The restaurant groups Crystal Jade and Tung Lok have between them cornered the market on the local Chinese restaurant scene. Their influence pervades far and wide-outlets all over the island, from budget roast-meat-noodles operations to swanky fine dining options covering most popular regional Chinese cuisine as well as Thai and Korean options.
I prefer eating at Crystal Jade outlets, their town restaurants generally deliver on their promise of good food with reasonable prices served in pleasant surroundings and acceptable service. The goodwill dropped a bit in recent months with the perceived drop in quality when some of their staff were poached by their once-partners-now-rival Imperial Treasure but I am certain they will get back their groove.
Tung Lok, though, I have semi-boycotted for years. Two weeks ago, if I was asked how many times I've eaten at a Tung Lok establishment , my reply would have been "once or twice in the past three years". A deep contrast to the late 90's when I fervently championed them, especially Lingzhi, Kippo and later, Club Chinois. Over the years I observe their restaurants expanding and the menus becoming indistinguishable from each other, and their service, already poor as in the auntie waitresses would sort cutlery loudly right behind you all the time, decline even further until it became a reason to avoid patronising them.
Things change, as they have the habit of doing, and sometimes circumstances put these things in a different light. Where I live, at the Newton/Novena/Balestier area there are only a few good Chinese restaurants- Asia Grand which can be inconsistent and especially fails consistently in their desserts and dim sum, Peach Garden for its rather snobbish attitude, and... that's it really. There is no Crystal Jade restaurants in the vicinity, I can only speculate that this area is a UOB/ UOL stronghold and the landlords and Crystal Jade have not come up with a mutually acceptable agreement.
Which leaves the path clear for their competitor, who already have a Lao Beijing restaurant in Novena Square. Two weeks ago when I went to the building for lunch, I discovered that the premises previously occupied by Coca Steamboat has been refurnished and is now occupied by House of Hunan. I guessed immediately that it is a Tung Lok place, because the entrance is visually dominated by the same wooden carved seats that they display in Lao Beijing a floor below, and there are not many restaurants claiming to serve Hunanese food other than Tung Lok. And I was swayed in my decision by memories of how difficult it was to get tables at their Charming Garden hunanese restaurant- it was a very popular wedding bangquet venue, I remember we enquired for our wedding and being laughed in the face as they told us other couples book two years in advance for the privilege! True enough, the staff later confirmed that they are from Charming Garden, as the hotel which housed them is slated for conversion to condominium.
The decor is bright in a nondescript contemporary way, as in it could be a chinese restaurant by day and a hotel coffeehouse by night way, but the five day old restaurant was humming smoothly with lots of tables occupied by office workers and at one corner a gathering of senior ladies making full advantage of their $9 per dishes promotion. The promotion is now over but most early bird diners would have been presented with cash vouchers to assure their repeat patronage.
The food was mostly as I remember from Charming Garden, favourites like Pigeon Soup in Bamboo and Crispy Bean Curd sheets reliably good after years of making it over and over again I suppose. They generally serve the bean sheets individually wrapped in steamed bun skin, but I prefer to make my own double-layer version with extra scallions which gives more of the smoky sweet crisp beancurdy taste in each bite. The soup was light, brothy and meaty without gamey overtures, and sweet from tiny chestnuts pieces mixed with the minced meat, nolstagic pleasure in each healthy spoonful.
Also new are a slew of braised dishes that would go excellently with rice, over two visits I tried a few and and found them to be mostly tasty and not just something put carelessly together with a generic brown sauce. The dishes are more robust and earthy, none of that delicate Teochew prissiness nor disciplined ingredient-driven Cantonese strictures, Hunanese food is known for its unbridled use of aromatics and peppers. Like a plate of specially imported green chillies flame-fried with a scattering of pork belly, it was weird at first to be eating green chillies like we would a dish of kai lan, but the peppers were surprisingly sweet and only a little fiery. I was recommended to try their duck braised with young ginger and chestnuts, while the duck was rather tasteless, on account of them being frozen before use possibly, the gravy was incredibly more-ish, richly flavoured without being too heavy. The service was to me at least, uncharacteristically good, as in the staff were very responsive and alert, and knew how to recommend dishes without necessarily pushing their pricier dishes and even managing a smile or two.
Yesterday, when we were stuck in busy Scotts Road on the way to Asia Grand, which was actually Plan B after we had cancelled a reservation for a restaurant along Orchard Road, on account of the heavy traffic and our growling 1.30 p.m. bellies, husband remarked that we should have gone to House of Hunan instead. This, from a man initially sceptical when I first suggested trying out that "new Tung Lok place". And with the swelling numbers of cars on the road, it may well make sense for us to walk over to this neighbourhood restaurant more often.
