Old Chengdu Sichuan Braised Delights (老成都秘制卤味), a subsidiary of Old Chengdu Restaurant (老成都川菜馆), specialises in Sichuan braised delights and a number of Chinese dishes. It operates many stalls within Scarlett Supermarket (思家客) around Singapore, including Plantation Plaza in Tengah estate, together with Dough Magic (扑面而来). Certain supermarkets offer tables and chairs for dine-in.
Old Chengdu’s signature dishes are braised delights and Chinese cold dishes. There are hot noodle dishes, meat dumplings, Shaanxi cold noodle (陕西凉皮), pancake (or crepe), chicken feet skins flavoured with passion fruit, lamb skewer, tasty snacks and many more. For cold dishes, pick from the glass shelf — 4 non-meat dishes ($5), or 2 meat + 2 non-meat dishes ($8) and the quantity is generally enough for 2 pax.
Top: The mushroom / vegetable dishes of the Cold Dishes (凉拌菜) are prepared using similar sauce (red chilli oil, peppercorn, white sesame seeds, etc) with nice Sichuan flavours and mild spiciness. They are lightly cooked then chilled to retain their firmness and crunchiness. In similar mild-spicy sauce, the cold beef slices, with tendons, has firm, chewy texture but not tough. The cold chicken is similar in style to spicy “mouth-watering chicken (口水鸡)” with firm texture too. These cold dishes are great to pair with rice, Shanxi cold noodle or Chinese buns / mantou (馒头).
Bottom-left: A cold dish too, the Boneless Chicken Feet (无骨鸡爪) has deboned chicken feet flavoured with citrusy passion fruit, refreshing lemon juice and spicy chilli. The skins and tendons are firm, crunchy with smooth sour-spicy flavour.
Bottom-right: The Shaanxi Cold Noodle (陕西凉皮) is not really “cold”, it is just not served as a hot dish. The broad-flat rice noodle is tossed in sesame sauce and chilli oil (optional) with crunchy peanuts, cucumber strips and bean sprouts, and soft tofu puffs that absorbed the sauce. It has a pleasant, mild-spicy sesame flavour and a “cool” dish during hot summers.
The Braised Beef Noodle (红烧牛肉面) is served with chunky braised beef on thin Chinese noodle in soup with a layer of red chilli oil above it and sprinkled with sesame seeds, coriander and spring onion. Any of the beef and noodle that passes through the red oil are coated and smoothened by it. Despite the redness of the dish, the soup is surprisingly flavourful, tasty with peppercorn flavour — and numbness — but mild spiciness. The beef is tender and the soft thin noodle has a nice texture that breaks easily on bitting. This Chengdu beef noodle is too delicious and has become one of my favourite beef noodles.
The cold tofu dish, that accompanies the beef noodle (free during the opening promotion) has a firm texture in similar flavour sauce as other cold dishes.
The Handmade Meat Dumplings (纯手工抄手), served in 10 pieces and accompanied by a cold cucumber dish (opening promotion), is a soupy dish. The meat dumplings are boiled in a savoury soup flavoured with red chilli oil, white sesame seeds, spring onions, etc, with similar Sichuan flavours and mild spiciness. The dumplings have fresh minced meat with spring onions as fillings and nicely-cooked. This tasty dish can be quite hearty for single diner.
The Chongqing Sour-Spicy Noodle (重庆酸辣粉) is a Chongqing specialty dish that is labelled as a natural green food. The hot meatless dish uses sweet potato glass noodle (红薯粉) in a rich, flavourful, sour-spicy soup that exudes a nice fragrance. Other ingredients include white cabbage, peanuts, pickled long beans, coriander, scallion, etc. It is an appetising dish to enjoy the soft, slippery, chewy texture of the glass noodle and crunchiness of peanuts, long beans and cabbage with toned-down spiciness.
If meat is desired to go with the meatless Chongqing Sour-Spicy Noodle or Shanxi Cold Noodle, opt for a Volcano Rock-Grilled Sausage (火山石纯肉烤肠). Originated in Singapore, the pork sausage is grilled over hot volcano stones without charring and exudes a nice “volcano-grilled” aroma. The pure meat sausage is tasty, yet not salty, and with crispy skin. On chewing, the sweet meat juice gushes out and filled the mouth. This is another must-try — cheaper to go for two and dine-in for best taste experience.
The Whole Grains Pancake (五谷杂粮煎饼) — meatless without add-ons — is big enough for single-pax. The pancake skin is made thinly with wheat flour, egg, black sesame seeds, etc, spread with curry-flavoured sauce and topped with crispy crackers, fresh crunchy vegetable, potato strips, etc, before wrapping it up.
When added-on with chicken fillet (鸡柳), the pancake is big enough for 1.5~2 pax (probably with room for another side dish). It has multiple textures — tender chicken fillet, crispy crackers, crunchy vegetables and potato strips — with nice flavours and not too strong-tasting. This is undoubtedly the nicest crepe / wrap that I have tried so far.
Old Chengdu outlets offer opportunities to experience many Chengdu and Chongqing dishes in Singapore. The outlet in Westgate offers mala tang (麻辣烫) too.
Social Media:
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Tengah Outlet:
Plantation Plaza, #03-04
127 Plantation Crescent, Singapore 690127
Opening Hours:
9:30am to 9:30pm | Daily
Nearby:
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