Shin Yeh

I was prowling around Liang Court (and dragging my mum along) cos I wanted to find a new restaurant to eat in, but the one that I wanted to try was closed. Since my mum loves Chinese food (but I don't) we decided to check out the 2 Chinese restaurants which are newly opened. One of them's a ma la steam boat (steamboat is out of the question for me) so we ended up with Shin Yeh. We were fortunate to get a table immediately (someone just cancelled as they told us they were booked full and we had to wait). Shin Yeh's decor is above the average for a Chinese restaurant. It's supposed to be Taiwan's No. 1 restaurant (or so the poster claims). The menu is very extensive - there's alot of dishes and we had trouble deciding which ones we wanted - cos I was being greedy and wanted to try everything and they didn't have set menus. Anyway, we finally decided on Taiwanese Porridge (comes with sweet potato, $1.50 free flow) and a variety of dishes.Oyster omelette (~$14) had lots of oysters (not extremely fresh, but not stale) and comes with lots of browned crispy garlic and chopped leeks. It's not the kind with potato starch, and the omelette is slightly crispy and quite oily. My favourite dish of the day - braised eggplant, minced pork and basil leaves (I think it was about $15, must go check the receipt). The eggplant was perfectly done - cooked through and yet firm and not soggy and oil-logged. They even peel parts of the skin off so it has a striped apperance. Though the sauce is salty, it tastes fine with the plain porridge. Steamed minced pork with salted egg (can't remember price I think it's $10) - the pork was quite lean - and the salted egg went well with the porridge.

Cod fish ($10) which was coated in noodles and deep fried. It comes with a creamy sauce and a bit of fruit salad. The cod was flakey and moist - though it doesn't go with porridge it looked very nice in the menu so I ordered it. The only dish I didn't like was the Three Cup Chicken 三杯雞($18). It's supposed to be a Taiwanese dish and it's under the chef's recommendations in the menu, but the chicken was hard, dry and very very tough so I hardly ate this. Plus, it was extremely salty, had to dunk the whole thing into my porridge to make it edible. Complimentary dessert - Mua Chee (mochi) which is a popular Taiwanese snack.
Though the restaurant was very crowded, the dishes came very quickly - and nearly all at one go - pretty impressive for a restaurant that's completely full (we went at 730pm)! Though the restaurant is crowded, it's not as noisy as I had expected it to be - probably because of the plush chairs (plush for chinese restaurant standard), and the tables aren't crammed side by side so you get a bit more privacy.

It is pricey for porridge, but I won't mind coming back to try their other dishes (like their noodles, looks really good!) - they really should have a set menu so I can try more things! AND they are opened till 2am! Perfect supper place, since Liang Court is so near Clarke Quay.

Shin Yeh Restaurant
#02-19, Liang Court Shopping Centre
Opening Hours 11.30am to 2.30pm, 6 to 10.30pm for dinner,10.30pm to 2.00am for supper
Tel: 6338 7337