full of luck club, holland village.

for X's birthday dinner, i'd initially planned something else, but full of luck club had just opened. it sounded like exactly her kind of thing, so i suggested going there instead. i was honestly quite enticed by the baos (ever since eating at bao in london) and the fact that they serve chinese small plates- what a great idea! so i made a reservation for a weeknight dinner, and we headed to holland village.



liked the decor. liked it even better that we got a cozy corner table.



we ordered a variety of small plates, and the food came so quickly we were startled. first to arrive on the table was the baos (2 for $9.80). i initially wanted the portuguese pork chop, but they were out, replaced by smoked duck. even better, because i like duck anyway.



X was fixated on the salted egg yolk prawn bao, so that was the other bao we got. what i didn't realise was they had two different types of bao- the smoked duck one came with a fried bao, which i found too biscuity and crisp. much preferred the regular bao, which was pillowy and soft. the baos were not bad, but i couldn't help but compare them to bao in london... and they don't quite measure up.



the rest of the food arrived together (always a good thing) and it filled up the small table quickly. we were initially worried that we hadn't ordered enough, but it turned out to be just nice. the duck (half for $35) came served on a board and was shredded on the spot, with hoisin sauce, cucumber, spring onions and steamed chinese pancakes as accompaniments. we were supposed to eat it à la peking duck wraps, but we didn't quite take to the pancakes (way too thick) so i ended up just dipping the duck in the sauce and eating it with cucumber. the duck was admittedly a little on the dry side, but with the sauce it was alright, so i didn't mind.



the dimsum we ordered we both good, though! got the steamed scallops and vegetable dumplings ($6) and the shrimp dumplings ($7.20) that were both translucent, thin-skinned and packed with ingredients. the stir fried radish cake with XO sauce ($6.80) was good too, and this is coming from a person who doesn't even eat radish cake usually. yum.



i was intrigued by the golden sand corn with (what else) salted egg yolk ($4.80). it was certainly an interesting eat- made for a good snack.

the highlight of the dinner though, was probably the fortune cookies. fortune cookies are so silly (i know that logically) but they're such good fun. especially when i took a bite of mine BEFORE reading what it said.



just proves that i'm a glutton, really.

service was quite good, too. they cleared our plates quickly and were pretty attentive. on the whole, quite liked what we had there. X liked it so much that she vows a return.


full of luck club
243 holland ave
http://fullofluck.club