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2013-07-01
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My evil sistas were celebrating my birthday with me and I chose to dine here. Many has compared this place with the Royal China @Raffles Hotel just across the road. I had my last year's birthday celebration there and the food and service was impeccable. So how do they compare? We made an advanced booking and were led to the dining room upstairs. The staircase is very nicely decorated with a Victorian feel: walls were lined with portraits; the ceiling, a modern chandelier.There is a spacious wait
We made an advanced booking and were led to the dining room upstairs. The staircase is very nicely decorated with a Victorian feel: walls were lined with portraits; the ceiling, a modern chandelier.
There is a spacious waiting room at the second floor. On the right, a long corridor leading to many private and non-private dining rooms. All the rooms on this level can be partitioned into private dining room of different sizes. Our table is at Room No.1, where there are about 8 tables set up in this dining area. Nicely painted wallpaper adorned both ends of the room.
We ordered a whole Peking Roast Duck - $62.00++ to share as well as multiple dim sum dishes.
The duck skin was cut into thin slices and served wrapped nicely with a crepe skin. The duck skin was crispy but extremely oily even when eaten with the crepe and cucumber. My mouth was full of grease after eating this.The balance duck meat was brought back to the kitchen to be shredded and cooked with Ee Fu Noodles and served later. There is a hefty charge of $25++ for this dish. Noodle was well-fried, has lot of wok hei aroma and generous ingredients added too - yum yum!
Prawn dumpling - $5.20++This is super delicious! Fresh and crunchy prawns wrapped in thin and translucent skin...its was so good we ordered this thrice!
Pan-Fried Carrot Cake - $4.80++This dish was the top dish of the day... Best I've ever tasted in the year! Lots of premium Chinese sausage bits inside, making it super fragrant and addictive to eat. We ordered another one... and another!
Prawn Rice Rolls - $5.20++This is good! Had generous amount of prawns and chives inside a slightly thick but smooth rice skin...the sauce was delicious.
Braised Beancurd with Peanuts - $6.00++The beancurd was well braised and flavorful. However the peanuts were a little dry. An expensive dish though.
Japanese Style Chicken Mid Wings - $8.00++This impressive looking dish was super salty! Thumbs down for this dish.
Stew Chicken Feet in Abalone Sauce - $7.80++The abalone sauce was nice, both chicken feet and peanuts were fully infused with the fragrance of the abalone sauce. Great dish!
Shanghai Xiao Long Bao - $5.20++This is good too. The skin of the Xiao Long Bao is thin and has tasty meat juice.
Steamed Custard Buns - $4.40++Bun was soft and slightly sweet, custard cream was runny enough...not bad.
Overall, the food served here was very delicious and of comparable standard with Royal China, except for the oily Roast Duck and the salty Japanese Style Chicken Mid Wings.
However, the same cannot be said for the service standards here. The staffs weren't very attentive and basic service such as refilling of tea and ice water needed to be prompted repeatedly. We had to wave very vigorously multiple times and call out loudly to get their attention for additional orders.
Last but not least, do note that this place charges a 'cover charge' of $2.50 per pax (children counted too) that will make dining here more expensive than it should be. Definitely not value for money.
For full review and more pictures, visit http://midas400.blogspot.sg/2013/04/birthday-lunch-at-lei-garden-chijmes.html.
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