Westlake

This post has been sitting in my Drafts folder for weeks, mainly because I am a little ashamed of the quality of the pictures. It was a huge dinner with my aunt's family, delayed till we were starving, and one of my young nieces was sitting beside me and I was half in-charge of babysitting her and getting her to eat. So it was basically quickly-take-a-picture, shove-food-in-mouth, babysit. Plus, of course, I could not command people to not touch the food till I had taken a pretty picture!

Anyhow, what you see in the picture above is the dish that Westlake is probably most famous for: kong bak pau. And Westlake continues to uphold its reputation as serving one of the best kong bak pau's in Singapore. Compared to Beng Hiang, Westlake's version is sweeter with light tones, and its black sauce thicker and creamier. As expected, the pork had been stewed for so long that was fall-apart tender.

As for the rest of the dishes, my cousin had done the ordering so the descriptions below are my guesses of their names.

My cousin ordered the sambal kangkong requesting for less sambal, because they and their children have low tolerance for chilli. The veggies were oily, but I love vegetables, and just tilted the plate so that the oil would drip away from the veg.

Yam baskets are one of my favourite dishes because of the colourful variety of meat and vegetables in one dish, and the crispy-creamy basket. There were lots of chunky chicken cubes and prawns in here, and it could be a Paleo dish on its own, taking away the surrounding fried noodles and baby corn within.

I think these were butter prawns - they were definitely not cereal prawns. It was actually the addictive crispy bits, which my mother identified as coconut, that made the dish stand out.

Steamed tofu with salted duck yolk on top, making a tasteless dish taste good. It was my three-year old niece's favourite dish. She kept saying she loves tofu and kept asking for more!

 

I think that this chicken is described on the menu as roast chicken, but it seemed deep fried instead, being crispy and very oily. At first, with hunger, it was easy to tear into the meat. But gradually the oiliness became overwhelming and I had to stop. People averse to oily food would fare better sticking with the tofu.

Fifteen years ago my own family used to visit Westlake about once every 3 months for dinner, partly because it is located close to our home, and partly because it serves our favourite dishes: kong bak pau, sambal kangkong and roast chicken. However we gradually ceased having meals at Westlake because of the greasiness of the dishes. (At home we have quite plain food.) Before this meal we had not eaten at Westlake for more than 6 months. Nonetheless, it was nice to return to taste some of Westlake's cooking again especially its kong bak pau, and above all else it was the company that was the highlight of the dinner.

Westlake
http://www.westlake.com.sg/

Blk 4 Queen’s Road
#02-139
Singapore 260004

Tel: 6474 7283
Fax: 6472 0042

Opening hours:
Daily
- Lunch: 11am – 2:30pm
- Dinner: 6pm – 10pm