Suburbia Eating: Vine Pavilion Tea Restaurant

Vine Pavilion Tea Restaurant
126 Casuarina Road
Tel: 64598891


Lion's Head

We stumbled upon this place when we were driving looking around for dinner. The original plan was to head to Botak Jones, but it was a Saturday night and the wait was “half an hour…at least” and so we decided to drive around instead to find some other chow.

I don’t really recall how we ended up here. I cannot remember if we came here with the intension of eating prata and then got sidelined or that we decided to see if there was any interesting food places next to the prata shop. Surprisingly, this strip is crowded! For me, Casuarina Road = Crispy Prata Shop and nothing else and so I was intrigued that there was active food scene along this street and was even more delighted to we managed to uncover another decent inexpensive eatery.


Drunken Chicken

The Vine Pavilion Tea Restaurant is a no fuss, no table cloth eatery. On my first visit, because there were only the two of us, we only sampled 3 dishes: drunken chicken, si zi tou (literally lion’s head), which is large meatballs stuffed with a salted egg yolk and covered with a rich dark sauce, and sambal fried rice. The dishes, however, were rather outstanding and very economically priced. The drunken chicken was served at a good chilled temperature and was liquor-laced meat was delicious. The sambal fried rice also followed the same note, simple and delicious with a good wok-hei flavour.


Crab and Duck Claypot

On our return visit, we came in a larger party and sampled more of the menu. Other specialities that they recommend was their crab and duck claypot, which soup tasted like a less salty version of a salted vegetable duck soup, but with a touch of sweetness from the crab, deep fried eggplant and fish wrapped in bean skin, deep fried as well. And as with out first visit, the food was still good and the bill was still easy on the pocket.