EDIT: It is reopened and rebranded to Jing Hua Xiao Chi.

Isaac and I ordered zha-jiang noodles, some vegetable, fried dumplings, tang yuan in clear rose soup and in osmanthus soup.

When we first arrived, I said, “Ew, so dirty.”

Isaac said, “It’s a moth! Not a fly.”

“I don’t care! It’s an insect on the table.”

He laughed and said, “You’re prejudiced! Are you sure you want to eat here?”

“Yes,” I said, “so that I can write a very very bad review of this place and put it on my blog and no one will eat here ever again.”

The winning aspect of this place is that it hasn’t been renovated in years, having an old school charm. Damn their cheap ways of not renovating, which turn into ambience-decoration.

I asked, “What? There are only 10 things on their menu?”

“Yes,” Issac said.

“So you think if I bring 8 people here, we can order everything?”

“Six.” When the noodles and vegetables arrived, Isaac asked how they were.

“The noodles is very very average, I had better.”

Isaac said, “But the vegetables is nice right?”

“It’s the same vegetables in the noodles! They are just using one veg throughout all the dishes!”

“But still, the vegetables is cooked just right, not too hard, not too soft?”

I rolled my eyes and asked, “Isaac, they just dipped them into water and added oyster sauce. How difficult is that?”

“Ok, how’s the fried dumpling? They are famous for it.”

“Hm..ok, not the best I have eaten but ok. Although I hate it being so gimmicky. Why did they have to cut away the corners of the dumplings to make it look so squarish?”

The food so far was wavering between a 2.5 to 3 stars for me. Then came the tang yuan. Don’t judge the balls by their smoothness. They are the best balls I’ve eaten. Their texture is as smooth as the black sesame/peanut/lotus paste fillings, very consistent, as if the exterior and the fillings are one entity. And they’re very chewy, have a bounce but not at all tough. Instead of matching the balls with the usual peanut or ginger soup, they come with rose or osmanthus soup, very fragrant and light, very brilliant pairing. The tang yuan was definitely a 5.

But all things considered, Isaac is right in saying that “their food isn’t that great for me to take such bad attitude from them.”

Qun Zhong Eating House
21 Neil Road
T: 6221 3060

Rating: 2.310/5 stars