Two saturdays ago, me, together with a group of friends met up in town. I, being the only girl with a whole group of 7 guys, we were automatically repelled from the overwhelming human traffic.

We spent a while deciding where to settle and finally leaned towards a place recommended by one of his friends.

He took us to the uppermost floor in ION Orchard, where this Chinese restaurant called Paradise Dynasty was quietly sandwiched between other bigger retailers.

But don’t be fooled. There were hoards of customers patiently awaiting their turn to be seated. A long waiting line and no one complaining? I knew in an instant that this place was going to be something.

Twenty minutes flew by in the company of good friends and before we knew it, there we were, seated and staring at the menu, spoilt for choice and undecided on what to eat.

We ordered different types of La mien dishes, wanton soup, the traditional xiao long baos and the highlight of our meal - the signature Paradise Dynasty xiao long bao.

A crate decked with 8 colorful Xiao Long Baos is definitely not a usual sight. The ones we commonly see are the plain and boring white-flour skin ones at Chinese restaurants like Din Tai Fung and Crystal Jade.

Paradise Dynasty takes it up not one, not two, but eight notches to bring us eight colorful shades of dumplings – each with its very own uniquely special flavor.

In each crate, you will get eight first-of-its-kind xiao long baos like the original meat-filled dumpling, ginseng, foie gras, black truffle, crab roe, cheese, garlic & szechuan.

At first bite, they were quite a culture shock to our tastebuds. They were so unlike the usual yet so deliciously good.

I would strongly recommend Paradise Dynasty.
Not only does the dining atmosphere feel really posh, the food there is top of the game. And surprisingly, prices are quite affordable.

Whether you like it or not…

I’LL BE BACK!

My grandma celebrated her 78th birthday this year.
As a family, we went to the River Palace Restaurant, located in River View Hotel, to mark yet another year of her life.

We went for the Chinese Ala Carte buffet dinner, which costs around $39++ per person.
Any buffet fanatic like me would know that this is considered extremely reasonable for today’s buffet standards.

The food was lip-smackingly good and I warn you…
don’t look at the pictures if you’re hungry.

All the dishes below are what we ordered:

Braised Sea Cucumber with Lingzhi Mushrooms & Broccoli
Poached Prawns in Chinese Wine
Sliced Duck with Crispy Beancurd Skin Wrapped in Egg Pancake
Sauteed Scallop with Asparagus & Pine Nuts
Stir-Fried Squid with Leek in X.O Sauce
Deep Fried Chinese Crullers Stufed with Cuttlefish Paste (ordered 3 small plates)
Marinated Jellyfish Served in Plum Sauce
Salmon Sashimi (we ordered 3 plates)
Deep Fried Shrimp Paste Chicken
Deep Fried Marble Goby “Hong Kong Style”
Steamed Crab with Egg White & Rice Wine (ordered 2 big plates)
Hot & Sour Sichuan Soup
Braised Pig Trotter
“Pi Pa” Duck
Chili Crab (ordered 4 plates)
Steamed Sea Bass with Plum & Tomato
Stir Fried Mussels in Fragrant Sauce

There was free flow of chinese tea going at $3.80++ per pax. Seems like they're using that to make a profit. The menu read as $3.80 per serving, which we though to be per teapot. Instead, it was charged as per person. -_-

Anyway, we moved on to the dessert table. There were hot chinese desserts like yam paste & red bean soup, and cold desserts like jelly, chocolate cake with chocolate creamed layers & fudged top, fruit cocktail, fresh fruits, etc.

And after the dessert, we were stuffed and could barely move. Haha. It was a great dinner. Wonderful in fact. If you’d like to see a sample of their ala carte menu, just leave me a comment at my blog (http://kissaddict.wordpress.com) and i’ll have them sent to your email. It’s too much to be posted up here.

Will be visiting with my boyfriend some other time! Can’t wait!

My boyfriend planned a surprise dinner for me to celebrate our 2-year anniversary of being together. I was clueless as to where we were going but he assured me I was going to love the place. So from my place in Changi, we headed down town..

And soon enough, we ended up here!

There were Alaskan Crabs, Lobsters, Clams, Prawns and….
Oysters!!! Lots of them!! Everything tasted very fresh.

There was an entire salmon fish that measured about 40cm long. It was very well-marinated and well-cooked..probably one of the favorites there.
Of course, they had a sushi and sashimi spread too, but I felt it was lacking in variety.

There was a section with different cheeses that were meant to be spread on biscuits and crackers.. But i’m not too much of a dairy person, so it didn’t quite appeal to me.

If you head outside, towards the left from the entrance of the restaurant, there is this huge lamb over the hot fire!! It was part of the buffet and we loved it.. Tender, succulent and delicious!

And on to the desserts...

The dessert table just looked so pretty!
My boyfriend went nuts over this particular dessert – Durian Pengat. For those who aren’t too familiar with this tropical fruit, the Durian is actually infamous among Caucasians for its pungent aroma. Asians (well, most Asians) love it.

You'll also spot jellies, cakes, and not forgetting.... a huge chocolate fondue fountain!

This place is undeniably a great buffet spot! Totally worth the price paid!

A group of friends and I met in Orchard and we were looking for a good and quiet place to sit down and have our dinner.
We wanted something simple and budget, and at the same time steer away from the usual food court.

We finally decided to settle for Prima Taste Kitchen, which is humbly located at the far corner of Centrepoint.

If you've gone to the supermarket often enough, you might have already noticed the whole range of Prima packet pastes on the shelves.

Well, this casual dining place not only sells their Prima packet pastes, they also serve an entire menu of local cuisines made from the same specialty pastes.

We looked through the menu and the price range is about $5 onwards. We all ordered the laksa, which is $5.50 for a standard bowl and $8.00 if you want cockles and chicken added.

The laksa was good, but i felt the flavour could have been slightly stronger. They were generous with the cockles, but unfortunately, I can't say the same for the chicken and fishcake and laksa leaves.

I would recommend this place if you want some local food, away from the hustle & bustle of the crowd.

It was my 22nd birthday last week and my boyfriend had a surprise dinner planned for me. He brought me to Ritz-Carlton Millenia and it was only then that I learned that Ritz-Carlton is one of the few 6-star hotels in Singapore. And all this while I though Fullerton was the one & only.

I’m sure we all know that that essentially means that Ritz-Carlton is an equivalent to Fullerton. *gasp*

Anyway, he brought me around the hotel first 'cos we were there too early - they only let diners in at 6.30pm for the dinner buffet.
Once we were seated at 6.30 sharp, we couldn't wait but to immediately head to the food to check out the spread.

They buffet basically included sashimi, sushi, soups, fresh seafood (oysters, king prawns, crayfish, etc), Indian briyani & curries, roasted chicken, roast duck, seafood omelette, salads, appetisers, chili crab, pork belly, pork trotters, roasted beef, buttered cod fish, dory fillet, teriyaki chicken, bacon quiche, etc.

There was also this ‘vegetarian corner’ with dried fruits and a variety of nuts. Sounds healthy right? But this being Singapore, with most diners there Singaporeans, it wasn’t the least bit surprising that hardly anyone stopped by for more than a quick scan.

Also had sushi’s that no one really took… only because the Sashimi spread was just opposite. Haha.

I had rounds after rounds of food and if only my stomach had no space limit, i swear I would've eaten more.

Went on to the desserts, which looked oh-so-tempting!!
Don’t be surprised, but I quite literally managed to try every single one of them.

It was definitely a night never to be forgotten