We decided to book this dim sum spot and celebrate my mum’s birthday at the same time:)
My mum is one of the most respected woman in my life, but also one that can really drive me up the wall at times :p . Nonetheless, its only when I entered into the same line as her, that I realised how she had really in her own ways ‘fought against all odds’. In a male dominated field, she was not intimidated by their presence, blatantly scold them when they were trying to be funny. Even in the late trimester of her pregnancy, she is at her work place same spot doing her work. Her forthrightness and integrity has earned the respect of people around her, including the ex-president of the Singapore Exchange. This is my mum.  My super mum that can painstakingly cook my favourite poh piah and pack them in boxes for easy deep freezing and bring over to Hong Kong for me when I was working there. Tough on the outside and soft in the inside. I am very blessed and proud to be her daughter:)

So anyway, we headed down here together with Uncle P and Auntie M ++ . The wait was quite long for our table (1/2 hr-45 mins) even though I had made reservations!! 😦 *minus points

Entrance

and look what I found! Their chefs did win some awards for their work! talk about Masterchefs in Singapore man! :

So we got down to order:

Appetizers: Dried beancurd rolls

So we fired up our order!!! as usual .. :p

I will now first list what is our favourites of this place and will return to come back and eat it!

Chicken and Mango Tart

Close up

This dish was really something different from the usual dim sum menus. Who would have thought the combination of chicken and mango actually compliments each other so well? We were all pleasantly surprised! 🙂 The pastry was also nice and crisp, not too thick (well liked among the older generation people as well 🙂 I would totally order this again!

Deep fried scallop pastry with onion and garlic

This is our next favourite after the tart. This was a really unusual dish . I reckoned if your are a great lover of garlic, you will love this dish. The scallops inside were also not over cooked, nor were they mushy. This is quite a mind blowing dim sum although it looks so simple. Eat it while its hot and before its gone!

Har Gao

yes I still don’t take prawns so I didn’t eat this. But I asked my brother to rate the best prawn dish he had on the table, and he stands by this. He claims the prawn inside is one WHOLE prawn and its crunchy? not those minced up into deceiving balls to make up the size of prawns.

Char Siew Sau

I think from all my dim sum posts, You all probably know char siew sau is one of the staple dim sum food that we must order. This char Siew sau if I had to rank it from the char siew saus that I have eaten, I would still say, it cannot beat imperial in terms of the pastry, but is on par with paradise pavilion. The pastry crumbles abit too quickly.

The next few dishes that I am about to list are probably more  ‘meh’ / if you are counting your calories no need to waste so much time on it.

Mr Peking duck!!!

Peking duck meat

Lettuce wrapped duck

The peking duck was over all so-so I felt, like not in a bad way. Just its nice, nothing to be fussy about, but not something I would specially return to order. We decided to use the other half of the duck to accompany it with lettuce.  This was quite yummy I wonder if its because its been such a long time since I had this.

Siew Mai

My prawn taste tester said they liked the ones at Paradise Pavilion better.

Seafood stuffed roll

My prawn taste testers also didn’t really like this dish. They said its like a dish with a mistaken identity. There are alot of chopped prawns inside, but overall, it was just abit flat for a dish.

Char Siew Pau

I think you can’t really go wrong with this staple. I apologise for the blur picture! but it was ok not bad.

Glutinous rice roll

This was abit too dry for me, but still well liked by everyone else on the table.

Kurobuta Pork with salted fish and layered beancurd skin

I actually quite like this dish, but not my brother. I thought the pork was nice and tender, and there are hints of salted fish – not too overpowering until you feel like you are eating a salted fish, but just nice.

Verdict: 7/7 of us will return to this place for the favourite dim sums 🙂 Its a nice change from the usual dim sum spots (unless you really hang out here every time for dim sum) Overall, the food was quite good, just perhaps some of the dim sums was just because we felt that we had better ones else where :p But be sure to make reservations! I only managed to get a place because someone coincidentally cancelled their spot right after that time I called in.

Hua Ting Restaurant
442 Orchard Road
Orchard Hotel