Little Tasty Yard, Northpoint: Sichuan Chain Restaurant with More Than 15 Outlets in China

By Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow on August 19, 2019 • ( 2 Comments )

Little Tasty Yard at Northpoint Yishun is the first Singapore outlet of the Chengdu restaurant with more than 15 outlets in China. The restaurant offers classic Sichuan dishes by chefs who come from China.

Since it is newly open, the menu is limited and some quintessential Sichuan dishes like spicy peanut noodles 担担面 and spicy wonton 红油抄手 are missing. Perhaps they will add more items later.

To be fair, they do have some interesting rare dishes such as lamb radish stew 羊肉锅 ($18.80), braised lamb chops 红烧羊排($23.80)， yam with chicken ($15.80), green pepper duck 青椒麻鸭 ($22.80), and iced sweet-and-sour pork ($13.80). But since we are boring af, we did not order these interesting dishes.

Pork Belly soy sauce 红烧肉 ($28.80)

The pork belly is average, okay, but for something so fat, it ought to be more delicious. It is not extremely tender but still acceptable. It is sweeter than it is salty. No hint of gaminess–I guess that counts for something.

Sliced fish in Sichuan oil with homemade tofu 豆花水煮鱼 (Sutchi fish $29.80 or snakehead fish $32.80)

Their signature dish is shui zhu yu or fish in Sichuan oil with the option of two types of fish, sutchi ($29.80) or snakehead fish ($32.80). Sutchi is a cheap fish that is rumoured to hold high amount of toxins. Just $3 more than sutchi, the snakehead fish is native to northern China – so pick the snakehead fish.

We ordered 少少辣 itsy bitsy tiny spicy because we cannot eat spicy food. But even then, we were sweating like mad. The server was very thoughtful and gave us complimentary sweet drinks to ease the heat.

The fish is fresh and absorbs the chilli nicely, but the star here is really the homemade tofu which has an intense soy taste.

However, the chilli oil has no depth and is monotonous.

Mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐 ($8.80)

The same goes for the mapo tofu. Mapo tofu is one of the cornerstones of Sichuan cuisine but here, it tastes somewhat below par.

Here they use tofu you can find at a supermarket—Why don’t they use the homemade tofu that is found in the shui zhu yu?

Furthermore, the sauce here tastes like the shui zhu yu’s one. Although they should be numbing and spicy, they should be different in tones. Mapo tofu sauce needs to be thicker, not as spicy, and more numbing.

The restaurant is located at a cul-de-sac where there is little foot traffic. Hopefully, this isolated location will not be its downfall.

We paid $85 for two.

Menu