Gim Cheng Dim Sum Restaurant — Restaurant in Johor

鲍鱼卖 Abalone Siew Mai = RM7.30 海鲜饺 Seafood Dumpling = RM7.80 叉烧包 Char Siew Bao = RM3.30 each (Minimum Puchase of 2 is Required) 皮蛋瘦肉粥 Century Egg Pork Porridge = RM6.80

SST Tax 6% = RM1.71

This is a Old Looking but Large Kopitiam Eatery and the Staffs here mostly consists of Myanmar Folks who are Polite and Friendly.

The Interior of the Place

The Whole Place is really divided into 2 Sections, the Main Dim Sum Serving Area and the Dining Area. There are 4 Specific Sections for the Dim Sum Serving Area.

1. 粥/包点部 Porridge Station - Focuses only on Porridge (Baos are in a Separate Station.)

2. 包点部 Bao Station - Focuses on the Various Types of Baos/Buns

3. 炸点部 Fried Station - Focuses on Fried Items like Carrot Cake etc

4. 蒸点部 Steamed Station - Focuses on Steamed Items like Siew Mai, Har Gao etc

Due to Text Limit Constraints, I won't go into details describing every Ingredient here. If you are interested to know more, come visit my Facebook Food Blog: "A Solo Singaporean's Guide to JB Foods (And More!)" to view the Full Review with Photos.

The Reason why this Place gets my Highest Score and also Why this Reason is also a Double-Edged Sword.

一句话: Fresh

One Unique Thing about this Eatery is how the Dim Sums (especially the Steamed Ones) come out only in Small Batches for Customers to Choose and Pick. Doing it this way ensures that the Dim Sums are always Piping Hot and Super Fresh literally right off the Steamer in some cases.

Why this Process is also not such a Good Thing

But because this is how they serve the Dim Sums, the Whole Process becomes like a Tikam Tikam Game where you cannot be sure to get Exactly the type of Dim Sum that you want.

I also noticed is that the Most Popular Classic Dim Sums such as Siew Mai and Har Gao are especially the ones that are being Slowly Dripfeed in Very Small Batches each time. The ones that they serve more are the "Less Popular" 冷门 ones.

Conclusion and Closing Thoughts

At RM7.30 (S$2.30) for the Siew Mai, I thought they were Decent Tasting although it was strange to see them Soaked in Siew Mai Juice like this. The Piece of Dried Faux Abalone was a Bold Choice for a Topping and I felt it worked by giving an Additional Meaty Chew to the otherwise usually Soft Bite Texture of Siew Mai.

At RM7.80 (S$2.40) for the 海鲜饺 Seafood Dumpling, I am impressed with it despite not being able to try their True Har Gao. I really like how Crumbly the Bite Texture was in my Mouth.

At RM3.30 (S$1.00) each for a Char Siew Bao, this is definitely worth the Money even though I have to order a Minimum of 2. If you enjoy a Classic Decent Soft Bun Sweet Meat Filling Tasting CSB, you won't go wrong with this one.

At RM6.80 (S$2.10) for the Porridge, I feel this is the True Signature for this Place. Its also the Only Item that you can reliably get without going through their Tikam Tikam Process of Choosing. The Soft and Smooth Creamy Ber-like Quality of this Porridge really hits the Spot for me. This may be the 1st Porridge I've eaten in JB that is as Close to Ber Quality like this. Don't Miss Out on this if you're here! Now I understand why it is so Highly Raved by People who eat at Gim Cheng.

I have Absolutely No Issues with this Place. Taste Quality for all the Foods are Good, Staff Service is Polite and Friendly and Everything just felt Affordable and Value for Money.

Whether you like this place or not really depends on whether you like their Tikam Tikam Serving Process compared to many other Dim Sum Eateries in JB. I personally wasn't used to it and disliked it at first, but grew to slowly adapt to it myself and eventually still enjoyed my time here.

Really Fresh Tasting Dim Sums, especially their Lovely Ber Quality Porridge. I now understand WHY Gim Cheng is so Highly Raved. If you can adopt the Mentality of just accepting whatever Random Dim Sums is served, I can recommend this.

Thanks for Reading. Come join my Facebook Food Blog: "A Solo Singaporean's Guide to JB Foods (And More!)" to view the Full Review...

I find the need to warn everyone. The queue system here is really really bad. One of the worst I have ever seen.

Reached at 9am and there were so many people standing outside the shop. After taking a queue number (need to know where to get it) and queueing (while standing) like close to an hour to get a SHARED table, you have to stand queue for hours to get respective food. Yes, you queue for so long to share a table with strangers.

Then you thought the ordeal was over but no, you have to get the food yourself which is fine but alas, get another round of atrocious queuing.

The queue for fried staff is insane, almost 1 hour of standing..

Then you have to queue for ANOTHER 30 minutes to get steamed dim sum.

After that, you’ll need to queue for the steamed paos too!

Basically every food item category, you have to queue separately. It’s not a one queue or one waiting time for access to all food here. Take note that all these hours-long queue for food and even dining, takes place in the non-air conditioned environment. It’s not even a buffet. You actually have to pay to stand in the queue for hours to buy the food, after queuing to get a table.

I have never seen a worse system for a restaurant. There is hardly any space for walking since the queue is blocking the payment queue, walking space of the hot dishes that are being dished out and everything else. Everytime after a customer collected the food, he or she will have to try and manoeuvre back to the table (because there is simply no space to walk) while carrying a tray of food. It is entire self service place.

After tasting the food, I did not get why it is popular, because it is too normal. It is like every place that sells dim sum quality. Does not stand out.

The dim sum is too average and normal for all these ridiculousness. The price is not cheap too. You are paying restaurant pricing for a coffee shop environment and quality food. I do not get why and how they can put customers through such ordeal and expect customers to still return here to eat. It’s like paying to suffer and waste hours to eat a few plates of average tasting dim sum?

I do not recommend anyone coming here unless you have the patience and time to waste with their system and pay for the expensive very average tasting dim sum.

The manpower allocation is also bad. There are certain staff standing around doing nothing even when some staff (especially those behind the steamed and fried food counters) who are just alone handling the long queues. No help given from the staff or owner behind the counter. More staff should be assigned to those popular...

Terrible experience. Ruined my breakfast mood. I have never written any bad review to any restuarant. Can say this is their honour to have my first written review.

Very poor service in terms of serving food and clearing tables.

After i was seated, i asked for staff to clear the table, yet nobody clear even till i finished my "breakfast".

I was there at 11am, not too late, not early as well. All the dim sums were almost cleared. So I queued up to take those remaining dim sums. The auntie serving the dim sum ignored me and gave the food to those customers whom she recognised as regulars.

Left me with almost nothing left. So i self serviced, took the only dish left, passed her the order paper to her which she was supposed to tick on. As expected, ignored me again. So i waved the ticket in her face, still ignoring. So i took the food furiously to my uncleared table, with the paper unticked. After 5 mins, she went to all tables to tally the food and the ticket and she found me. She looked so damn pissed. And this makes me even more fustrated as i was standing there close to 20mins in front of her, holding the oily tray, waving the paper to her face like an idiot.

Photo attached was the photo of my "breakfast" and the uncleared tables. Will never ever recommend anybodyto go there. Honestly their siew mai tasted like those sold in singapore kopitiam. Nothing facinating about their food as well. Really got a shock when i see the big crowd there. Maybe the boss did very well in his online marketing.

I have tried another good dim sum place in bukit indah, if i know this food sucks that much, i woulf have drive over. Anybody wants to have good dim sum can consider here Restaurant Changman Dim Sum常满点心楼. Confirm plus chop way better than...