We decided to have some early informal CNY celebrations as we know that from next week onwards, many Chinese restaurants will be booked to their gills for Chinese New Year lo hei events – both for families and for corporates. In case you have not done the bookings, we hope you find our list of 2017 CNY restaurants useful. Our first choice to have a weekend lunch was Summer Pavilion – a top Cantonese restaurant in Singapore.
Don’t be deceived by the tranquil look in these photos. We were there early. The place soon filled up to capacity. Summer Pavilion is a very popular place for dim sum lunch.
We did not take pictures of the dim sum menu (you can refer to our older post for that). Here are some pages from the Summer Pavilion ala carte menu. We placed our order for a mix of items from the dim sum and the main menus.
No celebration, informal or not, will be complete without some bubbles right? Since globalisation is such a hot topic these days, we can say that we had quite a globalised lunch – Cantonese food, French champagne and Australian red wine in an US brand hotel and service staff from Malaysia and Singapore. Perrier Jouet is my favourite non-vintage champagne.
We had the usual steamed dim sum suspects, except that the Summer Pavilion version is slightly different from the norm. They were all good with a refined taste. Poached prawn dumpling ($1.80 per piece), vegetable dumpling ($1.80 pp) and lobster dumpling ($3.50 pp). Champagne is the perfect drink to go with these delicate morsels. The gold colour is also auspicious!
The fried items were more unusual – yam pumpkin and radish cake ($1.80 each piece). The radish cake in particular is very different from those we find elsewhere. One Michelin star chai tow kueh?
Red is the colour of the season and so it was appropriate to have some red wine to create the CNY spirit and to go with the duck and subsequent dishes. The Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2012 should probably spend more time in the cellar but it was sufficiently smooth and supple. Most importantly there was none of the sharp taste that we associate with shiraz. A fine bottle of Aussie red.
After the dim sum we had some London roast duck ($45 for half), fried vegetables ($33 for a medium-sized portion) and spicy XO mee pok ($54 for medium portion).
The vegetables were quite average. The duck was good but there was a difference in opinion as to whether the duck was fat enough and whether this was better than some of those specialist duck restaurants that have opened in Singapore recently. There was however unanimous agreement that the XO mee pok was very good, although a tad expensive.
Just when we thought the best part of the meal was over, the desserts brought even more delight. We selected four dessert items ($12 for each individual portion) – black glutinous rice, mango sago, aloe vera, almond tea.
The star dessert was the black glutinous rice. This humble dish took on a glamorous outlook at Ritz Carlton.
The aloe vera and the mango sago were chilled and refreshing. They would be better if they were colder but still very good. The almond tea was also good but not different from those in other fine Chinese restaurants.
Finally, some complimentary Chinese version of petit fours to bring our lunch at Summer Pavilion Ritz Carlton to a close – Osmanthus Jelly and pineapple tarts. The former not only tasted good but looked like jewels as well. Apart from the good food and beautiful decor, it is the little touches that makes this a top Cantonese restaurant in Singapore.
Ratings:
Food: 5
Service: 5
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 5
Overall Rating: 5 TOPs
Summer Pavilion
The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore
7 Raffles Avenue
Singapore, 039799
Tel: +65 6434-5286
Lunch
Daily, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (last order at 2:15 p.m.)
Dim sum, à la carte and set menus are available.
Dinner
Daily, 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. (last order at 10:15 p.m.)
À la carte and set menus are available.
Nearby MRT Stations : Esplanade, Promenade
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