Dim Joy (点聚)

My friend and I were thinking which of the dim sum restaurant we have not tried, and not too terribly expensive, we stumbled upon this place by accident. I've personally have not heard of this place previously, and neither was this place mentioned in most of the forums I've been to either.

Located at the junction of neil road and teck lim road (about 5min walk from Maxwell food centre), this little restaurant which sits around 20 - 30, is located at one of those renovated old shophouses. When we were there just slightly before 12, the place was empty. We're a bit apprehensive as it was a sunday noon, and the place was totally desserted, but since were already there, we just decided to just give it a try.

The deco of the restaurant is pretty nice, zen style with an open kitchen concept, with a covered courtyard in the middle. Personally, I find this place pretty cosy, and the waiter and waitress service are pretty good as well. Those they are mainly chinese, their english is acceptable, but were made up with their very good service.

Not sure if we were too early, but the food took a little longer than expected to be served, but is still acceptable. First item that was served was the king shrimp har gao ($4). The skin is thin, and the prawn is pretty nice, and the har gao served is hot. Next came the scallop and shrimp dumpling ($4), which is similar to the har gao, except that it comes with additional scallop inside. Next came the char siew bao ($3.50) and the siew mai ($3.50). The char siew bao is actually quite nice. Though the skin is not too fluffy like those hong kong style, but is actually pretty good, especially the char siew inside. The siew mai was good, but nothing exceptional or special though.

Next came the fried stuff. I love the savoury glutinous dumplings ($4.50) and it was piping hot when served. When eaten hot, this is pretty good. The savoury beancurd skin roll was a bit special ($4.50). Usually we get pork or prawn with this, here, if not wrong, it is filled with mushroom and vegetables. Finally, came the lotus leaf with glutinous rice ($4.50) and char siew so ($3.50). My friend loves the lotus leaf rice and she thinks it is better than the ones at yan palace. As for the char siew so, this can be subjective. The skin have the nice buttery taste, and the char siew inside is sweet and nice like the char siew bao. But somehow, I feel something is missing that both on themselves are pretty good, yet they did not mix very well though. After all these, felt I could still squeeze in a dessert, decided to order the durian snow pearl ($5.50). This one is very good! The skin is so thin and soft such that when you pop the whole piece in your mouth, you can hardly feel the skin, and just like eating durian. yummy. Total bill inclusive of tea came up to $47.10.

Overall, the dim sum is more refine in the presentation and food compared to yan palace. It also try to stand out by making each item a little special or different from what we commonly used to. Personally, I feel the food is pretty good, but portion is a little small (similar to probably what we get at Ah Yat dim sum where the dim sum is having 50% discount), and is a bit on the pricey side, with each either around $3.50 - 4 range. If the price is slightly cheaper, probably 50cents to a dollar less per item, I will see myself going back there more often.