Showing posts with label Orchard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orchard. Show all posts

Sunday 31 October 2010

Paradise Dynasty @ ION Orchard

Located on the top floor of ION Orchard, Paradise Dynasty is the latest addition to the Paradise Group of restaurants by the founder Mr Eldwin Chua. This young entrepreneur is often spotted in the restaurant walking around to make sure that things are going on well in operation. And this restaurant is aiming to sell their signature Xiao Long Bao such as Black Truffle, Foie Gras, Garlic and Cheese pricing between $8.80 and $12.80 for six pieces.

Upon entering the restaurant from the front counter, there is a very unique entrance path that leads you passed their glass view open kitchen into an incredible modern and beautiful dining area with 206 seats. Eating at this restaurant definitely give you a feeling like having a “royalty meal” at the palace especially with the backdrop Qing Dynasty Emperor’s throne.

I was captured by a poster on these colourful Xiao Long Bao (XLB) near the bus-stop outside The Hereen at Somerset some weeks ago. And also with some good recommendation from friends who have tried, we decided to pop by and try out their “Signature Dynasty Xiao Long Bao - 皇朝小笼包” which consists of eight different flavour in a basket. Each flavour is represent by an unique colour such as:-

White: Original taste featuring fresh pork filling in sweet soup broth.

Green
: With Ginseng smoothing herbal soup broth with pork filling but too bad the herbal taste is not strong enough for herbs lover like us.

Brown
: Foie Gras with a touch of French luxury combine with Chinese delicacy.

Black
: Black Truffle stands out with a fantastic aroma soup broth with pork filling which makes us tempted to order another basket full of just black truffle XLB.

Yellow
: Cheesy with a hinge of the silkiness of cheese with pork filling which I think is a very interesting combination.

Orange
: Crab Roe are finely minced and mixed with the pork filling which bring out the freshness of seafood taste.

Grey
: Garlic infused soup broth with pork filling for those garlic lovers, but not me.

Pink
: Szechuan flavour consists hint of spiciness when sipping the broth and it gives out a light aroma from the Szechuan peppercorn.


In order to get the correct and finest taste from each Xiao Long Bao, you would have to start from the original flavor, follow by the sequence ending with the strongest taste from the Szechuan Xiao Long Bao.
Price: S$13.80 per basket (8 assorted pieces)

"Pork Dumplings with Chili Sauce - 油抽手" is one of our all time favourite whenever we visit Din Tai Fung or Crystal Jade Kitchen. But today after trying the one served at Paradise Dynasty we declared that they have won our vote for this dish compared to the other two restaurants mentioned above. The Pork Dumplings are indeed more tender and juicy with its filling wrapped by a thinner layer of wrapper which is smooth and soft when bite. The accompany chili sauce is also not too salty or spicy and it goes perfectly with the dumplings.
Price: S$4.80 per plate(6 dumplings)

Mum and I both love this "Scallion Pastry - 葱油饼" which is so crispy on the outer layer and fragrant in its filling with the chopped scallion (spring onion). This is sure to be a great tea-snack if you are looking for some snacks for tea time to accompany with the Xiao Long Bao.

Each mouthful of this you ccould taste the flaky pastry that is well wrapped with generous amount of scallion mixture that makes you crave for more.
Price: S$2.80 per plate (2 pieces)

For those who fancy La Mian, Paradise Dynasty has prepared 18 different types of La Mian freshly made from their open kitchen. Each strand of noodle comes with fine and silky threads that are served with different pairing soups and ingredients. And for your information, their soup broth used ingredients such as pork bones, pork ribs and whole chickens that are simmered over slow fire for at least 12 hours before being served.

Out of so many La Mian in their menu mum chooses this "La Mian in Signature Pork Bone Soup with Pan-fried Chicken Chop - 煎鸡扒拉面" as she preferred something light instead of seafood or beef. Overall their pork bones broth taste just as good compared to the others and their noodle's chef definitely has done a good job in making such tasty and springy noodles to go with the broth. I am sure after this La Mian we would definitely come back to try out more on the other 17 choices soon.
Price: S$9.80 per bowl

After all the savory food that we had now it’s time for some dessert and after looking through their dessert column, I decided to get a bowl of this “Rice Ball Dumplings -酒酿丸子” which I believe not many youngest would order unless they like the taste of rice wine.

This is one of the common Shanghainese sweet desserts where the cooked mini glutinous rice balls are added into the distiller’s grains sweet soup together with fragrance candied osmanthus(桂花). When consumed you would find it a bit sweet and sour due to the distiller’s grains leaving it with a mild alcohol and
floral aroma.
Price: S$4.20 per bowl

To avoid long queue and waiting time during weekends, lunch/dinner timing maybe you could call for reservation or try to reach slightly earlier.

Paradise Dynasty
2 Orchard Turn
#04-12A Ion Orchard
Singapore 238801
Telephone: (65) 6509 9118

Opening Hours:
Monday - Friday: 11.00am - 10.00pm
Satursday - Sunday & PH: 10.00am - 10.00pm




Tuesday 26 October 2010

Cafe Indulge

Talking about Café Indulge that is located at the basement of The Cathay, perhaps you would be more familiar with it’s former name known as “The Indulge”. This three years old bistro has a wide fusion-style of European cuisine with an Asian twist that makes every dining experience filled with excitements.

Last Saturday, we have an early Birthday Celebration for one of the friend in our usual outing group. And we have an enjoyable lunch with great companies at Café Indulge with all these dishes shown below that are recommended by Alvin who is in our group too.

Alice who loves Sashimi was very curious about this dish when she saw its name in the starter column. Since we cannot figure out the taste of this “Chinese-style Salmon Sashimi”, we decided to give it try while waiting for the rest to arrive. When the dish is served, we are amaze by its styling with the combination of salmon slices resting on top of the avocado wedges. The salmon is lightly infused their special Chinese-style sauce that pairs pretty well with the avocado. And the extra dose of black and white sesame seeds also gives this dish a great finishing touch.
Price: S$7.90 per plate

Having Crispy Prawn with Wasabi Mayo is definitely a great starter before the meal. These lovely golden brown prawns are drizzled with a layer of wasabi mayonnaise sauce and roasted pumpkin seeds. Each bites on the prawn is so crunchy and it goes well with the mild wasabi mayo sauce and a bit of nutty taste from the pumpkin seeds.
Price: S$7.90 (4 pieces); S$12.90 (8 pieces)

This "Spicy Sausage Pizza" has a perfect crispy thin crust base that comes in 6 slices serving. We recommend this to be one of the quick lunch fix or afternoon tea snack with 2 - 3 friends together with some other small bits from their menu. The thin crust and generous amount of ingredients make you feel lighter rather than stuffing yourself with the usual thick pan crust that is full of carbs.
Price: S$8.90 per plate

How would you like your steak to be done? Medium Rare or? I guess most of us who loves steak would usually order Rib Eye with either black pepper or mushroom sauce served in Medium Rare preference. The portion of Rib Eye Steak served in Café Indulge was quite reasonable with its thickness and texture. And you will be surprise by their self-made mushroom sauce, which is so different from other cafés or restaurants.

Their mushroom sauce taste some how or rather similar to our Asian braised Chinese mushroom sauce which used dark soya sauce and some other Chinese spices such as cinnamon stick, star anise and etc. This is sure to be one of their distinctive sauces to go with their dishes. If you like a strong Asian taste, perhaps you can consider taking this Braised Mushroom Sauce to go with your choice of dishes when ordering.
Price: S$15.90 per set (comes with 2 choices of sides)

I love both lamb and mutton dishes so when this “Red Wine Braised Lamb Shank” was served, I am very excited to try its taste and texture. Although the meat is very tender while cutting but it seems a bit dry and required more chewing. The sauce was quiet ok and it infused the meat with a slight fragrant of spice taste and you can also serve it with their mint butter.
Price: S$14.90 per set (comes with 2 choices of sides)

Panseared Salmon with Kung Pao Sauce is something that a few of us quiet interested in because of its pairing of such exotic Asian combination of Kung Pao Sauce with Salmon. But when the dish is served we are kind of disappointed with its taste. Although the salmon is fresh and juicy but we can’t really pick up that distinctive “Kung Pao Sauce” taste which should be slightly spicy and fragrant that come from the dried chilli and etc. Perhaps they can improvise a slightly stronger flavour for this Kung Pao Sauce to perfect this dish.
Price: S$17.90 per set (comes with 2 choices of sides)

Grilled Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce comes with 2 side dishes such as Fresh Salad and Coleslaw. Although the chicken is slightly salty but it still blends well with those refreshing salad and “Special” Chinese Braised Mushroom Sauce.
Price: S$12.90 per set (comes with 2 choices of sides)

Finally comes the highly recommended dish by Alvin, which is the “Whole Lobster Pasta” that is cooked in his favourite Pesto Cream. This is indeed a MUST try dish in the ordering list, the texture of the spaghetti is great which is neither over nor under cooked. The Pesto Cream sauce goes very well with the lobster and noodles which makes them a prefer paring. Almost all the 7 of us gives thump up for this dish and we all agreed that the price for this 250g of lobster pasta is definitely a great Catch.
Price: S$15.80 per plate (promotion price)

This is a behind scene of how food bloggers are at work before we gets to enjoy our food. And with the modern technology now, you can see that everyone is busy uploading the photos with the hand phone to either their facebook or twitter account even before the blogpost is up in the website.

Tucking at a comfortable corner in the basement of The Cathay, Café Indulge is indeed a “hidden gem” in this building. With another two similar western restaurants available in the same buildings such as “Billy Bombers American Diner” and “Astons Specialities”, Café Indulge sure has its charm with it's unique dishes and reasonable pricing to stand an equal shares with the two restaurant mentioned.

For more reviews on this cafe or outings, you can read it from "miss tam chiak" and "lobsterpaint" website or more food photos on Cuisine Paradise Page HERE.


Cafe Indulge
2 Handy Road
B1-25/26 The Cathay
Singapore 229233
Telephone: (65)6732 3952
Website: http://cafe-indulge.com

Operating Hours:
Sunday to Thursday: 12.00pm - 10.30pm (last order by 9.30pm)
Friday, Saturday, PH & Eve of PH: 12.00pm - 11.30pm (last order by 10.30pm)




Tuesday 5 October 2010

The Charm of Chatterbox

Recently my mum has seen an advertisement on MyPaper regarding the “Late Lunch” promotion on Chatterbox, Mandarin Hotel. This promotion was quite a good bargain for patrons to enjoy their signature Mandarin Chicken Rice and other local delights at S$15++ from 3pm to 6pm on weekdays only (excluding eve and day of public holidays).

Since mum had a good impression after trying their Chicken Rice during one of the dinner menu, she decided to ask us along to try this “late lunch” treat. So here is the review of our local most expensive Mandarin Chicken Rice that cost around S$22.00 if not during any promotion.

Chatterbox is located at level 5, Orchard Wing of Mandarin Orchard Singapore. Its menu featured a spread of local hawker food, including it’s award-winning Mandarin Chicken Rice and some other favourites such as Mandarin Lobster Laksa, Nasi Lemak, Herbal Bak Kut Teh and etc.

From my opinion, the “rice” could have been better as it is not as fragrant or fantastic as I thought it would be. But rather the chicken was tender and juicy, and it goes very well with their chilli and ginger sauce. The waitress will also give you an option on choosing either thigh or breast meat. But if you ask me whether is it worth trying, I think for this promotion you can give it a try but I don’t think I will spent the full price of S$22.00 on this.

I don’t know why I ordered this “Seafood Laksa” as they are still quite a number of choices to pick from the promotion menu such as Beef Hor Fun, Char Kway Toew, Herbal Bak Kut Teh, Nasi Lemak, Wonton Noodles and etc. But surprisingly the broth taste great with a hint of heat that isn’t too spicy and it will leave you to crave for more scooping of it. For a bowl of S$15.00 Seafood Laksa, I guess what we are paying are those “big prawn” and hearty broth. For those who don’t take cockles, don't worry Mandarin Seafood Laksa don’t comes with any of those as ingredients too.

For an additional top up of S$3.00 you can enjoy a jar of either one of these homemade Soya Bean Milk, Barley Water or Grass Jelly drink to along with your meal. At first we still thought these drink might just be a glass for its' S$3.00 value as most of the drinks on the menu are at least S$8.00 and we are so surprised to see they actually serving a jar each of what we have ordered.

We prefer their Homemade Soya Bean Milk compared to the Barley Water, as it is more fragrant ad thick in taste. As you can reference from the photo, the Barley Water is more towards milky grey in colour and I find that it taste more of like those barley beancurd dessert than drinks.

Recently, Chatterbox opened its new premises on Level 5 of the hotel with a refreshing look that is furnishing in earthy hues of green and beige.


Chatterbox
333 Orchard Road
Level 5 Mandarin Orchard Singapore
Enquiries: 6831 6288/91
Website: Chatterbox

Operating Hours:
Sunday - Thursday: 11am - 1am
Friday, Saturday & Eve of Public Holiday: 11am - 2am


Late Lunch Promotion:
~ Monday - Friday
3.00pm - 6.00pm (excluding eve and day of public holidays)




Thursday 2 September 2010

Kiseki Japanese Buffet @ Heeren

These few years, there are more and more Japanese concept Buffet Restaurants available in Singapore. I am sure most of you have heard or tried those yummy japanese street food that are available at either Sudoku or Manpuku. But instead of the two mentioned restuarants, today I am going to share with you another new Japanese restaurant known as "Kiseki Japanese Buffet Restaurant" that is located at the basement level of The Hereen at Orchard area. Let's see with the price of S$19.80++ what this restaurant can offer for a weekday lunch buffet.

According to the serving staffs, there are roughly about 100 seats available in this restaurant with different environment setting concept in each section allocated. This restaurant also provided a child friendly dinning area with comfort design playgroup and games that suits different age group of kids. On top of that, they also have separate kid's utensils and highchair specially cater for younger kids.

Near the entrance of the restaurant, you can see about 8 - 10 different stalls serving all kinds of Japanese street food range from Sushi, Sashimi, Cold Appetiser, Seafood, Tempura, Pizza, Soba, Teppanyaki and etc.

First counter on the right that is near the entrance serves all kinds of Sushi and fresh Sashimi that will definitely make you excited over it. Furthermore if you want, you can also ask the chef to make some hand-roll sushi with your preference ingredients.

These are what we had over at the Sushi Counter. I am sure just by the look of these attractive sushi and sashimi it has already make you drool over it. And in addition to the common salmon and tuna sashimi slices, this counter also provides yummy octopus slices too. Each pieces of this raw fish taste so fresh with its' natural sweetness that you don't even need to dip it in any sauce before eating.

This is Seafood and Salad counter near the sushi bar area where you can choose your favorite salad ingredients to create a bowl of appetiser to start off your meal. If you love cold seafood platter don't missed your chance to pick up some of these lovely items on the ice such as shellfish, prawn, crabs and etc etc.

For older folks or those who don't fancy raw fish and cold appetiser, you can always choose something from the Teppanyaki counter where you can grab a stick or two of the BBQ items as well as their mouth-watering Grilled Salamon Head.

Or you prefer a bowl of pipping hot udon noodles from the array of choices at the Tempura Counter. If noodles is not to your liking, perhaps you might want to try their Japanese-style hotpot to go with some steam rice and delicious tempura.

Chawanmushi is always one of the comfort starter in most Japanese restaurant and it is also one of the favourite item among kids and adult. Most of us who tried the chawanmushi agreed that their steam eggs was nicely done with that smooth texture that melt in your mouth. Worth trying! But however, we are kind of disappointed with their Western-style pasta which served with Wafu sauce. The sauce was kind of too salty for our taste too.

Mum and I love their thin crust pizza from the Pizza & Rosti Counter. There have a few choices of pizza, fish nuggets and etc. The pizza crust is very crispy and spread with generous amount of ingredients. Worth trying too!

Finally after trying most of the savory dishes, we are ready to venture the Dessert & Beverage counter, which is located at the opposite end from the rest of the counter. You can find wide varieties of attrative jelly and pudding served in shooter glass, Japanese waffles to go with ice cream or maple syrup, chocolate fondant, array of cake and etc. If you would like to have some sake or cold beer to go with your food, you can always approach their friendly counter staffs to get the drinks at separate cost.

This is their well-known Tofu Cheesecake which is a popular item on their dessert counter, although the serving size is small, but you can taste the smooth texture of the tofu which blend pretty well with the cheesy fragrant of this cake. I suggest you have this with a cup of cappuccino or hot green tea to prefect the taste.

To end our buffet, I have another serving of my self-assemble Waffle with Green Tea and chocolate topping. Their waffle is those crispy in texture when bite as they have place it on the hotplate to maintenance the crispness of the waffle.

On each table, you will find this reminder tag that shows the charges of food wastage so remember to take just what you can consume and don't waste any food.

If you want to read more about our family food venture to this "Kiseki Japanese Buffet Restaurant" in Chinese version please click HERE to follow the link or you can also drop by Cuisine Paradise Fan Page Album (HERE) to take a look on more photos on this related food reviews article.Posted by Picasa

Kiseki Japanese Buffet Restaurant
260 Orchard Road
#B1-01 The Heeren
Singapore 238855
Telephone: 6736 1216



Lunch Buffet: 11:30am – 3.00pm
Monday - Friday : S$19.80++ (Adult), S$12.80++ (Child);
Saturday, Sunday, Eve and Public Holiday: S$26.80++ (Adult), S$16.80++ (Child)

Dinner Buffet: 6.00pm – 10.00pm
Monday - Thursday: S$29.80++ (Adult), S$14.80++ (Child);
Friday - Sunday, Eve and Public Holiday: S$32.80++ (Adult), S$16.80++ (Child)


* Charges For Food Wastage: S$5.00 for every 100grams of food wasted

* Child age is between 4 - 12 years old.




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