Da Dong

Da Dong and I go way back, to even before I was born. This is the place that my great grandfather used to bring his granddaughter, i.e. my mum for dim sum when she was a kid. So yeah, this place and I, we be homies yo.
It’s since been acquired by the Fatty Weng group, which usually spells disaster for food quality. However, I was pleasantly surprised that the dim sum is still decent, and in my opinion, better than the likes of a drink tea establishment located just opposite. We swung by on a Tuesday afternoon, looking for lunch. Strangely enough, we were the only table of locals, and the other customers were all foreigners milling about Chinatown, ordering dishes of chilli crab and jugs of beer. *coughtouristscough*
Our orders: Big bao, har gao, fried carrot cake, fried bean curd skin and shrimp chee cheong fun. Big bao was so big, it had to be cut into quarters. Fluffy bread, soft juicy chunks of chicken and an inch of chinese sausage graced the interior. The chee cheong fun was silky and came tightly packed in a roll, rather than the limp flat thing that I’m used to outside. Fried carrot cake was a smooshy goodness in a crisp fried exterior, and I gladly burnt my tongue in haste to stuff it into my eat hole. The har gao was of generous proportion, but a bit of a miss as the skin got dry and hard when left aside for too long. Fried bean curd skin was good, though the most ho hum of the lot. I haven’t been here in ages, but am impressed that the standard hasn’t dropped at all, and that everything seems to be made from scratch.
The bill cometh, and for five items, it set us back $ 22.85 — rather affordable in comparison to the likes of the drink tea establishment nearby. Need to return to Da Dong as soon as I can round up more dim sum kakis.

In Chinatown, there is no shortage of tea houses serving dim sum and other local chinese dishes. Da Dong is another one of such restaurant tucked in a corner of the cultural streets of Chinatown. Having visited twice, I would rank this as an average restaurant. Not something that I would specially travel to Chinatown for, but something that I wouldn’t mind eating if I were in that area either.
In the morning to late afternoon, Da Dong offers a range of dim sum including the usual buns, snacks and chinese tea. The buns are generously filled and has a thin skin. However I do feel that it is a tad salty and the skin is a little stale and stretchy, instead of the soft, fluffy texture I was expecting. Other than these snacks, Da Dong also has a range of main meal options for lunch and dinner. They range from the more normal range like everyday noodle and rice dishes, to more extravagant ones like braised pork knuckle. On our second visit, we tried the seafood hor fun for dinner. Although the portion was big, the gravy was on the salty side and had little of other flavours. The seafood in the dish was also not as fresh as it could have been. On the whole, the dishes all average, but improvements can definitely be made.
However in terms of decoration and atmosphere, Da Dong scores full marks in evoking the rustic Chinatown feel. The restaurant is decorated with old pictures of renowned figures visiting the restaurant and is furnished with old-​school wooden furniture with marble table tops. Staff members are also decked out in a slightly modified cheongsam top that has prints that remind me of the Peranakan culture. So if you’re in the area looking for an oldies kind of place for an affordable meal, Da Dong is the place to visit.

Right in the heart of Chinatown and facing the open air evening market, this restaurant — reportedly open since 1928 is more of a tourist attraction than it is genuine — althought the food was not bad at all. Prices are of course much higher than if you went to eat on say, Gayleng rd. They have a few specialties, among them Peking duck. Beer is reasonably priced. You don’t even want to ask for the price of a glass of wine.