Chef Tony — Restaurant in Arcadia

First of all, it's good and crowded. We arrived at 0950, 12/31, and already a queue of about seven or eight groups waiting ahead. Once it's occupied, the second rounds have to wait outside and at least one hour waiting.

Second, tips, DON'T order the house special Roast Crispy Chicken with Black Truffle. Yes, it's wonderfully crispy, but the black truffle dipping sauce on the side had no black truffle smell AT ALL. The sauce was tasteless and even a plate of Chinese garlic chives blossom (韭菜花) would be better, even though I don't like to eat Chinese garlic chives blossom.

Third, DON'T order any dish that should have a strong fragrance. Like Shrimp and Pork Dumplings with Black Truffle, Deep Fried Durian Pastry. They didn't have the smell they should have.

Otherwise, all the rest were good or acceptable. Every dish met the standard, they were traditional, and they were authentic.

Here are some recommendations: Shrimp Wonton with House Spicy Sauce. It was mildly spicy, the spicy everyone could handle it. The wonton was full of shrimp, soft, tender, and delicious. The sauce was full of flavor.

Deep Fried Japanese Octopus It was only the octopus feet without the body, you could read it from the menu if you know Chinese. It was crispy and very well seasoned.

Shrimp Dumpling Which was steamed and fresh, very tasty, and very classic. Textbook level.

Deep Fried Shrimp Spring Roll It was deep-fried but not oily at all, which was good, no one likes a mouthful of oil.

Rice Noodle Roll with Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll with Minced Beef and Chinese Parsley For the rice noodle roll, the shrimp one was better than the beef one, you still can order the beef one in case you already had the shrimp dumpling, shrimp wonton, and shrimp spring roll, too many shrimp in Cantonese restaurants.

Deep Fried Pork Dumpling The personal favorite dish in any Chinese breakfast tea restaurant rarely had a bad one.

Coconut Pudding The pudding was in rabbit shape, order it if you have kids with you. The next lunar/Chinese year is the rabbit, it's a good fortune hint.

Something not that good: Juicy Pork Dumpling The shape of the dumpling fails. The juice of the dumpling fails.

Wok Fried Radish Cake with XO Sauce The green bean sprouts were undercooked, even in their raw stage with an unpleasant smell. The cake was...

1 YEAR UPDATE: What's up with the service? Except for one guy not having his head up h̶i̶s̶ @̶$̶$̶ in the clouds, I had to scream for a menu after being seated, and they charged per pot for tea that is extremely weak and lukewarm. Plus, my girlfriend was disappointed with the durian flake cakes, where the flaky crust didn't do much to make up for bland durians. If it wasn't for trying to show off the jiggly bunny desserts, I wouldn't bother with this place. Overpriced for mediocre service and average food with a fancy marketing name. Previous Review=== Chef Tony came out from the shadows of 海港 (Sea Harbour), so I was hoping for some good stuff! But I'll have to say, I thought Sea Harbour sort of beat this location out. Can't say for the other locations in the area. Keep in mind though, this location is still far above the other Dim Sum restaurants in the area. But honestly, the squid ink 蝦餃 is nothing new after Sea Harbour, so they should do a better job of letting me know what original creations Chef Tony has made on the menu to differentiate himself from the roots which he came from. The jiggly coconut puddings were nice. If I come back with a date, I'd definitely get that for her! But other than that, there's not much I know of that's super-original. The taste of the items didn't really set it aside from other places. BUT thanks to inflation everyone else has gotten so much more expensive, that these guys seem much cheaper. Despite me being critical, this place is still...

I have to say I was really looking forward to eating at this place, so we went in very hungry.

We got there just in time to get the last parking spot.

There was a little wait to get a table, after numerous attempts at getting the hosts' attention (who were multitasking).

The flavors were disappointing, to say the least. The coconut jelly did not taste like coconut, there was no hint of squid ink in the squid ink dumpling, and the egg yolk in the black bun just tasted like sweet, salty, yellow, gooey stuff. The pork in the truffle siumai had a boar taint smell, which was off-putting (ironically, the truffle magnified the smell). Everything else was average-tasting. The presentation and technique tells a different story though. I can tell that the food was made delicately but I can't say the same thing about the taste, which is far more important to me than appearances.

The restaurant and its tables are small (cramped would be a better word). The service was fast but the wait staff were not attentive. It was a busy lunch service but for the prices, you expect more attention and not have your food just dumped in front of you. If this was a cheap or averaged-price dim sum place, I wouldn't have cared, but it's not.

I give it a one star because I left the restaurant unhappy, cursing at myself for deciding to eat there, and going home with leftovers that I later then 'refurbished' to make it more palatable.

I honestly don't know what the hype...