Pin Si @ Yishun Safra

A few weeks ago, a few of us were invited to attend a food bloggers get-together session that is organized by OpenRice Singapore at Pin Si Chinese Restaurant. This restaurant has being shifted over from it old located at Yishun Central (near the bus inter-change) to Yishun Safra since last year. According to the restaurant manager, the restaurant can cater up to a maximum of 54 tables for different co-operate functions, wedding banquets and special events. They also have two special VIP rooms that is equipped with KTV system (max 1 table per room) for entertainment too.

While at our seat, each of us is presented with a special scroll that highlights the menu of the night. From a glance, we saw it consists of appetizer, soup, a few main dishes and guess what, we are having “Bird’s nest” as our ending dessert.

First dish to be served as starter is this “Trio Varieties Combination Platter - 品食聚财三宝拼”. It consists of Prawn Roll (Xia Zhao), Crispy Roasted Pork Belly (Siu Yuk) and Pork Floss Tofu where you get to try a piece of each mentioned. I love the roasted pork belly that is well season and the meat is so tender that it can just melt within a few bites. Pork Floss Tofu has a very silky texture and it goes well with the floss coating too.
Price: S$10.00 per serving

After the yummy starter, everyone is being served with a bowl of this superior “Double Boiled Shark’s Bone Soup with Twins Treasures - 鲨鱼骨汤炖双宝”. The broth is boiled for at least 8 hours using chicken, pork ribs, scallop and etc to achieve the taste and flavour. When you first give it a sip, it taste sort of like those “pig stomach pepper soup” because of the peppery taste. But after a few mouthful, you will sure start to like it, as it is full of goodness and flavour together with that tender and juice Abalone.
Price: S$12.00 per serving

I love Asparagus especially those that are lightly stir-fried with garlic and olive oil. This vegetable is a low in calories and with a good source of calcium, dietary fiber, protein and vitamin A. Our asparagus dish today is known as “Stir-fried Fresh Scallops & Prawns with XO Sauce - 酱皇露顺玉带伴虾球” where you can see really big fresh prawns and scallop in it. All the ingredients are well blend with the XO sauce and the taste is good with a bit of spicy tingle in your tongue.
Price: S$10.00 per serving

Having this common dialect dish to be served in a restaurant is definitely something new to us. Their “Pan-fried Trio Stuff Varieties Hakka Style - 客家煎酿三宝” is served in a very special mini claypot with 3 different varieties such as stuffed Green Capsicum, Brinjal and Beancurd. The meat stuffing is well seasoned with a hint of salted fish taste, which makes it so delicious together with the sauce. This is indeed a recommending dish for those who love pan-fried style of Yong Tau Foo.
Price: S$8.00 per serving

Their “Roasted Pipa Duck - 美味京酱琵琶鸭” was not as good as what we thought. The meat was kind of tough when bite and it is a bit kind of salty to taste. But overall it still taste good with its crispy outer skin and it goes pretty well with some red wine too. According to restaurant manager, the duck need to be marinated with some spices and dripped dry for a few hours before roasting in order to enhance the taste and achieve good texture on the outer layer.
Price: S$14.00 per serving

If you could remember our recent September Bloggers outing post, there is a scary “paw” dish where we featured uncommon “Stewed Crocodile Palm - 红烧鳄鱼掌” from Café De Hong Kong. And for today’s menu, we have another creepy “feet” dish that is called “Braised Goose Web with Mushroom & Broccoli - 西兰花鹅掌扣花菇”. I have tried similar goose web dish from another restaurant sometime ago and I think the one served here at Pin Si is definitely much tender and tastier on their gravy.
Price: S$16.00 per serving

The last dish of that night is “Stewed Meehon with Minced Salted Fish & Assorted Seafood - 咸鱼茸海鲜粒焖鸳鸯米”. This unusual combination of rice vermicelli (aka bee hoon -米粉) and glass noodle Cellophane noodles (aka bean thread - 冬粉) is stir-fried together using some diced scallop, prawn and hint of salted fish to enhance the flavour. But sad to say, a few of us agreed that there is much fragrant or taste of the salted fish, perhaps they can improve further on the taste for this unique noodle dish.
Price: S$8.00 per serving

Having Bird’s Nest, as a daily dessert is always what most woman dream of it is believed to provide health benefits, such as aiding digestion, raising libido, alleviating asthma and an overall benefit to the immune system. So having a bowl of this “Bird’s nest with Water Chestnut & Egg White - 蛋白燕窝马蹄露” might helps to digest those dishes that we had. Although we can taste the fragrant f the bird’s nest when served, but most of us find that there is too much water chestnuts cubes in this dessert, which unintentionally spoilt the texture and taste.
Price: S$20.00 per serving

Every one of us enjoys the great companies of new and old friends, food and wine as well as exchanging of our views on the dishes and a bits of our current updates. From the above dishes, I would like to recommend the “Double Boiled Shark’s Bone Soup with Twins Treasures 鲨鱼骨汤炖双宝”. As a soup lover, I love the flavour of its' thick and sticky soup texture that leaves your taste buds filled with all the goodness from the broth.

Pin Si also offered daily Dim Sum menu from 11.00am - 2.30pm for those who enjoy dim sum for lunch with different varieties of choices such as Shrimp Dumplings(Har Gau), ShaoMai(Siu Mai), Egg Tart, Assorted Steam Buns, Porridge and etc.

Pin Si Chinese Restaurant
60 Yishun Ave 4
#02-V1
Yishun Safra Country Club
Singapore 769027
Telephone: 6852 8933
Fax: 6852 9669
Website: http://www.pinsi.com.sg

Operating Hours:
Opens Daily: 11am - 2.30pm; 6.30pm - 10.30pm

Dim Sum Ala-Carte: 11am-2.30pm (daily)