“A special dish we hadn’t had before was the salted egg yolk lava bun – dark in colour, but glistening with gold on top.” Dining reviewer WENDY JOHNSON heads to Manuka for yum cha.
If you’re yearning for yummy yum cha, head to Oh No in Manuka. While you won’t see any push-carts trundling about, you’ll spot yum cha all-time faves.
They include pork buns, siu mai and har gow, created with Oh No’s special touch and served at the table. Plenty of diners have caught on, gathering at Oh No for a catch-up over the Chinese equivalent of “brunch”.
At Oh No, you book your spot for one hour and 45 minutes for an all-you-can-eat experience ($55). And if you want to “make it boozy”, you can go bottomless with a compact list of alcoholic beverages ($35) or pay as you go.
While somewhat flexible, Oh No reserves the right to charge $15 per dish for food that is untouched, partly to discourage over-ordering. And the restaurant politely declines modifications to the menu, so the kitchen is free to pump out dishes quickly.
I’m not a massive fan of pork buns because I often find them too doughy, but Oh No’s pan-fried pork version hit the spot with a perfect balance and texture. Ditto for the prawn and spinach dumplings, which were moist and soul-satisfying.
One of our favourite dishes was the prawn toast, formed into small spring roll shapes and fun to chow down on. Our salt and pepper crispy tofu was yum, and the chicken and ginger siu mai were gorgeous little packages of goodness, cooked so they were plump and juicy. We found the veggie dumplings a bit bland.
A special dish we hadn’t had before was the salted egg yolk lava bun – dark in colour, but glistening with gold on top. Some say this is a relatively new addition to yum cha menus, first introduced in Hong Kong in 2009. The bun was soft and fluffy and, when opened, featured a gooey egg mixture inside.
Oh No’s yum cha menu is divided into steamed items, wok items, fried items, dumplings and sweet things.
From the wok section, we enjoyed Dad’s Egg Fried Rice, a special recipe and a dish not to be missed.
With it, we indulged in wok-cooked barbecue pork belly, sliced into bite-sized portions with bright green spring onion sprinkled about. The pork was beautiful… crispy on top and cooked so the fat was perfectly rendered.
Always conscious of our veggies, we enjoyed the gai lan with oyster sauce. Who doesn’t love crunchy Chinese broccoli, vibrant in both colour and flavour?
Last, but not least, was a smooth, silky and creamy mango pudding, made with condensed milk. It was delicious.
Oh No’s staff were a highlight of our experience – fun, attentive, entertaining and full of vim and vigour.
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