Dim Sum at Paradise Pavillion

C says:

I had one last voucher that I got from signing up for the Paradise Group privilege card - $25 off weekend dim sum lunch (with a minimum spend of $60). We didn’t have a stellar first visit here, but since we had the voucher we thought we’d give their dim sum a try. I’m glad we did – their dim sum offerings were far more impressive than the peking duck and other a la carte dinner dishes that we had previously.

They have quite a comprehensive dim sum menu. In addition to the usual items like siew mais and char siew baos, they have a selection of unique dishes that were interesting and surprisingly very tasty.

We had a char siew snow bun, which I think was steamed then baked so it was light yet slightly crispy outside, with a nice sweet char siew filling. Another interesting bun was a pan fried bun with peking duck, bacon and pineapple. This had so many different levels of flavour, from the smokiness of the duck and bacon to the surprising sweetness of the pineapple. The bun was super soft as well.

The scallop cheong fun was also very good. At most places, the scallop more or less merges with a seafood paste so you can’t really taste anything besides a generic “seafood” flavour, but here the scallop flavour really comes through.

We had a crystal dumpling with peking duck, which was again better than expected. What we were really impressed with however, was the siew mai skewer. They creatively take a couple of siew mais, stick them on a skewer and grill them yakitori-style, complete with a sweetish glaze. This is not for siew mai purists, but I think it really works, because the skin gets a little crispy from the grill, and the sweet (but not cloyingly so) glaze tied everything together.

Their custard buns, with the oozing salted egg lava custard, were slightly disappointing. The filling was good, but the buns were a bit too heavy and dense. We also tried their sesame mochi balls with truffle and chocolate filling. I expected a milk or dark chocolate, but it was actually a truffle-infused melted white chocolate filling that was almost like condensed milk. Definitely an acquired taste, but I like the texture of the mochi.

They’ve somewhat redeemed themselves in my book. I maintain that when they don’t try to overreach themselves with overly fancy fine-dining, and just stick to what they do best, that’s when their food is always satisfying.

A says:

After a disappointing dinner here previously, I was really surprised by how good the dim sum here was. I wouldn’t say it’s very traditional though. My fav dish was the siew mai on skewers. Naise!

  

Paradise Pavilion

8A Marina Boulevard

#02-01 Marina Bay Financial Centre

Tel: 6509-9308

Lunch: 11.30 am – 3 pm (Mon to Fri); 11 am – 4 pm (Sat, Sun & PH)

Dinner: 6 pm – 11 pm daily