Tung Sing Chin

* Restaurant is now closed*

I finally succumb.  I finally decided to do a re-visit post for Dim Sum at Tung Sing Chin.  After the repetitive nature of going there over and over again I just had to take pictures of the food and blog about it.  You see, my in-laws love the place (I may not be in total agreement of that), and we've been frequenting it often for Dim Sum.  Even with my mother-in-laws incessant complaining, we had agreed to eat there again. I was starting to get the shakes from not taking pictures!

They left the ordering to me which was probably a bad idea as I ordered far too much food starting with the Egg Tarts...  Dessert first?  Sadly, this happens quite often at Chinese restaurants during Dim Sum service.  If it is hot out of the oven (or not), food expedition means FIFO (first in, first out).  These were indeed hot out of the oven with a flaky and buttery tart shell.  The egg custard was somewhat firm, but was not too sweet.  Onto a savoury dish, we had the Black Bean Spareribs.  As evidenced in the picture, there was a whole lot of minced garlic which translated into the overall flavour profile.  Despite this, there was a lack of salt.  As for the texture, the meat was chewy, yet a touch too soft.  We liked that the pieces were easy on the fat and cartilage.

Next up was the Chicken Rice Hot Pot that featured a good amount of rice, but very little chicken.  Didn't matter really as the chicken was bland and over-tenderized where the meat texture was compromised.  The rice was pretty good though being dry and chewy.  One of my mother-in-laws favourite dishes is  Fried Smelt.  And I have to agree that it is a favourite of mine too.  Aiya!  We agree on something!  What has this world come to???  Anyways, the smelt were fried up crispy and wok-tossed with garlic, chilis, salt, pepper and of course MSG.  Personally, I thought it could've used a bit more salt.  I liked how the meat remained moist on the inside.

Onto another fried item, we had the Shrimp Spring Rolls.  I think my son practically ate this whole dish himself.  I don't blame him because they were fried up golden and crunchy with a minimal amount of grease.  The shrimp filling was plentiful, yet was lacking the classic snap texture.  The good amount of garlic helped ensure there was some aromatic flavour.  Continuing on with shrimp, we had the Haw Gow (shrimp dumplings).  Despite being large in size, the dumplings were not executed well.  The skin was floury and didn't exhibit any elasticity.  Although the filling consisted of large whole shrimp, there was a lack of a snap texture nor was there any apparent seasoning.

Onto even more shrimp, we had the Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll.  Again, there was a problem with the filling.  In terms of amount, there was plenty of large whole shrimp mixed in with shrimp mousse.  But once again, there was no snap.  Since they most likely used the same filling as the haw gow, there was a general lack of seasoning.  And while we are  at it, the shrimp in the Sui Mai (pork & shrimp dumpling) was exactly like everything else - no snap.  The dumplings were large though with a fairly loosely packed filling.  The pork was okay though being slightly bouncy.  Flavours were mild, yet we did pick out the shiitake mushrooms.

Moving onto some offal, we had the Tripe and Tendon.  There was no problem with flavour in this dish as there was plenty of sugar, garlic and gaminess.  The last flavour was probably due to inadequate rinsing of the tripe.  In terms of textures, both were pretty soft, but not enough to become mush.  For the kiddies, their favourite dish was of course, the Lo Mei Gai (sticky rice). The portion size was generous while the rice itself could've been less wet.  This was probably due to the large amount of filling consisting of ground pork.  Curiously, they added chestnuts to the mix.  I didn't think it went with the pork.

We got some veggies in the form of Stir-Fried Pea Shoots with garlic.  This was a well-executed dish consisting of crunchy pea shoots with plenty of garlic.  Again, there was a modest amount of salt used in the dish, yet we didn't mind it in this case.  Our last dish was the Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Beef.  The individual components were done right including the noodles (which stayed intact), tender beef and crunchy bean sprouts.  However, they could've taken it easy on the sprouts as there was far too much of it.  Furthermore, the noodles needed more soy.  As you can probably guess, I found the Dim Sum to be average.  Sure, my in-laws love the place (they know the owner), but for me, this would not be my first choice for Dim Sum nor Dinner.

The Good:
- Large portions
- Value is there
- Parking lot, albeit small

The Bad:
- Seasoning issues
- Textural issues