Lao Beijing @ Orchard Central (Score: 4 out of 5)
This Lao Beijing is located at the 7th floor of Orchard Central. We were suppose to go to Tonkichi (one of our favorite restaurants) today but decided to check out Lao Beijing. Lao Beijing offers ala carte dishes and ala carte eat all you can. The menu items for the buffet is quite limited but the quality makes up for it.
The Menu
Our Orders
Sliced Pork with Garlic Sauce and Seafood Bisque
First to arrive was the Seafood Bisque. It was too peppery but the amount of seafood inside was more than ample. The sliced pork may not look special in the photo but its actually very good.
Boiled Salty Prawn, Yun Tun in Supreme Stock, Shrimp, pork, and chive dumplings, Beijing-Style Braised Noodles (Lu Mian), Steamed Red Bean Paste Buns (From bottom clockwise)
The salty prawn is a surprise here. Meaty, fresh and seasoned very well, the prawns is the star of this bunch. The noodle dish and the dumplings are a bit disappointing but that wanton in supreme stock is a easy winner.
Pork and Cabbage Guo Tie, Thai-style Sliced Fish, and Shrimp, pork, and chive dumplings
One thing that I will rave about is the Thai-Style Sliced Fish. This is the best dish we had today. I would think that some restaurants will even charge $18 for this one dish but this was already part of a buffet menu. The fish was fried to perfection. Crispy on the outside and nice and flaky in the inside. The sauce was nicely balanced and completed the whole dish.
Unfortunately the 2 dumpling dishes here were just ok.
Xiao Long Bao
The Xiao Long Bao is very good. Not my favorite xiao long bao but I would say better than Din Tai Fung. Have you gone to any buffet where you can say that?
Sweet and Sour Pork
Sweet and sour pork is as generic as Chinese food can get and even with the photo above it doesn't look very interesting.... But trust me, I was quite full already when this arrived and I still finished it. This a must to order.
Five-spiced Pork Ribs
Last hot dish that arrived. We ate enough food for 3 people but I couldn't resist not to try this dish. Perhaps there are other places that can serve this better in terms of taste but this was just braised to perfection. The pork was soft and just had enough layer of fat so that its not dry.
Ice cream puff
Ice-cream fried some batter.... nothing special here... restaurants here really need to learn how to make good desserts.
Price and Value
All-in-all the bill amounted to around $45. Not bad for an eat-all-you can ala-carte style buffet. Better yet, the food itself is the same quality as a good fine dining restaurant. There were some dishes which were not that good but the quality of the other dishes easily compensates for it.
The only rant I really have is that they didn't allow us to order their Famous Popiah which needed a minimum of 4 people so that you can order. But we wouldn't have been able to finish it I think.
The only rant I really have is that they didn't allow us to order their Famous Popiah which needed a minimum of 4 people so that you can order. But we wouldn't have been able to finish it I think.
Rating:
Food - 4
Ambiance - 4
Value - 4
Service - 3
Overall 4 of 5
Repeat Factor (No!! No! Yes Yes! Yes!!):
Yes!
Restaurant details: http://www.laobeijing.com.sg/
Address: Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Road #07-14/15, Singapore 238896
Tel no: +65 6509 1878
