We celebrated B’s belated birthday on Vesak Day at the Imperial Treasure peking duck restaurant at Paragon. I’ve never been here, but both W and S are regulars so we happily left the ordering in their good hands. Thanks to them, I had one of the best Chinese dinners I’ve had in a very long time. This could well be this year’s Shin Yeh for me.
Knowing that they always sell out, W pre-ordered two peking ducks between 10 of us, and a large tureen of “lai tong” – the daily double boiled Cantonese soup. Everything else was ordered when we got there. The starters were really good – there was a crunchy pig’s ear terrine, very good jellyfish, and a crispy fried whitebait that was one of the best I’ve had, whether at a Chinese or Western restaurant.
Of course, at a restaurant that proudly calls itself “Super Peking Duck”, this is clearly the star of the show, and it really didn’t disappoint. Each order of a whole duck ($68) gives you 3 different cuts – the premium skin, slices from the breast, and slices from the leg/thigh. The premium skin is so good that they advise you to just enjoy it dipped into sugar. The rest of the slices, you can roll up with the cucumber, chives and crepes into the usual peking duck rolls. They even serve the meat on very cute duck-shaped plates.
We initially thought we overordered when all the duck arrived, but it’s so good that even though it’s quite rich and fatty, it’s also very addictive and very easy to keep eating. Needless to say, we polished off every platter of meat and skin, as well as the sang choy pao dish that was prepared using up the rest of the duck meat.
Everything else we had was also delicious, from the amazingly flavourful double-boiled soup, to the spinach tofu and even the simply fried nai bai vegetables. What really blew us away though, besides the duck, was the noodle with mushroom and truffle oil. The truffle oil added a Western twist to the otherwise very Asian meepok dish, resulting in a killer flavour combination.
Service here isn’t great though, and that’s already with the caveat that we were there with Cantonese-speaking speaking regular W. Imagine if A and I tried going there on our own... Even with a reservation, all 10 of us ended up standing outside the restaurant for a good 20 minutes while they scurried around trying to get our table in order. Once we were seated though, the waitstaff were very attentive and service was good. The challenge is just getting through the main doors.
A says:
Very good food. Very slow service. Surprising for a restaurant this small (and relatively pricey) that they have so few servers. The waitress we had when the restaurant finally cleared out was very good though. If only we had her earlier in the night.
Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck
290 Orchard Road
#05-42/45 Paragon Shopping Centre
Tel: 6732-7838
Lunch: 11.30am to 2.45pm (Mondays to Fridays), 11am to 3pm (Saturdays), 10.30am to 3pm (Sundays)
Dinner: 6 to 10.30pm daily
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