Lao Beijing @ Velocity Novena Square

Located at Level 2 of Novena Square. Take note that the dinner opening hours is after 6pm.

interior

ala-carte menu

condiments

Ordered two items from appetisers; sliced pork with garlic sauce and chili beef tendons. For mains, my friend ordered lamb and dumplings. Tea was counted per head but served in a teapot. Had eight treasure tea (unsweetened).

wet towel was complimentary but do refuse the peanut if you don't want it

Service was brisk, and had some difficulty understanding the accent of the waitress.

looks pretty, right? (八宝茶)

The 'treasures' were actually just add-ons in the tea cup. The pot of the tea tasted quite normal and no 'treasures' in the pot. Hmm. Oh well, quite liked the mild taste. Unlike some other Chinese restaurants where the service crew might come and pour the tea for you once in a while, this was not practiced here.

The appetisers came next, and they're basically cold dishes. The tendons looked different from the picture in the menu because I don't remember seeing it being sliced so thinly.

sliced pork with garlic sauce and beef tendons

sliced beef tendons

sliced pork with garlic sauce (蒜泥白肉)

The sliced pork was a little tough, but overall had a pleasant taste. Felt that the beef tendons were practically quite tasteless though.

Next was the dumplings. First impression was "wow.. so small." I think I'm quite used to a slightly larger version of the shui jiao (水饺) and probably expected it to look like an unfried version of guotie (锅贴) . My friend commented that it looked more like a yuan bao (元宝). But quite liked this small parcel of delight as the ingredients tasted fresh and not dried out. But more pork and chives than shrimps though. Best eaten with the ginger shreds and vinegar.

chives, pork and shrimp dumplings (三鲜水饺)

The dish that made its grand entrance towards the end of our meal, was the lamb dish. Our polite waitress did inform us that this dish would take a longer time to arrive so we were forewarned.

forgot what's the name of this lamb dish (@$18++)

mint sauce

yummy looking

The lamb does smell gamey but the chopped stalk (was it thin asparagus?), red chilies, fried garlic and shallots bits were good. The meat was actually quite tender and the mint does help to mask out abit of the smell. It was oily too.

The meal costs about $50 for 2 pax. On hindsight, we could've come for the high tea buffet (@$18.80++ 3-5.30pm) instead since most of our dishes can be found in the buffet menu except the lamb. Hahaa!