Lao Huo Tang

Very disappointed with the standard. The soup was really overbrewed and the ingredients in the soup were soft and mushy including the gingko nuts with peeling skin left to a kernel. The flavour though robust was worrisome because it seemed to have undertones of stock reheated a time too many. The most disappointing item was the prawn roll. Absolutely no prawns at all. Tasted only of chopped fat pork encased in a soya bean skin with an oil slick. Unfortunately in Singapore, the names of dishes are at the proprietor's discretion. Non Mandarin readers who depend on English names and descriptions can be easily fooled and the restaurant can get away with it as the cut open prawn roll shows nary a trace of prawn flesh Service was lackadiasical and we felt like we were an intrusion. Certainly a disappointing dining experience.

To be honest, we saw the placard of Edmund Chen, ex media corp actor and decided to give it a try. We ordered a soup-buddha jumped over the wall and a bowl of pumpkin rice for 2 people to share. And we were not disappointed. The soup was thick with flavour. Pumpkin rice was equally delicious. The server (old man) was very service oriented. He told us we could have free soup refill. Of course we did. Good lunch. Will go again. They have 10 outlets. When we were there about 12ish, it was not crowded. Customers started streaming in slowly. And we found out Edmund was not the boss of the restaurant. Just a celebrity representative fronting the restaurant.

We decided to have a late lunch over at Marina Square branch. A nice quiet place to have a stroll. At 3pm we were the only ones having our lunch but not for long. As the minutes went by, more people decided join in for a late lunch too. We had the watercress and old cucumber soup along with Kailan and pork cutlet. As usual the soup was very good. The Kailan nice and crisp. However, it was our first time having the pork cutlet. It wasn't too bad but I think it didn't really fit in with our meal. Should have ordered the sweet and sour pork! Anyways all was good except for the service. Our waiter was pretty abrupt and not really friendly. He could have smiled a little too. We usually goto the Jurong East branch. Service there is always spot on. Need a little work on that so this time I'll only give 2 stars. Service is everything....

Food and soup are msg laden. The salt is too heavy. It’s basically zi char in a shopping mall. Flavours are there but just too salty. During the dinner, my baby (2 years old) was coming in and out of the baby seat because he was restless. What put me off was that the manager, the guy in the shirt and pants with an airpod in his ear, was being curt and rude to my helper. He said “Do you need the baby seat? If not I take it away”.