Paradise Dynasty @ Ion Orchard

Paradise Dynasty @ Ion Orchard (Score: 4.5 out of 5)

I have to confess one thing. This is our favorite restaurant. I've seen some reviews regarding Paradise Dynasty which aren't so good but I just disagree. Everytime we have guests, we bring them here.

Why is this our favorite? Simple, excellent value, excellent food, relatively good service. I'd have to say though that if there will be one complaint about this place, it's the queue during peak hours (Friday nights can get bad. Just recently we waited I think for 2 hours... I'm still sorry Kathy :). There is also no reservation so first come first serve.). 

Our Orders

Fried Shanghai Pork Buns ($4.50)

Think xiao long bao stuffed inside a nice soft Chinese bun. Then pan fry. If that doesn't stir your appetite then our wavelengths don't match. But this is not the star of the show.

La Mian with Beef Brisket (Spicy) - $12.80

In the XX times that we have gone to Paradise Dynasty, I don't really remember a time where we didn't order this. For us, this is a must have. There was a time that we tried the Shanghai Fried Rice and I still ordered this.

The La Mian is just perfect. Combined with a top grade beef brisket that almost melts in your mouth (ok I may be exaggerating a bit) and freshly pulled La Mian noodles (you can see this through the show kitchen in the entrance) I just can't think of any better place. The bowl above is good for 2 to 3 depending on the order. Last night we just ordered 1 and there was 3 of us.

The spiciness is also just right for me but you may also order a non-spicy version. Eat this hot for the best experience.

Scallion Pastry - ($3.60)

This is one of wifey's favorite as well. The puff pastry is just cooked right and even though it is deep fried, the pastry is not too greasy.

Paradise Dynasty Signature Xiao Long Bao (XLB) - ($14.80)

This is Paradise Dynasty's Signature Mix Xiao Long Bao. Is it the best XLB to order? My recommendation is to try once, remember what you like, then just order that in the future. The flavors are: Garlic (Gray), Ginseng (Green), Truffle (Black), Cheese (Yellow), Szechuan (Red), Foie Gras (Brown), Crab Roe (Orange), and Original (White). We do normally order this for our guests to experience the colorful dish.

I'm not a big fan of the sampler. In fact we've only ordered this once for ourselves. The rest of the time we only either order Original or Garlic which is our favorite flavored XLB. 

Garlic Flavored Xiao Long Bao - ($9.80)

This is our favorite flavored XLB. Just pick up one of these, make a small bite, put the soup in the spoon, slurp the garlic flavored soup, and munch on the remaining XLB..... YUM! Yup this is a must have. Eat it hot as well (that goes for all XLB anywhere).

The other flavors like Truffles and Foie Gras are also available on order but much more pricier at around $18.00 - $20.00 per basket.

Fungus and Pork Stir Fried Noodles - ($10.80)

The stir-fried noodle is also very good. Though the presentation isn't top notch its still a very good dish. It has this almost burnt taste that adds quite a good character to this dish. I find it unique and satisfying at the same time. The noodle is cooked just right though you may ask... where is the pork? 

Poached Chicken in Spicy Sauce - ($8.80)

Don't let the presentation fool you, this is actually a cold chicken appetizer. Its not actually spicy and the addition of the peanuts is a nice combination to add some crunch to the dish. I'll put this on my optional list.

Radish Pastry - ($3.90)

We don't always order this (about 50% of the time) but this place knows how to deep fry. The puff pastry is crunchy outside and the inside is nice and soft. Again surprisingly it is not greasy.

My best suggestion here is try to eat the food while its hot. You will get the best experience if you do this to most of the food. Not in the picture which is a must try is the Chilled Assorted Egg Loaf in Yang Zhou Style. You won't regret ordering this.

Updated... We visited again on May 25... It is our favorite restaurant....

Pickeled Cucumber and Black Fungus Mushroom Appetizer

Though these two dishes are simple, I enjoyed the refreshing feeling of eating cucumber this way. lets see if I can copy this at home. I'm not sure if the mushroom was pickled as well but it was nicely seasoned and had a slight vinegar taste. 

Braised Egg

This is a good interpretation of "Adobo" / "Tea" egg. It had a nice balance of saltiness and eggyness. It was very good that we ordered it again. Sharing it wasn't enough.

La Mian with Wanton in Chili Oil.

We decided not to order La Mian with Spicy Beef Brisket and opted for this. This was just so so. Maybe I got used to the fact that La Mian here is served with soup and this dish was missing something hot and warm. Imperial Treasure Noodle Place serves this with a side of Pork Bone soup, which they should do as well. (We have asked for it, but they said they don't provide) The dumplings was tasty and the "spicy" isn't over powering. 

La Mian with Vegetable Wanton

This had a nice surprising taste to it. I hope that this is purely vegetarian so that if I have a vegetarian friend who'll eat here I can easily recommend this.

La Mian with Double Boiled Chicken Soup

The soup was seasoned very well and didn't have any "medicine" taste to it. Comparing this to the Beef Brisket, i'd say that this is a way way healthier choice.

Yangchow Lion Head with Vegetables Soup

We really wanted to have some soup with our La Mian with Wanton in Chili Oil so we decided to order this soup. The meatball was nice and soft but not mushy. The soup was also nice but nothing special.

Pancake with red bean paste

I was looking for more red bean paste and texture. I'm afraid this is actually disappointing. Jing Hua in Neil Road trumps Paradise Dynasty with this dish.

Price and Value

All-in-all the bill amounted to around $89. So that rounds it about to $30 per person. We were full and actually had some take home as well.


A lot of people may compare this to Din Tai Fung (which has 2 branches in HK with a one Michelin Star). My opinion, Paradise Dynasty is better.

Rating:

Food - 4.5

Ambiance - 4

Value - 4.5

Service - 4

Overall 4.5 of 5

Repeat Factor (No!! No! Yes Yes! Yes!!): 

Yes!!

Restaurant details: http://www.paradisegroup.com.sg/?page_id=358&mn=pd
Address: 2 Orchard Turn, #04-12A ION Orchard, Singapore, 238801
Fax: +65 6509 9117 

Luk Yu Teahouse and Restaurant

Luk Yu Teahouse and Restaurant (Score: 4 out of 5)

YOU MUST TRY THIS RESTAURANT! I won't be selfish. But I hope this dimsum place gets the recognition it deserves cause the dimsum here is GREAT!

Lynn and I were debating since last night where to have lunch today. We decided to have dimsum. First thing I did? Go to Hungrygowhere and check out what was on the highly recommended list. We have tried some other places like "Taste Paradise", "Din Tai Fung", and "Crystal Jade" but wanted to veer away from our normal places.

Fortunately she suggested that we got to the newly renovated China Point Mall in the Chinatown area. There used to be a chinese restaurant there that was good as well. So when we got there the old chinese restaurant I was thinking of became Din Tai Fung, which I wanted to avoid. 

So we went around and saw Luk Yu Teahouse and Restaurant. The receptionist was quite busy but from the outside I saw some empty tables. She also seemed to be not paying attention to the queue as she was sometime entertaining people behind us (mind you she hasn't even asked us for details yet). Not a good sign but well Singapore doesn't really have the best service standards anyway. I'd say they were roughly 90% occupied.

But kudos to this place as I would have really really regretted it if we chose any other place.

Our Orders (and emphasis on order"S")

Beef Ball Dumpling

Yam Puff

Ha Kao

Xiao Long Bao

Creamy Custard Bun 

Century Egg Pork Congee

BBQ Pork Pastry

Herbal Tea

Minced Pork Noodle

Abalone Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf

Siew Mai with Prawn

Pan Fried Carrot Cake

Pork Ribs in Black Bean Sauce

The food in Luk Yu was surprisingly delicious. Good enough for me to actually say... "Honey, do you think this is the best dimsum restaurant here in SG?" And I mean it. I was surprised at how good the Pork Sio Mai with Prawn (SGD 1.80/pc), BBQ Pork Pastry (SGD 3.80/3 pcs), the Chicken Feet (SGD 3.80/plate) and the Abalone Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf (SGD 5.5/pc) . These four dishes were probably on top of the yummy list. For some reason they have been able to make these "regular" dimsum just taste better than normal.

The next part of the yummy list is the Century Egg Pork Congee (SGD 5.80/bowl) and Minced Pork Noodle (SGD 7.80/bowl). The congee was simply fantastic. Why? I don't know. Its probably the way they executed the crispy wanton as it was perfectly crisp and every spoonful of congee seems to have that wanton skin. But it just wasn't that. There was something else which you must experience to know how that "different" tastes like.

The Minced Pork Noodle is the same. Looks like a normal bowl of noodle but again it had this distinct taste and smell that made us say "Wow! that's gooood". Normally dimsum places will have 1 or 2 good things going for them but if they are able to deliver very good food across different items then you know you have a winner.

The rest of the dishes: Xiao Long Bao, Yam Puff, Pan-Fried Carrot Cake and Beef Ball were also good but I would say nothing special. Paradise Dynasty is still my no.1 Xiao Long Bao place. Lynn does like the Yam Puff but I think I've tasted better. 

Special mention will be the Creamy Custard Bun. If people will eat this first time in this place, I promise you, they will keep on going back to order this here. But I have to give the 1st price still to Taste Paradise Creamy Custard Bun. The bun there is just softer and the Luk Yu bun was, for me, a bit tough. BUT, its still good. When I go here next, I will still order it.

But at the end of the day if a restaurant will be judged by its worst food then Luk Yu is still at least good which is very good (hope that's not confusing). Probably my only angst would be service but the food was served hot and quite fast. It just wouldn't really hurt for them to be a more courteous. 

Price and Value

All-in-all the bill amounted to just around SGD 81.70. Not cheap but I would say we ate for more than 2 people today. I'd say given what we ordered, we could have had another person and not order anything more.

Rating:

Food - 4

Ambiance - 4

Value - 3.5

Service - 3.5

Overall 4 of 5

Repeat Factor (No!! No! Yes Yes! Yes!!): 

Yes!

Restaurant details:

Official Website: http://www.lukyu.sg/ (under construction)

Address: Chinatown Point #01 - 41/42 Chinatown

Tel no: +65 6262 1717 (Reserve for big groups)

Jing Hua Restaurant

Jing Hua Restaurant (Score: 3.5 out of 5)

Jing Hua Restaurant is a simple Chinese Restaurant that serves one of the better Xiao Long Bao restaurants near the CBD area. It's located at Neil Road just before Kreta Ayer St.and is quite difficult to find during the first time visit. But if you are walking in that area, look for a Chinese restaurant with bright red tables.

The Menu

The menu of Jing Hua is very simple. The photos above makes up everything that they serve.

Our Orders

Spinach with Oyster Sauce

Mixed Seafood, Pork Dumplings (Boiled)

Noodle with minced pork and soy bean paste

Chinese Pizza

Mixed Seafood, Pork Dumplings (Pan-Fried)

Xiao Long Bao

Red Bean Paste Pancake

Osmanthus Flavoured Glutinous Rice Balls (Mixed Flavor)

Osmanthus Flavoured Glutinous Rice Balls (With filling shown)

The best dish that they have is a toss between the Xiao Long Bao and the Red Bean Paste Pancake. And when you order their food (Chinese Pizza, Steamed Dumplings, Pan-Fried Dumplings), the feeling you will have is that everything has the same filling. The difference is only in the way it was prepared. 

But everything we ordered here did taste good. If we there were only 2 of us, I'd definitely order the XLB, the noodles, and the Chinese Pizza. As for the dessert, the Red Bean Paste Pancake was my favorite in this visit. I liked the fact the pancake was soft and warm at the same time. I'm not a very big fan of red bean but this dessert is something that I'll order and order again.

Special mention to Allan Pineda who introduced us to this place and was the one holding the chopstick for the Red Bean Paste Pancake.

Price and Value

All-in-all the bill amounted to just around SGD 85. Not cheap but for 5 people its not too bad as well. Its also surprisingly filling so really not bad.

Rating:

Food - 3.5

Ambiance - 3

Value - 3.5

Service - 3.5

Overall 3.5 of 5

Repeat Factor (No!! No! Yes Yes! Yes!!): 

Yes

Restaurant details:

Official Website: http://jinghua.sg/

Address: 21/23 Neil Road, Singapore 088814
Tel no: +65 6221 3060