Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant for Dim Sum

I'm back at the Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant again. The last time I had the Signature Kopi Crab but this time round, I'm back with my family for the dim sum. This photo shows Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant. Do you see HY and little Julien waving at me from inside? Just kidding. We thought of having a la carte dim sum but we found out that the dim sum set menu was worth every dollar and decided to go for the plunge. The dim sum menu is S$28 per person..

The complimentary wasabi potato chips that was so addictive that we wiped out the plate in double quick time.

Not quite there yet. This is not one of the dish in the dim sum set menu. This was the extra dish, the 辣椒蟹生煎包Seared Chilli Crab Meat Bun, that we ordered.

Dim Sum Set Menu - S$28 per person

煎萝卜糕 Fried Radish Cake

煎腐皮卷 Prawn Beancurd Roll.

烧卖 Siew Mai Dumpling

叉烧包 Honey Pork Bun

瓦煲老火汤 Soup of the Day

I borrowed the photo from my previous visit but the claypot looked the same. What you get here will be traditional Cantonese soup. This may be different from each visit.

猪腩排咖啡香 Wok Fried Pork Ribs with Espresso Sauce
Just like the Kopi Crab I had before, this is an acquired taste. The espresso sauce is a novelty but not everyone appreciates it.

姜丝盐水浸菜远 Poached Hong Kong Choy Sum, shredded ginger and superior stock.

龙虾焖米粉 Stewed Lobster Bee Hoon

This was the dish that made the dim sum set menu looked so worth every dollar. The bee hon was infused with the taste of lobster. The generous portion of lobster was most appreciated. The meat was sweet and tender.

白雪红酶 Chillee Glutinous Rice Dumpling, Fresh Cream Stuffing
If you like chewy mochi, you gotta like this. Soft and almost melting in my mouth.

18 Marina Gardens Drive #01-10 
Flower Dome, Gardens By The Bay
Singapore 018953
Tel : +65 6604 6604

冠華 Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant ... Novel Cantonese Live Seafoodat the Flower Dome, Gardens by the Bay

The Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant is another attempt by Chef Yong Bing Ngen to reach another pinnacle from his previous successes at The Majestic Restaurant and Jing. This almost 2 months old live seafood restaurant takes a spot in the Flower Dome, Gardens by the Bay. Along side Pollen, a fine diner just round the corner, The Majestic Bay Restaurant provides the Chinese dining option to Singaporeans and tourists alike who flock the Gardens like bees to flowers. Hotelier and Restauranteur, Loh Lik Peng, has gotten out of his comfortable Bukit Pasoh and Keong Saik empire in a big way. He seems to want to work on the dining scene around the Marina Bay. Jing is his collaboration with Chef Yong and Pollen is his venture with Michelin star chef Jason Atherton and now The Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant, another partnership with Chef Yong.

As we walked into the restaurant, live fish and seafood were stocked up in tanks waiting for hungry folks to pick them up.

Emptied Geoduck shells used as a decor as a water feature among the tanks.

The Majestic Bay Restaurant has a seating capacity of 110 and is a good dining option for a gathering of family and friends.

The round mirrors lining one side of the wall  reminds me of portholes in a ship and quite befitting of a seafood theme of the restaurant.

There's even a private dining room at the far end with a round 14 seater table.

辣椒蟹生煎包 Seared, chili crab meat bun. We've seen and tasted seared meat buns before but chilli crab meat buns is a first for me. For someone who thinks chilli crab is exotic, may be this can be a little sampler to the taste of chilli crab. I liked this dish for I'm a lover of chilli crab. The taste wasn't too fiery for the uninitiated so it'll be nice for tourists who doesn't have a stomach for chilli and yet wanting to try the chilli crab.

Here's what you see in the meat bun revealing the obvious colors of the chilli crab.

上海小笼包 Steamed, shanghai dumpling, pork. In fact I had steamed Shanghai dumpling from Ding Tai Fung a few days before I tried The Majestic Bay Restaurant's rendition of the dumpling. Even though we spent sometime shooting the food before we come to actually taste it, the soup in the dumpling still didn't dry up. Like my usually style, I'll place the dumpling on the spoon, bite a hole in the skin and suck out the soup to taste before I chomped up the rest. I thought the soup in these dumpling has all the essence. The soup is more flavorful than that from Ding Tai Fung, slightly more intense and savory. The skin was thin which is essential for a good steamed shanghai dumpling.

叉烧焗餐包 Baked BBQ pork bun. When these buns were served, I knew they were buns but they looked too uniform in size and have that "polished" finish just like when I got my car out from the car spa. The bun was soft, not the normal soft, but exquisitely soft. The sweetness of the BBQ pork filling was perfect for me. However, I thought the filling portion a bit too little. 

瓦煲老火汤 Soup of the day. We tried the soup of the day that is a familiar taste that my Cantonese mother-in-law would cook for me and regularly. When I tasted it, I knew that a few of the main ingredients would be pork bone and dried oysters with a melon. My MIL would usually used 老黄瓜 Old Cucumber as the melon for this soup. Chef Yong uses the 节瓜, translated to be zucchini, or hairy melon. Sometimes, MIL would add too much of the dried oyster which made it taste too much of seafood. This is one of my favorite home cooked soup and this one was executed perfectly with good balance of dried oyster and probably some red dates..

When the ingredients was scooped out on a plate, I see the familiar ingredients that were added to my MIL's soup. I thought I saw red dates as well, possibly used to sweeten the soup.

金银蒜蒸开边生虾 Steamed, live prawns, minced garlic. These live prawns were steamed with garlic, light soy sauce and egg white and then topped  with a sprinkle of spring onions and coriander. Steamed fresh prawns is the best way to taste the best of live prawns. The flesh was sweet and I regretted not grabbing more to eat.

冠华咖啡焗肉蟹 Live crabs, Bay’s signature “Kopi” sauce. Folks are familiar with Chef Yong's cuisine at The Majestic Restaurant in Hotel Majestic and his days in Doc Cheng's in Raffles Hotel would know that he has a flair for creativity. This signature crab dish is probably seen in only The Majestic Bay Restaurant. As the dish was served, everyone of us can smell fragrances from the coffee. When the dish was lighted up with a flamboyant fanfare, some caramelization seemed to take place. Many of us smelled Butter Caramel Popcorns and this is definitely unique for a crab dish!

As we go at the crab, the fragrance of caramelized pop corn lingers with a faint aroma of coffee. The Sri Lankan crab was fleshy and sweet by itself (I tasted some be picking at some flesh with my chopsticks without tainting the white flesh with the sauce) The sauce was mostly sweet and the fragrance follows you on your fingers. If you'll like to go for a unique crab dish, this is definitely the one.

蒜茸野菌炒芦笋 Sautéed, wild mushrooms, asparagus, minced garlic. The most understated dish of the evening was this vegetable dish but I thought it was simplicity at it's best. Though I'm not a fan of vegetables, I ate a lot of the asparagus as it's sweetness peers through the flavors of mushroom enhanced by the fragrance of the minced garlic. This was light, simple, yet delicious.

海鲜大烩焗饭 Baked rice, assorted seafood, chef’s recipe sauce. Chef Yong got inspiration for this baked rice dish from Macau and it's Portuguese influence from the colony days. There was distinct curry and cheese flavors with this dish and the seafood like crab, mussels and scallops added a layer of seafood flavor. This was my favorite dish as I am a curry lover and I thought this baked rice tasted like Japanese curry rice.

Here my portion of the baked rice. Notice the little scallops that was mixed u in the rice. The rice seemed to be pre-fried and then baked and every grain of rice was coated with the chef's recipe sauce. 

甜品诱惑 Sweet’s temptation. This includes the Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Yam Paste Stuffing, Shredded Coconut; Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Fresh Cream Stuffing; Steamed Custard Bun, Salted Egg Yolk; Bay’s Chinese Pancake, Red Bean Paste. My two favorites among the four would be both Glutinous rice dumplings. The dumpling with the yam paste stuffing tasted like burbur hitam consolidated into a kueh kueh. I was most impressed with the dumpling with fresh cream stuffing for the light mochi texture that almost melt in your mouth.

As it was fusion style Chinese cuisine, it's almost predictable that eveyone of us have their own favorite dish. My choice was the baked rice and several chose the Signature Kopi Crab. It goes to show that everyone got a different palate and at The Majestic Bay Seafood Restaurant, Chef Yong understands that and provide a galore of creative taste to suit each and every one. So will you be adventurous enough to try his novel Cantonese cuisine? I know I will and definitely be back for their dim sum as I had caught a glimpse of their dim sum menu.

Thanks to Janice and Sherman from Foodnews for the invitation to this Food Tasting.

18 Marina Gardens Drive #01-10 
Flower Dome, Gardens By The Bay
Singapore 018953
Tel : +65 6604 6604

海外天 Oversea Restaurant ... Oh man! I'm in love with their Char Siew

Chris, my sis-in-law suggested lunch at 海外天 Oversea Restaurant and told us that she pre-order their barbeque pork "char siew". Pre-order char siew ??? That's a first for me. She had tried Oversea Restaurant's char siew during her work stint in KL and decided to bring us to the Oversea Restaurant at Shaw Leisure Gallery when she found out that restaurant famous for their char siew has an oversea branch in Singapore. If you know where's Tom's Palette, walk right pass the ice cream parlor and all the way to the far end. That's where the restaurant resides inside Shaw Leisure Gallery. They have been operating at this location for more than 1 year. Satisfying lunch. Thanks Chris!

菜干蜜枣隆骨汤 Preserved Vegetable, Red Dates and Pork Rib Soup. Soup came first in an earthen ware. After the soup was served to us, the ingredients were scooped out for us to dig in when we like to.  

It was mostly savory due to the preserved  vegetable with the sweetness from the pork ribs and red dates.

古法炭烧叉烧 Barbeque Pork (Char Siew). This was what we came here for. The char siew is about half fatty and half lean. Before this, I never knew char siew came from heaven and will melt in your mouth until this afternoon. For those who love char siew, it's charred-ness coated with sweet thick sauce, this is a MUST TRY!

脆皮烧腩仔 Roasted Pork Belly. Yummy but we have seen similar standards elsewhere. Let me recall .... as tasty but as minuscule in portion as we had in Imperial Treasure.

天下炒饭 House Special Fried Rice. Father-in-law complained of uncooked rice. Definitely not! haha. Oversea restaurant's signature fried rice had the super crispy fried "fried rice" stir fried inside their fried rice. It was good.

桂花滑鱼筒Stir Fried Fish Maw with Scrambled Egg and Fish Paste. 

The stir fried mix was wrapped up in crunchy lettuce and it was a good way to "demolish" this dish. The stir fried mix tasted like the traditional Teochew cold dish of scrambled egg with shark's fin.

清炒菠菜 Stir Fried Spinach. This dish was simple but wraps up our lunch with a thumbs up. It's so simple yet you can taste the "wok hei" and the crunchiness of the vegetable.

Milk Pudding. Does this look like a milk pudding to you? This was not on the menu and was recommended by the manager. I ask the manager if it's the correct order. Yes it was. The milk pudding was totally hidden under these little seeds that's commonly used with the ice jelly dessert.

100 Beach Road
#01-27~37 Shaw Leisure Gallery
Singapore 189702
Tel : +65 6294 2638
Oversea Restaurant Website

Mandarin Court Chinese Cuisine ... so glad they serve dim sum during CNY season

HY and I were at the Paragon Shopping Mall early when the shops just open their shutters so that we can avoid the crowd and get some shopping done for our little J. Before going into some serious shopping to fill up the car boot, we yearned for some dim sum and were flabbergasted when Imperial Treasure Super Duck and Crystal Jade's Golden Pavilion told us that they don't serve dim sum until after the 15 days of Chinese New Year. Grrrr. We were glad that Mandarin Court at Mandarin Meritus still catered to our whims. They serve the Weekend Dim Sum Buffet at S$78++, but we were not here for buffet.

Dim Sum is at a premium at Mandarin Court though. Maybe it's because you'll be dining on the 35th floor enjoying the panoramic views.  Views in the restaurant faces Orchard Road, like this one, and the other side facing Grange Road and River Valley. 

Mandarin Court's Har Gao 虾角 had a slight sprinkle of pink to make it look like a peach.  Looks good and taste of crunchy shrimps in there. But nothing really special other than that.

Fluffy Steamed Barbeque Pork  Bun was good. HY has a fetish for bun skin and she like it so much that I had to core out the filling inside to leave the bun skin for her.

The Deep Fried Shrimp Rolls 腐皮卷 came with wasabi mayonnaise dip. It looks good and it taste better. 

The Dumpling soup 灌汤角 that HY and I shared.  We love the soup's clean and clear taste. 

Apart from some dim sum, we decided to order a serving of the Wok Fried Fragrant Rice with Conpoy. We were indulged. Their signature indeed. Its "3D"! Looks Delicious, smells Delicious and taste Delicious!

This is the dining area where I would request to take a table near the windows for the views to make my money worth.

333 Orchard Road
Level 35 Mandarin Orchard Singapore
Singapore


Operating Hours:


Lunch Mon~Fri 12.30~2.30pm
Dinner Mon~Sun 6.30~10.30pm
Dim Sum Brunch Sat, Sun & Public Holidays 11am~2.30pm


Mandarin Court Website

Victor's Kitchen .... Affordable and Delicious Dim Sum

We were actually planning to have dim sum at Swee Choon along Jalan Besar when we realized that they closed at 10.30am. I'm glad that we were familiar with the area and decided to visit Victor's Kitchen which is just a short drive down Jalan Besar to Bencoolen Street.  Victor's Kitchen is located on the 1st floor of Sunshine Plaza serving Hong Kong style dim dum. 

This Dim Sum kitchen has made quite a name for itself drawing crowds of dim sum lovers with their delicious dim sum at affordable price. Expect to squeeze with strangers who may be sitting at the neighboring table placed side by side leaving only a single passage way for staff to bring the dim sum items to you.

玫瑰露蚝皇叉烧包 Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun. 

酥皮蛋黄奶皇包 Yummy Milky Custard Bun. Victor's Kitchen Custard Bun is a must-try with it's runny custard that flows out of any crack that you create.

XO 酱干贝腊味蒸箩卜糕 Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO sauce

沙律明虾角 Deep Fried Shrimp Dumpling

皮蛋鱼片粥 Nemo's Porridge. The porridge was not typical Hong Kong style. It taste bland, more like Teochew porridge.

香脆鲜虾腐皮卷 Crispy Golden Shrimp Roll

蜜汁叉烧肠粉 Char Siew Cheong Fun. The cheong fun here's smooth and thin. Very good!

香港特色煎肠粉 H.K. Style Pan Fry Cheong Fun. I was impressed with this pan fried cheong fun.   One side of the cheong fun was fried till it's crispy and slightly charred. The fragrance of the charred parts made this food a treat to the sense of taste and smell.

香港夏日冰镇奶茶 H.K. Summer Ice Tea. This the the way that Victor's Kitchen present their Ice Milk Tea. The ice bath was used to keep the milk tea chilled. Adding ice to the milk tea will dilute the taste so this is one good way of keeping the ice milk tea chilled while maintaining consistency of the tea.

91 Bencoolen Street
#01-49 Sunshine Plaza
Singapore
Tel : +65 9838 1761


Opening Hours :
Daily 10.30am~8pm
Closed on Monday