The Place Located in the heart of Holland Village, you may dismiss Full of Luck Club (福乐) as another new hipster joint, without realising that the team behind this less than two months old restaurant is by the award-winning Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant. The main difference from Li Bai is that Full of Luck Club is anything but conventional – chic interiors, playful colour tones and ultimately, a more progressive and contemporary take on authentic Cantonese cuisine.

The Food Other than dim sum highlights on the menu, there is a wide selection of small plates, baos, noodles and seafood. We started off with the Stir-fried Radish Cake with X.O Sauce (S$6.80), a delish classic which can’t go very wrong.

Some light bites we will recommend include the all-so-addictive crispy Golden Sand Corn with Salted Egg Yolk (S$4.80) and Chili Glazed Fried Fermented Bean Paste Chicken Wings (S$8).

If you fancy a spicy kick, the Poached Wontons in Chilli Soy (S$7.20) will be a good alternative, except that it could have been more spicy to give that shiok kick.

The Baos (any 2 for S$9.80) here reminded me of those from Little Bao in Hong Kong. All we can say is that we enjoyed the fillings more than the bun for both the Braised Pork Belly and Panko-crusted Portobello, which was too soft for us and it was challenging not to create a mess out of eating it. But if you want to give this a try without dining in, there is the option of takeaway via the Bao Bar window at the entrance.

For the sharing plates, we like the Braised Spinach Beancurd (S$16), Spicy Stuffed Yong Tau Fu (S$16) and the Sweet Mint and Lime Cod (S$24). Beancurd has always been my favourite, moreover this version is topped with my favourite mushroom and finished with some dried scallops. The cod is an interesting rendition as it was pan-seared with mint and lime, which is quite uncommon. Nevertheless, we found the overall flavour of the crispy cod lifted with a refreshing element.

The Crispy Aromatic Duck (S$70/whole, S$35/half) is served with wraps, akin to having Peking Duck. However, this dish doesn’t quite work for us as we found the wraps superfluous to the flavour of the duck. Granted, the duck meat was succulent on its own. It is neither a Peking Duck, nor a normal roast duck, a rather vague dish for us, or maybe this is just too funky for us.

For noodles, we tried the Moonlight Truffle Beef Hor Fun (S$20) which was another letdown. The truffle element was incongruent to the Hor Fun, and if I were to eliminate the truffle element, this dish somehow taste like a normal Hor Fun from a coffeeshop.

For desserts, we had the Hokey-Pokey Ice Cream Bao ($6), which is deep-fried bun filled with Honeycomb ice-cream. The bun turned out to be too tough, and overall the ice-cream didn’t compliment the fried bun. It was an awkward marriage.

Food aside, there is a wide selection of cocktails and beers here for the if you need a drink or two.

Rants It’s a double-edged sword to ride on the name of Li Bai as expectations will be high. The slightly adventurous menu may not resonate well with the traditionalists.

Will I Return Again? If you are looking for a casual dining spot in Holland Village, we will count Full of Luck Club as one of the more exciting options here given that there are not many new establishments in this area in the past one year. The concept should be refreshing to some, even though we doubt we will return specially for the food.

Make your reservation instantly at Full of Luck Club here.

TheRantingPanda says:
Taste bud: 3/5
Hole in the pocket: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3.5/5
Overall Experience: 3/5

Full of Luck Club
243 Holland Ave
Singapore 278977
Tel: +65 6208 6845

Opening hours:
Sunday to Thursday: 11am – 11pm
Friday to Saturday: 11am – 1am

Ranted by The Ranter