Bosses Restaurant @ Vivocity

Met my family for lunch today. We don't get to meet for lunch often enough, so this was certainly a rare and very enjoyable occasion. Too bad DB had to rush off to meet someone else, but not before sampling most of the dishes anyway.

Decided to go to Bosses Restaurant (Vivocity, #02-156, Tel: 63769740). Its Chinese moniker - Hei Sheh Hui (Black Society or Triad) - is actually a witty pun, as the lush interior of the restaurant is opulently black-themed.

The food was modern Chinese, and in this regard, was more innovative and adventurous than most restaurant offerings.

The dimsum selection was varied and enticing. Common favourites such as siew mai and steamed rice rolls were available, but with an extraordinary twist.

The siew mai was made with truffles and scallop (SGD4.80), and was indeed very pleasing to the eye and palate.

The steamed rice rolls (SGD6.50), often stuffed with char siew or prawns in run-of-the-mill restaurants, was stuffed with dried scallop and shrimp here. The rice rolls were made with red rice, imparting an attractive pinkish hue to the rolls. The red rice, for some reason, also caused the rice sheets to be slightly more resilient to the bite, which I didn't mind, but which DS found a tad too chewy.

The xiao long bao (SGD6 for 6) was juicy and savoury, but not exceptional.








The prawn balls with foie gras (SGD6.50), was too salty for me, but I rather enjoyed the idea of placing a little nugget of foie gras into this. It would be nice if they reduced the sodium content.



The aptly named creamy and flowing custard bun (SGD4 for 3) was unique. The filling tasted of salted egg yolk, custard and coconut. There is a promotion right now, and each table was presented with one basket of 3 buns free. As that was clearly insufficient for our table of 5, we ordered another basket.


We also ordered some ala carte items.


The XO sauce seafood fried rice (SGD11) was tasty, and a little spicy. DM didn't expect the fried rice to taste spicy, and therefore didn't care for it.


The crispy codfish with basil leaves (SGD14) was a very good choice. It was light and flakey and very delicious.


The sze chuan sesame chicken (SGD8) was spicy and quite tender, even though they served us mostly breast meat.


The egg white with scallop and crab meat (SGD12) was very interesting as there was a raw egg yolk in it, which we had to quickly mix into the dish. A rather risky dish to eat though, with all that avian flu pandemic. They put imitation crab meat in it, and I didn't taste any scallop either, maybe this was quite a ripoff. There was a more expensive version with fish, for SGD22.


We also ordered seafood fried la mian (SGD9) and crispy cuttlefish (SGD8). The cuttlefish tasted like the cod we ordered. The seafood la mian was extraordinarily well-executed. The noodles had the right texture of being springy and bouncy and yet it absorbed all that tasty gravy. We gobbled that up fairly quickly.


All in all, it is a unique place with unique offerings. Worth a visit.