I have been eating at Mouth Restaurant 地茂馆 for over twenty years as it is a family friendly eatery serving traditional Cantonese dishes and innovative dim sum in a comfortable environment at competitive prices.
Inside, Mouth Restaurant has the look and feel of a typical semi fine Chinese eating house. It looked familiar and I felt comfortable and at home, the moment I stepped in. Actually, Cantonese restaurants around the world look like this whether it is in Hong Kong, London, New York City, Vancouver or in Singapore :P
Cantonese restaurants are known to conserve their food heritage faithfully while embracing innovation wholeheartedly. So in Mouth Restaurant, we can enjoy both traditional Cantonese classics done the age old way as well as boundary pushing new culinary creations.
Today, we sampled several dishes on Mouth Restaurant's menu - some dishes were from their Treasure Pot Feast set 九大簋盆菜, while others were their signature crowd favourites.
Our scrumptious lunch kicked off with a rousing start with a round of steamed Shanghai hairy crabs 上海清蒸大闸蟹 which are in season now till December.
This was my first Shanghai hairy crab this 2014 season.
The friendly staff broke open the shell for us so we can just focus on sucking up the hairy crab's roe. Shanghai Hairy crab roe tastes richer, creamier and more intensely savoury-sweet than other crab roe.
Early Days Shark Fin Soup 街头碗仔翅
Mock shark fin soup is a Hong Kong street food that emulates shark fin soup using chicken, pork, mushrooms, starch, seaweed gelatin and so on. Eaten with fried slender crispy strips of wanton skin, red or black vinegar and white pepper to enhance it's texture and flavour.
Nostalgia Whole Prawns 怀旧窝貼虾.
A gentrified version of an old school dish of fried egg toast (like mini French toast) with prawn mince. Mouth Restaurant's version uses good size "dessert prawns" which are farmed in man-made lakes in Saudi Arabia filled with seawater from the Red Sea.
Braised Trio Sea Treasure in Abalone Sauce 鮑汁三海味 (海参,冬菇,魚鰾).
A large claypot of premium grade sea cucumber, fish maw, Chinese black mushroom and leafy green spinach braised till tender in abalone sauce. Nice layers of mild savouriness and mix of soft textures.
I liked everything in this pot and had two servings :D
Hong Kong Temple Street Claypot Rice 香港庙街砂煲饭.
The cooked rice and tender chicken were mildly flavoured and eaten with this special sauce. This sauce specially made to accompany the claypot rice was robustly flavoured with diced garlic, chives, chili, ginger in savoury soy.
Grouper Fish Sauteed with Basil and Three Cup Sauce 三杯酒班球.
The fresh fish was well executed with a slight savoury crisp browned outside while inside, we were still able to enjoy the fish's juices, natural sweetness and moist tender meat.
Traditional Braised Pi Pa Tofu 月滿抱琵琶.
An old school Cantonese classic of minced pork wrapped in tofu, and braised. Varied tenderness with layers of savoury sweetness complemented by crunchy juicy greens.
Sauteed Asparagus with Wild Mushroom in Truffle 黑松露野菌露荀.
Simply and nicely executed. All the vegetable's natural flavours and crunch were preserved for us to enjoy.
Mouth Restaurant is known for their innovative dim sum. This squid ink char siew pau is an example.
Juicy savoury-sweet stewed tender pork wrapped in a soft, fluffy squid ink bun. The squid ink didn't add much, if anything, to the flavours but the visual appeal certainly enhanced our enjoyment of this old Cantonese dim sum icon.
Mouth Restaurant's liu sha bao 流沙包 or custard bun was really as good as the media hype claimed. The bun slightly crisp outside, held a golden load of warm lava made with butter and salted egg yolk which was a well balanced blend of sweet and savoury.
The correct way to enjoy liu sha bao is to let all the lava flow straight into the mouth, but I let mine flowed onto a plate to get a picture of it for you. It's a food blogger's sacrifice :P
Mouth Restaurant's is one of the top best liu sha bao that I have ever tasted.
We rounded up our scrumptious lunch on a sweet note with Double Boiled Ginger Tea with Glutinous Rice Balls 双煮姜茶汤圆.
Thank you to Daniel and Stevie for the invite and hospitality.
Restaurant name: Mouth Restaurant Singapore 地茂馆
Address: #01-61, 22 Cross Street, China Place (formerly known as China Square Central), Singapore
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/CHRrq
GPS: 1.284329,103.846488
Hours: Mon - Fri: 11:30 am - 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm | Sat - Sun: 10:00 am - 10:00 pm
Tel: +65 64385798 (China Square Central)
Non Halal
Date visited: 20 Sep 2014
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