Food Review 2007 #7 - Zi Yean Restaurant

I've heard alot of good reviews abt this restaurant from food bloggers and the newpapers and food guides.

When I reached the restaurant, was surprised to see that it actually occupied the half the block of shop spaces! From the end of the block, it's the al-fresco dining area, then followed by the coffee-shop style, with fans, and then towards the middle of the block, it's the air-conditioned area. Of course, in this warm weather we've been expriencing lately, I chose to sit in the air-con area. :P

These are the dishes we ordered :

Stirfy venison with bittergourd. This is good stuff! Even some of the kids, upon hearing it's deer meat, tried it and were hooked! The meat was very tender and the seasoning was done just rite. Yummilious!

Tofu dish... This dish was just ordinary... The tofu was egg tofu, aside from being very soft, frankly, there's nothing to shout abt.

Soon Hock fish. This fish weighed over 1kg! and cost a bomb... but I only got the pic of the steamed fish. The other way it was prepared was braised fish (That was so good that I din managed to get a pic :P). The fish is really fresh and it's very well done!This is one of their chef specialty, Emperor chicken. The chicken was not stewed soft enuf tho', and the accompanying sauce was really good. And when the chicken was cut opened, there's mui-choi inside! What a pleasant surprise! And the mui-choi tasted very sweet.... really a dish that went very well with a bowl of steaming white rice!Crispy deep fried prawns wrapped with fu-pei. Another winner.... the kids loved this very much!The obligatory veg dish... mushroom with spinach. Average, in my opinion....Here's the favourite part of the meal.... DESSERT! We ordered or-nee... This dish was not listed on the menu, so we checked wit the waitress and she confirmed that they have it. However, the dish did not turn out as good as I hoped for. Instead of the coconut milk, they only used sugar syrup. The yam was abit lumpy, not smooth like paste. The bits of yellow in the dish are pumpkins... frankly, I believe they can definately do better!