Kuai San Dian Xin 块三点心: $1.30 A Basket For No-Frills Dim Sum At Woodlands

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Located in the Primz Bizhub Coffeeshop, 块三点心 sells decent dim sum at a fraction of what you’d pay in a restaurant. This stall’s name literally translates to $1.30 dim sum, and as you probably can infer, everything only costs $1.30! I’m a sucker for saving cash so as you can probably imagine, I couldn’t wait to snap up this great deal.

Don’t fret, you don’t need to buy an online coupon and this deal doesn’t come with Terms & Conditions or a minimum spend. Just order and multiply the number of items by $1.30- voila, you’ve got you total bill. Also, feel free to come down any time you’re craving your dim sum snacks because it’s open 24 hours.

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Take your pick from their wide selection of 29 items including our favourite char siew pau (roasted meat bun) and Century Egg Pork Porridge. If you’re in the mood for something more adventurous, go for their Coffee Bun or Chicken Feet.

Oh and as a plus, all their dishes are handmade. (See the 手工包点 sign right in front of the stall?) The stall has almost all their dim sum items on display, so if you’re one to look before ordering, take your time to browse.

We dropped by in the morning so we mainly ordered our preferred breakfast-ish dishes. For me, dim sum is really perfect any time of the day, so don’t just stick to what we had.

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First up, the Prawn Dumpling (more affectionally known as har kow); a staple on the dim sum menu featuring a prawn filling encased within a “crystal skin”.

The prawn filling was well seasoned with chopped up bits of prawn within. Although the filling wasn’t too shabby, the skin failed to match up. We felt that the skin was a little too thick and chewy, a slight departure from the silky and thin skin we expected.

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What else to get for breakfast? We recommend the  Century Egg Pork Porridge. The bowl of pork porridge came with a huge scoop of century egg and scallions. The porridge itself was good on it’s own, but together with the egg? It was truly one flavourful spoonful after another.

The porridge also had a nice mouthfeel and had a good consistency such that it was fairly easy to eat. The portion as a whole might seem a little small it you’re having it alone, but at $1.30 an item, get some dim sum sides or another bowl of porridge.

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Unlike your usual liu sha bao, the Custard Pau won’t be oozing out salted egg. Instead, find a solid, rich buttery custard as you tear open the bun. The bun came in a pair and had skin that was soft yet springy.

The bun part of the Custard Pau tasted pretty averageOn the other hand, the custard was eggy and sweet; a Chinese version of the creme caramel.

This dish wasn’t our favourite but if you’re a fan of these kinds of bao, don’t dismiss it till you’ve tried it.

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Next, we got the widely popular Char Siew Pau. As with all paus, each stall has their own blend of seasoning and ingredients. Here at Kuai San Dian Xin, the char siew used was a more fatty version.

We felt that together with the bland skin, it balanced out nicely and brought a nice bout of richness to the dish. Additionally, the char siew sauce was sweet and savoury; making it tasty and not heavy on the palate.

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Lastly, we rounded off the meal with the Carrot Cake, and no I’m not talking about the one with cream cheese frosting. For Kuai San Dian Xin’s rendition of this dish, the slices of carrot cake were fried after being steamed.

The exterior was crispy without being too hard while the insides were soft and chewy. It was not overly greasy and the taste of the carrot cake was very prominent even though it was fried. Carrot cake is one of the dishes that we suggest you try.

Overall, the dim sum was not particularly amazing, but hey you get what you pay for – for the price of $1.30 a basket, I don’t think you can find a cheaper dim sum place in  Singapore.

Situated in a discreet corner in Woodlands, Kuai San Dian Xin might seem ulu and far for some, but for those of you willing to make the trip down (or just happen to be in the neighbourhood), pop by to try this dim sum at an extremely affordable price if you’re not fussy about quality.

Expected Damage: $3 – $10 per pax

Kuai San Dian Xin: 21 Woodlands Close Singapore 737854, Level 1 | Opening Hours: 24 Hours Daily

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