Over the weekend, the very last weekend of the 15 days of Chinese New Year, we had our own little gathering over dim sum. The place to try was Dolly Dim Sum – a unconventionally decorated venue that serves pork-free dim sum.

Many people gasp at the absurdity of having pork-free dim sum – like how could it be good if there is NO pork? To be honest, I have tried pretty decent pork-free dim sum in other places, and those were one of the best ones I had. So, honestly, it's all about being open to going without the piggy.

Food woes aside, the place is highly decorated in gorgeous tiles and lots of glass and wood, which reminds me of a pseudo era of psychedelic hipster-ness (if that term even exists). Somehow, all the mosaic tiling, chevron designs and bright murals seem to jive very well together.

There isn't much choices of dim sum as compared to a conventional dim sum restaurant, but they do serve the popular favorites like lo mai gai, har gou, siu mai, char siew pao, loh shi fun and even my favorite custard bun. I was glad that even their loh shi fun had a few varieties of fillings to choose from. However, one thing to note is that the prices are run much higher than other dim sum places.






To start off, we had the egg tarts which was very lovely and silky, followed by the loh shi fun, which is soft, silky and flavorful. The chilli that accompanies it is terribly delicious – I asked for more.








My only quip with this place is its poor service and the fact that it opens only at 11am! Dim sum is meant to be had early, for some of us, and it is appalling that even when we got in at 11am-sharp (we were all there by 10.30am), the food took a long time to come, and they do not come altogether at once. Service is such that we get sleepy-cranky-faced waiters serving us – it is very, very poor in comparison to those Chinese dim sum restaurants who have very quick and snappy servers who gives you what you demand in a jiffy.




There's a well-stocked bar in this place. I'm impressed.






Overall, the food is lovely and very enjoyable. They just need to improve on serving everything all at once (how else does one enjoy dim sum if food comes in one-by-one?) and putting smiles on their servers' faces. The price was quite a pinch but I figure, quite alright for its ambience and taste.

And to add-on a short summary of my Chinese New Year, it was A LOT of eating, drinking and gambling involved. Trust the Chinese to come up with a festival which makes gambling okay for all ages to participate in within those 15 days of celebration. There was a lion dance troupe that came to bless the house on the fourth day.