Review of Hua Ting at Orchard Hotel

soul_rage SG

Went to Hua Ting at Orchard Hotel on 25 May.

Here's what we have over there:
1. Cantonese Roasted Duck ($18 for quarter)
2. Pan-fried Beef Fillet in Spicy Sauce ($8 )
3. Pan-fried Venison Fillet in Creamy Mushroom Sauce ($8 )
4. Stir-fried scallops with pear and apples ($32)
5. Fried Mee Pok with XO Sauce (comes with large prawns) ($20)

Verdict:
1. Their roasted duck is the best I have so far, ahead even the tea-smoked duck at Goodwood Park Min Jiang. The skin is so crisp and tasty with that delightful smoky flavour, while the meat is tender and juicy, all signs of freshness. (Recommended)

2. Not bad a dish with the beef really tender, but otherwise its pretty normal (similar to the one I had at Hai Tian Lo at Pan Pac)

3. This is an East-meets-West dish that is perfect, with the mushroom cream sauce complementing the tender venison fully (recommended)

4. This was a gem of a dish. Simple, yet made to perfection, it does not have really heavy flavours, bringing the scallops freshness to the top of the taste senses. The apple and pear complemented the scallops well, bringing a tinge of fruity taste to the entire dish. Just right, not overwhelming. (recommended)

5. Ah... this was the interesting dish of the night. When we ordered this, we thought we were ordering an expensive version of the dry mee pok at the hawker centres. But when it came... well... I have to say, once you taste this mee pok, you won't want to taste any other mee poks anymore.
The Mee Pok is smaller in terms of the width and the thickness, and is made of probably the same quality as hong kong noodles. It was springy, yet full of egg-flavours, and was cooked to perfection such that it slides down your throat. Coupled with the XO sauce, and large succulent prawns, this was no doubt a special dish that you can't find outside. (Highly Recommended)

Overall verdict:
Food: 9/10 (Great food overall, price-wise was pretty reasonable for a restaurant of that standards)
Ambience: 7.5/10 (Not too bad, but Wan Hao still tops the charts in terms of ambience)
Service: 9/10 (Good service, the waitress actually informed us to stop our orders coz she thought we had enough dishes already. To me, that is really good service. And throughout our time there, they controlled the dishes so that the dishes reach our table 1-by-1 (Except the beef and venison coz I believe they think the 2 dishes should be brought out together for comparisons). I liked that, coz it means we will have the food hot, and we don't mix the flavours together.)

liquidshadow SG

This feeds how many?

soul_rage SG

2. But as my wife and I are crazy over Chinese food and can eat quite a bit when we are at a fine-dining Chinese restaurant, I would say this can serve 3 persons as well.

DummiesInc SG

5 of us had dinner there early this month. Total disappointment. Read here

stellazio SG

i like their dim sum…

soul_rage SG

read your review.

Thank god I din try the Dried Cod Fish coz that was initially on my wife's mind. I thought it din sound nice (dried cod fish?) so decided against it.

Other than the duck, your gang and us had different dishes. So I will avoid all the dishes you tried the next time I go there

one thing though, their menu is actually quite limited compared to other restaurants of their standard. I was inclined to think that with limited choices, each of the dish should have been executed to perfection (since the chefs only need to focus their skills on these dishes, unlike other places, where they have to work on a larger variety). Apparently, based on your experience, its not so.