Review: 福苑家传菜 Fu Yuan Family Cuisine - Shanghainese Restaurant in West Coast Recreation Center

If you live near the West of Singapore, I recommend paying Fu Yuan Family Cuisine restaurant a visit.

What do I like about the restaurant?

Location: The restaurant is located in West Coast Recreation Centre with a snooker place and a bowling court. It is also close to the Clementi Sports Hall.  Although there are other choices in terms of food, I prefer this restaurant since it is usually quite quiet.

Taste: I think the most attracting feature of this restaurant is the taste of food. After visiting this place for a few times, I have the opportunity to try different dishes and I have never been disappointed with any dishes that I have eaten here. Their food is unpretentious and yet comforting.

Below are what I have for dinner yesterday:

Appetizer: Multi-layer tofu (千叶豆腐)

The appetizer is slices of tofus that are beautifully cut into flower-like shape. This dish is quite simple but I like the nice combination of silky soft tofu and century-eggs with soy sauce. Since it is an appetizer, all ingredients are slightly colder than room temperature. If you are a meat-lover, I recommend ordering their drunken chicken for appetizer.

Cabbage in white broth (田园娃娃菜)

I tend to order vegetables for every meal. I also like to eat dishes with broth, especially when I feel sick. Although I feel that this place has less choice in terms of vegetables compared to other restaurants, I often come here for their cabbage in white broth. In this dish, slices of cabbage is cooked in milky broth til they become soft and yet not too mushy, together with a few types of mushrooms and a few pinches of goji berries (枸杞). 

Seabass in sauce with oatmeal (干烧鲈鱼)

Pork with lotus buns (东坡肉)

It is my first time ordering their seabass as it is more expensive ($28) than other dishes. The whole fish is cooked in a slight sweet and spicy sauce with some sprinkles of oatmeal on top of the fishes. I like the addition of ground oatmeal in this dishes but I may be biased since I like almost everything with ground oatmeal grains. If you do not like seafood, I recommend trying their pork (东坡肉) with lotus bun. The dish is very tasty and I like the idea of serving the slices of pork in pig-shaped container (Isn't that cute?)

Price: Each dish cost around SGD12-28 and appetizers costs less than SGD10. The portion of each dish is quite small so you may be to order at least 3 dishes for a table of two. In general, I consider the price is quite reasonable considering the good quality of food served here.

Method of ordering: Some restaurants in Singapore start offering digital menu that let you order using Ipad. During my first visit to this place, they only offer plain printed menu but they started letting each customer order using ipad now. This may be a plus point for a tech-savvy person.

Membership: If you plan to pay more visit to this restaurant, don't forget to apply for their membership card as you get to accumulate points that will earn you more delicious dishes for free!