Dragon Seeds is an authentic Chinese restaurant on Level 1 of the All-Day Shopping Centre in Academic City. Owned and managed by the same restauranteur who brought us the amazing Noodle Bowl on 2nd December Street in Satwa, Dragon Seeds is an eatery with impeccable lineage. Where Noodle Bowl is Pan Asian with a Singaporean-Malay bias, Dragon Seeds is pure Chinese. Its interior is well decorated with an expansive window display looking into its pristine clean kitchen taking centre stage.
If you’re looking for authentic Chinese food Dragon Seeds extensive menu will not disappoint. We started with some dim sum, which we were told is all is made fresh in-house. If you like savoury, try the Cheung Fun, it’s particularly good. Although nowhere close to Din Tai Fung, their Xiao Long Bao soup dumpling are good too.
Cheung Fun
Xiao Long Bao
The centrepiece of our table was their superb Kung Pao Prawn supported by a near-perfect stir-fried Kailan with Oyster Sauce, all the greens cooked through yet still crunchy. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed their egg fried rice too, especially the unique strips of lettuce they had folded in with all the other veggies (it was more like a full-on vegetable fried rice than plain egg). Neither of us, however, thought much of the vegetable noodles, which we found saltless and bland.
Fried Noodles with Vegetables
Kailan with Oyster SauceEgg Fried Rice Kung Pao Prawns
Welcoming us to the restaurant and looking after us throughout our meal were two smiley, friendly Desi girls who lost all their shyness the minute they found we were past time regulars of the Noodle Bowl. Asian staff would have made for a more authentic experience, but these girls did splendidly, even pronouncing Xiao Long Bao correctly. I am thrilled to have found this place; it joins a short list of authentic Chinese restaurants outside International City which offer the real flavour of Chinese food, and is well worth a detour.
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