First dine-in visit to a hawker centre — and this was because of Chef Leung authentic hand-milled rice rolls; a stall that I had came across whilst scrolling around social media that had recently opened their doors at Chinatown Complex Food Centre. The stall is fairly hard to miss; situated at the red zone where Terry Katong Laksa and Mongkok Hong Kong Dim Sum are located.

While the stall also do serve up congee dishes, it was the rice roll that got us here in the first place — and hence, we found ourselves only ordering the Prawn Steamed Rice Roll during our visit. The stall was seemingly overwhelmed with the orders; after it’s only thereabouts of 8:30am and already there was pretty much a number of orders to fulfil — something pretty astonishing for new kid on the block that hasn’t been much heard of through social media either. The guy at receiving the orders told us the wait was going to be thereabouts of 30mins whilst issuing our buzzer; though the wait seems closer to around 20 to 25mins.

I am not sure how many other stalls actually do hand-mill their rice rolls; that being said, I did actually tried another stall that makes their rice rolls using the stone mill; namely Rice & Roll at Foodloft @ Blk 107 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4. Chef Leung’s rendition comes pretty close in texture; while most rice rolls out there focuses on the smooth and silken texture of their rice rolls, I really dig how Chef Leung’s and Rice & Roll’s renditions do have this chewiness that doesn’t stick to the teeth (in Chinese, 弹牙) — this itself already pushes the rice rolls here beyond the usual that is served in the typical dim sum restaurants around. Would say that the prawns here are of a reasonable portion size; there are also certainly bigger prawns out there in some other rice rolls but these were pretty fine nonetheless. The soy sauce here used is on the lighter side, while the chili does carry a savoury smokiness amidst the slight spicy kick that tickles the taste buds. If there was something to point out, it’s probably the slicing of the rice rolls here that aren’t particularly neat with the — perhaps something got to do with the qq rice rolls.

It may be early days for Chef Leung at Chinatown Complex Food Centre, but I must say that the rice rolls served here are pretty exemplary to say the least. There are tiny qualms where the slicing of the rice rolls are concerned — probably something that they may wish to note, but also an issue that wasn’t a big problem for me at least. Do expect some wait times if one chooses to visit; felt that they might be still trying to straighten out some things with regard to their operations considering how they are new stall anyway — that being said, one may want to consider making an early visit if they are really keen on trying Chef Leung’s hand-milled rice rolls as they open at 7am, and will be typically sold out before 12 noon. Still, a place I would say to be worthy to make the trip for; at least somewhere which I am likely to return to for some satisfying rice rolls that is a showcase of culinary art, skill and effort!