawn dumpling ($3.80)
Prawn dumpling or har gau, another mainstay in the dim sum menu. Theskin of the Victor’s King prawn dumpling is rather thin, and the prawnsinside looked like its going to burst out anytime. The fresh prawns goeasy on the palates and always welcome with second helpings.

Carrot cake with XO sauce ($3.80)
I was rather amazed when i saw the Carrot cake with XO sauce served.For one i wasn’t expecting the carrot cake to be literally soaked in xosauce, i thought it will be something like the one i had at PeachGarden, or Yan Ting, but i guess again, there isn’t any “fried” or“pan-seared” attached with the name here.

The name’s scallop, sausage carrot cake with xo sauce, but i hardly hadany hint of the presence of scallop and sausage in it, and i think istill preferred my carrot cake to be fried than soup. Nonetheless, theamount of XO sauce given was rather generous, and i guess its more of apersonal issue, some might just fancy this over the normal fried carrotcake.

Oyster sauce Char Siew Bun ($2.80)
I preferred my char siew bun to be those restaurants-type where thereis three parts one. There’s no trace of oyster sauce in the char siewbun, or maybe i happened to miss the flavor.

Nevertheless, the char siew bun is still quite soft and fluffy, thejuicy char siew captured within is also enjoyable. Not the best charsiew bun i had, but it will suffice.

Milky Custard Bun ($2.80)
I am getting warm up to Custard bun nowadays since i used to onlyflavor char siew bun when i had dim sum. You know a good custard bunwhen you see one, hot milky custard oozing out of the bun, tempting youwith both visual and taste.

However, the case is not to be with Victor’s Milky custard bun. Toutedas their signature dish, i was totally disappointed with the one i hadhere. Maybe the ones at Victor’s don’t ooze out, but for the custardbuns to come cold is another complete matter all together.

Having heard many wonderful things about their signature custard bun, imust said i was shocked by the revelation in the quality of the buns.Maybe its a case of a bad hair day, but i’ll give it a chance andre-visit to try it again the next time.

Spare Ribs rice ($3)
I’m not even sure if i want to elaborate on the spare ribs rice. Firstthing first, the rice is hard, too hard. I do understand that ribsbeing ribs do not have much meat, but this one, the pork ribs were noteven tasteful. A waste of 3 bucks, kindly ignore this if you ever go toVictor’s.

Phoenix Porridge ($3.50)
The century egg porridge or pi dan chow is transform in the name ofPhoenix porridge. However the majestic name did itself no favors with arun of the mill watery porridge. There are bits of century egg andchicken chunks, but i don’t see the point in paying $3.50 for anaverage small bowl porridge.

Deep fried spring roll ($3)
The deep fried spring roll is pretty decent, with the usual mix ofturnips inside. The vinger dip was a commendable mention, with theslightly sourish sauce going well together with the deep fried stuff.The spring roll was crispy and you could hear the “crisp” sound withevery bite you took.

Char siew cheong fun ($3)
The trails of a good char siew cheong fun are smooth and silky skin,which comes with juicy char siew. However the skin of the cheong fun orrice roll is rather thick, i’ll prefer it to be slightly thinner. Thechar siew within the cheong fun is still acceptable.

King prawn cheong fun ($3.50)
I think we over ordered, which results in having another one, the Kingprawn cheong fun. I presumed the prawns are the same as the ones in thehar gau, and they are fresh and good, pity the skin of the cheong funthough.

Total Bill is $51.1 for 3 person. Victor’s kitchen isdefinitely affordable and rather cheap with its array of dim sumserved. The maths work out to be around less than a dollar per piecefor most of the items, which can be a good place for your dim sum fixif you want something cheap and not bad.

Victor’s Kitchen is a case of hits and misses. Howeverthe misses hit me more because i had high expectations of the placesince there are much rave about the dim sum here. With the silkycustard bun as the biggest upset in this visit, it is likely i willvisit the place again in the future, to prove whether its a fluke orone-off thing.

The place is small, and they don’t take any reservations, do go atearlier timings or be prepared to queue a while for the seats. Its alsoadvisable to go in small groups since there aren’t much space and tableto accommodate a large crowd.

You are always welcome to visit ladyironcheffor a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuinefeelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call anadventure!