Chef Eric Teo 最近比较忙！Our local celebrity chef recently co-owns a new restaurant Da Shi Xi in Sims Way. The cuisine features about JB tastes and flavors inspired. Popular dishes like live crab claypot rice, coffee ribs, muah otah and curry fish head are a hit!

Restoran Ta Si Xi is a popular dim sum restaurant in Johor Bahru. It has three branches in JB with a huge group of following. I consider Da Shi Xi to be between cze char and restaurant. When the owners decided to bring Da Shi Xi to Singapore, Chef Eric suggested not to sell dim sum. Instead, he wanted to serve tze char style dishes with restaurant standard. No extensive menu, they only have 20-30 dishes.

I had dinner with the boy’s family at Da Si Xi yesterday. No air conditioning if you are wondering, but they are only opened for dinner so it is pretty cooling with the fans.

On recommendation, we ordered a plate of Aromatic Spicy Ikan Bilis ($8) to start off our dinner. After deep fried till a crispy texture, the ikan bilis is drizzled with a homemade spicy sauce. No it didn’t turn soft. Instead, it retains its crisp. The sauce reminds me of a combination of sambal stingray with chinchalok. Slightly spicy with a tangy hint, very addictive!

One of the signatures in Da Si Xi is Claypot Crab Rice ($45/1 crab, $80/2 crabs). The rice is first stir fried till fragrant and then put into the claypot, adding superior stock and cooked with crabs. Surprised that sole fish is added into the dish.

When the claypot reaches our table, you can instantly smell the fragrance from the crabs, with the rice soaked in the essence. The rice grains were cooked to a beautiful glister, and sole fish enhances the flavour of the dish. It is not oily at all and don’t forget to scrap the burnt rice bits at the bottom. I think the portion is good and price is reasonable. We ordered two crabs and it was more than enough for 4 of us.

Another signature is the JB Curry Fish Head ($28). The main difference I see is the addition of fried bean curd skin into the curry. We let it soak till it turns soft and paired it with the crab rice. The curry is not as thick as our local curry but still brings a mild lemak fragrance. The entire claypot is full of ingredients like eggplant, tomatoes, lady fingers and even cabbage. I enjoyed this dish as it was not too heavy for the tummy.

We paid about $120 for the above dishes, together with a plate of kai lan. Prices are reasonable, in my opinion. And freshly brewed herbal tea and barley drink is also available. We met Chef Eric Teo on our way back and he said they are revamping the menu which should be ready in a few weeks time.

Da Shi Xi

Address: 19, Sims Way
Tel: 6744 6728
Opening hours: 5pm – 11pm, closed on Wednesdays
(they are changing their closing day to Monday soon, so better call to check before heading there)

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