All of us have our list of family favourites, but unless you're a Tjioe - or Zhou, according to the hanyu pinyin version of the name - you'd hardly think of setting up a restaurant offering your favourites to the public.
Tung Lok group's latest addition to its fold is this humble concept, majoring in dishes that Andrew Tjioe, Tung Lok group's founder, and his family have grown up eating. That it has commanded a fair share of media attention is because Tjioe is a familiar name to those who like fine and contemporary Chinese cuisine, upon which the Tung Lok group has built its reputation.
Which makes the Zhou Kitchen concept a pleasant surprise, and one that makes ample sense - because the Tjioes know their food.
Call it the Crystal Jade outlet of the Tung Lok group - an eatery offering everyday, comfort food that's easier on the wallet than the average Tung Lok restaurant. Of course, the main difference is that the cuisine isn't Cantonese-based, but more Hokkien in its inspiration. Xing Hua Hokkien, to be exact.
Which means that dishes are familiar on the whole, but often done with a little twist. A recent tasting showed that this is a value-for-money outlet, with slightly better than average fare for decent prices.
You may not be wowed, but you won't be disappointed either with the down-to-earth offerings.
The steamed glutinous rice with crab ($18) which sees a whole crab steamed atop a bed of sticky rice from Zhou Kitchen restaurant.
Categories include seafood, live seafood, meat and vegetables, congee and noodles. There's also appetisers and one-dish meals under the 'village bowl rice' heading.
The wu xiang for example, was quite good - a meaty, flavourful meat roll moderately spiced with 'five spice', a traditional Chinese blend of spices like cinnamon, star anise and ginger. Water chestnut bits gave it crunch, and the soy skin wrapping was fairly fine.
Most of the dishes are meant to be eaten with rice, however, such as the more common stirfried sweet potato leaves ($8) and the more unusual claypot of curry prawns ($16). The prawns used in this curry are almost crayfish like, colloquially known as 'big-head prawns', and the curry was tasty with a mild yellow curry base. It comes with deepfried mantou (buns), in fact, which I didn't think went so well with the coconut-based curry.
The 'Chef's Special Dishes' are those that are the Tjioe family specialities. There is the pansit, or Xing Hua dumpling soup ($6 for a serving), which had wontons with fine, thin skin in comforting chicken soup. This, you have to eat soon after it's served otherwise the wonton skin would start 'melting' away.
The steamed glutinous rice with crab ($18) sees a whole crab steamed on top of a flat bed of glutinous rice. The rice could be a touch more flavourful, as it's less rich than a similar dish served at Canton Wok, a well-known restaurant in the East Coast.
Something unusual would be the sliced pork neck steamed with eggplant and preserved vegetable ($10) which is a cut above the usual way it's served, thanks to the tender pork neck.
One not-to-be-missed dish would be the Xing Hua-style traditional homemade noodles ($6.50), which had springy noodles and a rich stock, full of ingredients and flavourfully spiked with seaweed and roasted nuts.
With more than 100 dishes to choose from, including dim sum, you'll be assured that you needn't try the same dish twice at Zhou Kitchen during repeat visits. But it's likely that you'll find your favourites after a few times, and stick with them. Which is the idea behind Zhou Kitchen anyway - comfort food at affordable prices.
Rating: 6.5/10
Zhou Kitchen 368 Alexandra Road The Copperdome, Anchorpoint
Tel: 6473 1123
