Lao Beijing Restaurant 老北京 – Dinner with The Mermaid (美人鱼)

What does The Mermaid taste like? We found out during a dinner at the Lao Beijing restaurant at Velocity, Novena Square (老北京) recently.

Lao Beijing Novena Square

It has been a while since we visited the Lao Beijing restaurant. At one time they had a few outlets in Singapore. Currently there is only one – Lao Beijing Novena Square. We were there for dinner and it was a full house. And this was before the full relaxation of COVID measures on 26 April 2022. We can imagine that it will only be more crowded from now on.

Lao Beijing Novena Square is a convenient place to meet for dinner, with the MRT station just below the building. As the name of the restaurant suggests, decor is that of an old Beijing restaurant with nice retro Chinese touches.

Lao Beijing Menu

A member of the Tung Lok restaurant group, Lao Beijing has helpfully listed its full menu online. You can view the full a la carte menu here. We provide below a few sample screen shots for your easy reference.

The Mermaid

The star attraction at Lao Beijing restaurant seems to be the dish known as “The Mermaid 美人鱼”. Fans of the Walt Disney animated movie may be glad to know that it has nothing to do with the Disney character. It is really a fillet of grilled Australian barramundi served in a collagen broth made using homemade collagen and fish bone soup. Other ingredients such as tofu, white radish, bamboo shoots in the soup complete the dish.

The picture above shows the fish before the soup was added. After the milky collagen soup was added, the fish looked like it was swimming in a milky pool. Collagen is described as “…an anti-aging superfood that helps with skin repair and fights against cardiovascular disease…”. That is the reason this dish is called 美人鱼. The fish itself was fresh and the skin cooked till perfectly crisp. It was a very good fish dish and we would order it again even though none of us became more beautiful. Perhaps more regular visits are needed to achieve any visible effect.

Dumplings and Duck

Other than the Mermaid we also tried a mix of other dishes. We had two types of xiao long Bao – regular ($9.80 for basket of 6) and black garlic ($12.80). The regular XLB was not bad although not as good as the famous Taiwanese brand. The xiao long bao with dark skin and gold highlights was more interesting. Apart from its striking looks, it also contains pieces of black garlic. The garlic must have lost its sharp taste during the steaming process and had turned sweet. It was an interesting variation to the familiar XLB.

The rest of our dinner were less interesting but still good. The Peking duck, fried dumplings and beef noodle soup completed our hearty dinner at the Lao Beijing restaurant at Novena Square.

Ratings:
Food: 4
Service: 3
Value: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Overall Rating: 3 TOPs

Lao Beijing Restaurant
VELOCITY@NOVENA SQUARE #02-11/12238
Thomson Road Singapore 307683

Tel: +65 6358 4466

Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri
Lunch: 11:00AM – 3:00PM (LO: 2:30PM) Dinner: 5:30PM – 10:00PM (LO: 9:30PM)
Sat, Sun & PH
Lunch: 11:00AM – 3:00PM (LO: 2:30PM); Hi-Tea: 3:00PM – 5:00PM (LO: 4:30PM): Dinner 5:30PM – 10:00PM (LO: 9:30PM)

Nearby MRT Station: Novena

Website

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The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog