The Treasure, Forest Hill by Bureaucrat

It's unrelated to this post, but I have to say, when will this heat end?!


Anyhoo, recently for a family celebration, Mother Hen made a booking at The Treasure.  Situated on Springvale Rd and slightly set up and beyond the road, TT has been around for a while.  Growing up, we'd occassionaly go there.  We've definitely went there for yum cha and possibly for dinner (it's been a while, I can't remember).  But over time, we sort of forgot about this place... until now.


For a Friday night dinner, I was surprised how quiet the place was.  Although we got there at 6.30pm, there were already a few diners there already (notably all Westerners).  Outside, it's done up like an old school Chinese house.  Inside, it's spacious, neat and proper, with cliched plastic dining chairs, peach serviettes folded into hats and auspicious Chinese paintings.

Having perused the menu, Mother Hen decided to go for the lobster banquet. After showing us the live lobster, the waitress took it away to kitchen.

One of the things I really liked about TT is the little attention to details.  From the outset, the service was friendly and always with a smile.  We also got a nice big serve of complementary prawn crackers and soup to start the meal.  It was because of this that I didn't mind that the service was erring on the slow side (especially given that there weren't many diners at this point).  Having said that, I can be incredibly patient when it comes to seafood.


And my patience was well worth it.  Lo and behold the lobster served w egg noodles.  Succulent, chunky pieces of lobster cooked perfectly with lots of tender spring onions and young ginger.  I can still remember the taste!  There was quite a lot of meat with this one, and even though there were four of us, it took a while for us to finish it.  For those who grew up in an Asian family, you would know  that Asians get fixated on knowing whether the lobster (or crab) that is served is indeed the whole lobster.  Well, TT passed muster, as Mother Hen was able to do a body count of all the expected lobster parts and it equated to one lobster.  The sauce was deliciously morish and plentiful, which made the noodles extra slurpworthy.

After we picked the lobster clean, the other dishes soon arrived.


We got stir fry beef with mixed veggies.  A simple but well executed.  Tender beef strips and all the veggies were perfectly al dente.  Btw, I'm absolutely loving it that my new camera was able to capture a great photo of this dish.


Salt and pepper pork.  A lovely golden, light batter encasing tender pork.  Not at all oily or fatty.


And my childhood favourite - deep fried fish w sweet corn sauce.  As with the pork, the batter was light and golden.  The fish was tender and plentiful.


On my point about the little things, we also got a serve of fresh fruit and red bean soup to finish.  While I'm not a fan of red bean soup (or anything with red bean, with the exception of the Vietnamese three colour drink), it was a pretty good one - lots of red bean and not at all watered down.

Verdict
Food – 9.5
Ambience – 7.5
Service – 7.5

Price – 8.5

Overall
I really liked the food and service here.  The food is well cooked and the serving size is pretty reasonable.  The service is friendly and polite, albeit a tad slow (but we weren't in a rush, so it didn't matter).

I feel kinda bad for TT as I had hoped it would have more diners here, especially on a Friday night.  I'd definitely recommend this place for a nice Chinese meal.

Address
The Treasure
482 Springvale Rd
Forest Hill 3131
Telephone: 9803 2388