$4.50 for regular // the nutella soft serve was sooo creamy and milky and thick and made for a super satisfying dessert for the sweet tooth in me !! it’s topped with brownie chunks, biscuit crumbs (to mimic the cheesecake base????) and nutella fudge sauce. yuMz!!!

$7.90 (with the weekday lunch promotion) // had the most laidback lunch in this cafe along arab street, rly rly loved the vibes of this place. the food was great too!! a chunky piece of salmon well marinated in the tangy and salty mirin sauce, paired with flavorful mushroom medley, steamed broccoli, onsen egg and fluffy, hot brown rice ~~ healthy + delicious!!

(bases, sides and proteins are all customizable, and they provide extra sauce for free of charge)

cheap thrill but i enjoyed how all my dimsum was served on the conveyor belt trains, and yet each basket was still piping hot!!
but the quality and taste of the dimsum here was just divine, and with each dish i tasted, my satisfaction level grew higher and higher. the flavors were well-balanced and consistently good.

these are some of the more notable dishes i tasted:
🌟🌟🌟 teahouse signature rice roll ‘cheong fun’ ($8.50): prawn and scallops wrapped in a crispy tempura like roll, and then enveloped in rice roll sheet and served with the normal chee cheong fun sauce. yuMZ, due to all the different textures

🌟 black sesame lava buns (the panda shaped ones in the picture) ($6.30): i guess you don’t rly see dimsum stores offering black sesame buns, which is why this made so excited due to how much i like the black sesame flavor. steaming hot black sesame lava oozing out of a fluffy bun, nothing better than this!!!

🌟 deep fried dumpling filled with pork, mushroom and dried shrimp ($6.30): the dumpling skin was of a mochi like texture so it was really interesting, for one side to be so crispy from the frying and the other side was still so soft and chewy. i liked the combination of flavors for the filling, especially with the taste of honey-roasted charsiew and the subtly spicy, savory dried shrimp!!

the other dishes i tried were the usual dimsum dishes of xlb, bbq pork buns, fried prawn in beancurd skin roll and salted egg lava bun (which comes in a walnut shaped bun as seen in pic, pretty cute!!)

the prices are a little on the steep side for dimsum dishes, but at the time i went (about 4pm on a saturday), there was a 20% discount for all dimsum items so that was a real bonus!!

$14 // for 3 thick pancakes that was covered with a vanilla chantilly cream, berries and some maple syrup at the side. the pancakes were soft and fluffy, but also very eggy (and tasted more like a sponge cake), which isn’t exactly to my preference but it was still enjoyable!! eat it with the vanilla cream for maximum satisfaction in each bite of pancake/cloud/goodness 😍😍 this can get very filling really quickly so be sure to share it with others!!!

$12.90 // a HUGE portion for the price (PLEASE SHARE!!!) and it was of top notch quality !!! the fish was very fresh and tender, with a thin layer of crispy batter, and it was a rly generous serving of fish. there was also a lot of calamari, and it was fried and coated with some paprika which really gave it good flavor!! opted for the thai chili dipping sauce that paired well with all 3 items!!

rly ulu place (i got lost lol) but it’s worth the trip, for chill ambience (of dining in a highly aesthetic supermarket) and good food!!

(ordered a bunch of items and the price would probably average out to be about $8-10/person) // tried a variety of dishes and all were pretty good!! situated within sunshine plaza (so a rather hole in the wall place), this was a fuss-free, no-frills timsum place, with good quality food at a *slightly* higher price point in my opinion
items tried:
xlb: it was bigger than what u would expect from a normal dimsum place and the soup was really tasty as well!!

hargow: skin was not overly thick and the prawn in each dumpling was HUGE

steamed carrot cake with XO sauce: interesting dish, cos it’s very different from the standard carrot cake you would expect from SG. it was steamed and then u get to pour the condiments (soy sauce + chili/XO) over it but the taste was really good as well. it comes with scallops and smoked sausages within the carrot cake layer

salted egg yolk buns: really buttery and it was the right amount of sweetness as well. the buns were also steamed to perfection !!

char siew chee cheong fun: quite standard

overall it was a good meal and i’d definitely be back for the salted egg yolk buns and the xlb!!

$13.50 // pricey, but worth it. the charcoal waffles were light and fluffy (though it didn’t have much flavor on its own), and the ice cream was so smooth mindblowingly good!!! i got their signature blue milk (blue pea + sea salt) and earl grey lavender, and i like how this place has many unique flavors!!

a literal hole in the wall, this cosy place is such a hidden gem with great food ☺️☺️☺️

$8 for 5 pieces // yuMZ!!! meat free dumplings with a filling that was made up of spinach, tofu, shiitake, gochujang and korean pickles. the combination of textures from the filling made it feel like a regular pork dumpling and the flavors worked well with each other!! the dumplings were pan fried to perfection (living up to the namesake of this shop), even though it was a tad bit oily. the garlic aioli sauce had strong garlic flavors which went well with the dumplings. quite affordable for the quality (+ it’s rare to find veggie dumplings), would definitely be back!!

$6 + $1.50 for harajuku egg// very affordable given the high quality of this dish (and it’s meat-free nature)!! noodles were rly springy and chewy and there was a good portion of mushrooms, and each noodle strand was paired with the fried shallots so you get the perfect blend of chewy and crunchy!! downside is there is no miso taste at all in this dish but i guess it’s all been blended together, but the sauce was rly nice, with stronger mushroom/oyster sauce flavor.
this place tends to get very crowded during meal times so try not to come too late!!

$6 + $1.50 for harajuku egg// very affordable given the high quality of this dish (and it’s meat-free nature)!! noodles were rly springy and chewy and there was a good portion of mushrooms, and each noodle strand was paired with the fried shallots so you get the perfect blend of chewy and crunchy!! downside is there is no miso taste at all in this dish but i guess it’s all been blended together, but the sauce was rly nice, with stronger mushroom/oyster sauce flavor.
this place tends to get very crowded during meal times so try not to come too late!!

$15 // this is one of my favorite pastas in sg, as they do this combination of tomatoes and cream really well. i feel like with this combi, you get the tomato-based flavor without it being too sour and the cream-based flavor without it being too rich, so rly the best of both worlds!! the pasta was also al dente, though rly filling (would get the penne option next time, as it’d probably be less filling). good quality for this price!!

$24 // lmao wished for cake and got WAY more than i could have ever asked for. 10 alternating layers of chocolate devil’s food cake and peanut butter mascarpone, 2 of my absolute favorite flavors and also my guilty pleasures!! the cake was fudgey and moist and the peanut butter mascarpone cream cheese frosting was great as well and it was covered in chocolate ganache, which was the perfect cake combination, but idk who thought it was a good idea for a 20 layer cake, and why did i think it was a good idea too lol. ate and ate and ate and yet we barely made a dent in the cake, even though it was SUPER good. (and we were so sick of it at the end to even think of bringing it home as a takeaway, and i also noticed a lot of other tables didn’t finish their cake as well) i guess this is a novelty thing, but if u plan to eat this, i recommend u bring a few more people and be super hungry before coming 🤪🤪

but the ambience at lavo was amazing, such chill vibes against the backdrop of singapore’s skyline and the setting sun!!!