[On the banlist] Jin Shan @ Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Haven't been updating the blog since laziness got the better of me, but I just had to write a review for this. Jin Shan is a Chinese restaurant, located on the main floor of the MBS hotel, which suggests it's pretty good. Unfortunately it's the opposite. To summarise Jin Shan, it has poor service, sub-par food but worse, it operates like a scammer. Wanna know why? Scroll to the bottom.

But to be fair, let us talk about Jin Shan does to draw customers. Other than its prime location to attract hotel guests, it has a reasonably priced 5 course lunch set for $38++.

Looks pretty good right? Sad to say that Jin Shan's lunch set is pretty bad, even if we disregard the fact that it's located in a five-star hotel.

Set B: Barbequed Trio Combination

 Very ordinary appetiser. Didn't help that the meat was on the cold side.

Set A: Dim Sum Trio

 One of the better courses of the set. Their dim sum is quite dainty and the ingredients such as the prawns that they use is fresh.

Set B: Minced Chicken with Millet in Golden Soup

Probably the best part of the meal, this soup is extremely flavorful and savory. The texture of soup is in a good place as it strikes a good balance of not being overly thick or thin. The presentation is exquisite, although the portion size is deceptively smaller than expected. Nonetheless probably the only enjoyable part of the lunch set.

Set A: Shredded Dumpling Delicacy in Supreme Soup

  A rather plain dish that pales in comparison to the richer flavour of Set A's soup. However, I would think that people who prefer more bland food would prefer this soup over the earlier one.

Set B: Fried Pork Ribs in Honey Sauce

 To be fair, I don't normally like my meat being sweetish (save for bakkwa), but this is pretty average. The meat was generally tender but "ruined" by the sugary sweetness. Would probably be better if it was converted to coffee ribs. 

Set A: Fried Prawns with Spiced-Salt

 The good? Huge prawn, generous amount of spices. The bad? Prawn itself could not be seasoned thoroughly and was not very fresh. Decent dish for prawn lovers.

Set B: Stir Fried Sliced Fish in Sichuan Style with Rice

Easily the worst part of the set. I don't know what they were trying to achieve with this dish. It says Sichuan style and has some dried chilli, but I taste no spiciness. What I got was dish that was sugary sweet that is far from being Sichuan Style. Simply bad.

Set A: Steamed Sea Perch with  Preserved Turnip and Noodles

 This is definitely a lot better than the fish and rice dish above. The sea perch is what the sliced fish above should have been. It's lightly seasoned and compliments the carbohydrate side, which is tasty on its own.The noodles was respectfully soft

Set B: Red Bean Soup

 Very average. No texture to the soup, overly sweet and barely any beans. 

Set A: Chilled Cream of Fresh Fruits Sago

 The fresh fruit was honey melon but that was only the flavour. It was pretty much eating foam laced with some sugar. Shouldn't be calling it cream or sago. 

Overall comments:

 For $38++, this five-course meal is pretty good... except the food is bad. What's worse was that the staff had the audacity of charging my party of 4 a $20 miscellaneous fee ($5 per pax). When asked what this fee was about, the staff mentioned it was because of the pickles and tea...Wait, what tea? Everybody only ordered water and we only had a measly mini-plate of pickled vegetables. How did it come up to $5 per pax? If this isn't scammer behavior I don't know what is.

 Only upon further investigation and firm words did the manager address the issue and reduce the charge to $11, with each person being charged $2 for water and towel ($1 for each item) plus $3 for the pickles.  In any case, the original charge was deliberately ambiguous. Even the revised amount had some cover up as many other five-star restaurants don't even charge for towels.

I normally already don't agree with Chinese restaurants charging for pickles/peanuts especially when many Western restaurants offer complimentary bread baskets. This meal with Jin Shan reinforced my opinion that it's about time consumers take a stand against being forced to pay for pickles that were not requested for. It's even worse when the restaurant tries to charge day-light robbery prices for it.

I would say that Jin Shan's practices are a disgrace to Singapore. I would feel extremely embarrassed if tourists who are less savvy with our practices even see this "miscellaneous" charge.

Honestly, Jin Shan should have better ways of attracting its customers. Yes, $38++ is pretty "value" for money for its lunch set. However, the $5 per pax "miscellaneous" charge is obviously a scam.

Jin Shan's food quality is sub-par. Its slow service didn't help it in any way. This is the last time I'll patronage this disgrace of a high-end Chinese restaurant.

Rating: Placed on my ban-list due to their unscrupulous practices

Li Bai @ Sheraton Singapore

The first meal of 2016, and hopefully to kick off a good year. Li Bai is probably more famous for its dim sum but my party of four decided to go for both ala carte and dim sum stuff. Now unlike other restaurants whereby I will reject all non-complimentary "peanuts"/appetiser (or equivalent), I did not reject Li Bai's yam chips as I read pretty good reviews about it.

Yam Chips 

It was odd that most of the reviews about Li Bai did recommend a particular dish save for their "peanuts" or specifically, the yam chips. Well-crisped but still retaining a relatively not oily texture, the chips reminded me of a better tasting aeroroot chips (from Chinese New Year). Some reviews said that the tea and the yam chips were counted per person but for me, it was $5.00 for the yam chips while tea was $3.00 per person in 2016. When I return to Li Bai, I'll probably order an extra place of this.

Price: $5.00

 Fish Congee

The actual serving for one person was pretty big and the picture was taken after I scooped some to my bowl. A pretty decent porridge, nothing too outstanding except the exceptionally crispy you tiao bits.

Price: $6.50 per person/bowl

Roasted Pork

The skin was well-fried, and the meat was not too dry but resembled pulled pork. The flesh was oddly on the cold side but nonetheless this roasted pork was still pretty good.

Price: $13.00















Chicken Feet

Would not recommend. As one of my party members said, this dish was too salty and too gooey. Said party member actually did not finish her portion. So basically, don't order this.


Price: $4.80







Crispy Chicken

A pretty good roasted chicken with crispy skin. Meat was overall quite tender, Portion size was good (picture is misleading). Presentation is pretty good, especially with the flower garnishing.

Price: $28.00

Crispy Chicken, Chicken Feet, Pork Bun

 Pork Bun

My comparison for pork buns are normally going to be with Tim Ho Wan's buns. This pork bun is a decent competitor although the skin is a bit thicker. However, the filling was good (wasn't overly sweet).

Price: $8 for 4 pcs (normal serving is 3 pcs)

Crystal Dumpling

Basically a vegetarian dumpling. Quite good though nothing too spectacular. Would still recommend.

Price: $8 for 4 pcs (normal serving size is 3 pcs)

Camphor-tea Duck

This would have been pretty good if it was called a roasted duck. However, this camphor-tea duck lacked the tea-infused taste. That put aside, the duck meat was very tender and the skin was crisp. As someone put it, the duck was not too "ducky" and that was a good thing. Pity that the tea taste was missing. Would still recommend though, just imagine it as being a roast duck.

Price: $38.00

Final Price: $145

General Comments:
The service of Li Bai was above average; clean plates were given out regularly and tea was poured frequently. But that was mainly because the tea was charged $3.00 per person. Some reviews have frowned upon Li Bai's relatively "new" location in the hotel, being technically located in the basement level. However, the layout of the restaurant does not actually reveal this plus the restaurant overlooks an indoor fountain. The food of Li Bai is decent but does not seem to have any signature dishes. Although prices seem to be quite high for the quality and amount of food given, it is still worth a try.

Hai Tien Lo @ Pan Pacific Hotel

This was a Christmas lunch but I sat on this post for a while >_> Hai Tien Lo has quite a lot of lunch sets (on both weekdays and weekends) and a Dim Sum Buffet or Brunch only on weekends. My group of 4 decided to go for the Lily Set as seen below.

Traditional Double-Boiled Soup (type varies)

The soup you get depends on the daily soup and if I'm not wrong, the waitress mentioned this was pumpkin and pork rib soup. The soup was surprisingly savory (wasn't sugary sweet), which was to my liking. The soup was quite light but was rich in flavor. A good start.

Hai Tien Lo Trio of Dim Sum

A very hearty trio in which the first two (from the left) had each a pretty big and succulent prawn. I think the black ball was a vegetarian dumpling which was okay but I preferred the earlier two. Props for the presentation as well.

Steamed Sea Perch with Preserved Veg and Chinese Cabbage

As a fish-lover, this dish did not disappoint. There was a healthy portion of fish despite the actual surface area of the plate being really small. For this meal, I felt that the sea perch's more subtle taste was quite refreshing as compared to cod fish. However, I was not particularly fond of the the preserved veg toppings. I think the seasoning was better off being strictly savory but others may disagree.

 Sauteed Spare Ribs with Onion in Chinese Vinaigrette 

Basically fried ribs in BBQ sauce and onion rings. The taste was quite overpowering and the sweetness of the seasoning was too much for me. The meat however was quite tender, making this dish still okay. If you like sweetish meat, this would probably be to your liking.

Stewed Fried Rice Noodles with Goose Webs and Mushrooms

The noodles was horfun but the highlight of this dish was the goose web (or feet). The skin was soft and  chewy but not overly fat. The sauce was rich and not overly thick, completing and making this a good dish to fill out the tummy. 

Chef's Signature Dessert 

This was a pear, snow fungus and lotus seed dessert. I'm not a dessert person and I was glad that this was not too sweet.

General Comments:

 Hai Tien Lo's ambiance was quite nice especially as my group got a table overlooking the Christmas decor of the hotel lobby. Though the price of the set was quite high at $48++ per person, the quality of the food justified it. Hai Tien Lo balances innovation and tradition well in their style of cooking. Service was pretty good as well.

Mitzo @ Grand Park Orchard

Located right across Paragon, Mitzo is a fusion Cantonese and Western restaurant located at Grand Park Orchard. I went for the Signature Set Menu as there was a 1 for 1 credit card promotion.

 Deep Fried Dim Sum Platter

Presentation is really good and the dim sum was pretty good, especially the shrimp (the middle one) which was quite meaty for a pseudo-sushi. The orange slice-looking pumpkin was cute but overly sweet, especially for a dish that came early in the meal.

Winter Melon Soup

Lobster Bisque

Lobster Bisque/Winter Melon Soup

The default soup is the lobster bisque but my party requested for an alternative due to one member having allergies. The lobster bisque was extremely flavorful and a great start to the meal. The winter melon soup was decent but nothing out of the ordinary.

Mitzo Special Barbecued Pork

Mitzo BBQ Pork

 Though the meat was tender and not overly fat, I felt that there was an excessive amount of sugar glaze. But I could be bias since I normally dislike BBQ pork due to the sweetness.

Deep fried prawns with creamy lemon sauce

 Deep Fried Prawns with Creamy Lemon Sauce
Really succuelent and big prawns. I didn't like the lemon sauce due to the sweetness though. However, still a very solid dish.

Over-baked Chilean seabass with lemongrass, chili and spices

Overbaked Chilean seabass with lemongrass, chili and spices

A hefty chunk of fish that was slightly overcooked. However, either than that, it was pretty good. The seasoning was savory and to my liking.

Pan-fried Lamb Chop with enoki mushroom and onion in Xinjiang Style

 Pan-fried Lamb Chop with enoki mushroom and onion in Xinjiang Style
Looks like a lot of meat, but a huge portion of it are bones. The lamb was moderately tender but the seasoning unfortunately was too overpowering. There were too much spices plus at this point, I was too full and decided to dabao this home.

Braised vermicelli with scallops, prawns and codfish

 Braised vermicelli with scallops, prawns and codfish
A standard dish to make sure that the customer is really full. Although I didn't finish this dish, the ingredients were of good quality. The prawn was succulent and the cod was surprisingly not so overpowering (at this point of the meal I wanted something more bland). There were few scallops  and the waiter did not do a good job splitting the portions (mine didn't get a scallop while others got an extra one). A comforting dish but nothing too spectacular.

Chilled avocado milk shake served with fried sesame dumpling

Chilled avocado milkshake served with fried sesame dumpling
The milkshake was really good as the cold creaminess of the avocado soothed my taste buds. It was mildly sweet but a good way to end the meal. The sesame dumpling on the hand was piping hot and had some alcohol inside (think of a sweet thicker-skin xiao long bao with alochol inside). I wasn't a fan of the dumpling mainly because of the overly strong alcohol taste.

General Comments:
Mitzo is really a fusion type of restaurant that has an identity crisis. The interior is really "hip" and Western that is reminiscent of a night club. However, save for the captains, a majority of the service staff were Chinese-speaking foreigners which I found was a bit odd, given that Mitzo is more of a Western pub concept and people like to have drinks at Mitzo.

The appeal of this place is that the environment is designed for people to relax and chill (the seats are basically sofa couches with plenty of cushions) and seems more suitable for casual meals or drinks. I feel that the place's identity is better suited as a pub. Its prices are rather steep and the food quality could be better. However, Mitzo gets A for the presentation of its food and that's one of the appeals of fusion food. Unless you really love fusion and "funkier" food. I suggest waiting for promotions before you visit Mitzo as there are many Chinese restaurants that are better for a lower price.

Summer Palace @ Regent Singapore (Hotel)

This will be a short post about Summer Palace's weekend lunch set @$56 per pax (min 4 people). This meal is very filling and considered value for money, as I was already full by the time the first 5 dim sum dishes were served. The food is of good quality, especially the prawns and fish. If you do decide to go for this set, be prepared to eat a lot!

Rating: 8/10

Sauteed Mushroom

Wasabi Prawn

Dim sum dishes

Fried Asparagus with XO sauce

Soup of the day

Steamed Soon Hock

Chicken tart with abalone

Roasted Meat Platter

Ee Fu Noodle

Hot Almond Cream with Tong Yuan