feizhu's Reviews
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A brightly lighted interior greets you as you step into the rather cramp restaurant, which incidentally, was packed with people. Floor to ceiling windows offer a clear view of passers by at ground level, seperated only by thin veiled curtains. The lack of privacy is further enhanced by the closely placed tables which makes it hard not to eavesdrop.
The appetizer was a mixture of Capsicum, fish cakes and bell peppers, which was rather intriguing given that I've never tried anything like it. The fishcake cubes took on a slight tinge of the bell pepper taste and proved to be a nice way to start dinner rolling.
Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Shredded Chicken & Bamboo Pith -
Honestly, for a restaurant such as Asia Grand, I would have expected better shark's fin soup. Not just quality of fins wise, but overall preparation of the soup as well. The soup was way too starchy and oily by any measure. The fins were of rather inferior quality but portions were still decent. Overall an average dish and no more.
Peking Duck - Our unanimous star of the evening - the humble Peking duck. With crackling crispy skin thats almost fat free wrapped in thin yet chewy egg crepes, you will be hard pressed to find any substitutes with similar quality at such a low price of $28 a duck (ongoing promotion).
Baked Lobster with Egg Yolk - The lobster got me all excited and was one of the reasons why we chose to order the set menu instead of going ala carte. My hopes shattered when I saw the size of the lobsters. They were tiny, weighing in at most the size of a huge prawn. The meat was barely a spoonful, which was absolutely pathetic. Berates aside, I must admit that the lobster was quite tasty, with the saltiness from the egg yolk complementing the slightly sweet lobster flesh. However, the egg yolk could have been saltier to further bring out the contrast.
Duck Fried Rice - Wondering what happened to the meat from the Peking duck? Well, you have your answer. The rice was moist and rather well fried together with the fibrous yet tender duck meat. However, it did get rather bland after a while. I mean, how tasty can it get when its just diced duck with rice and egg with no gravy whatsoever?
Steamed Pa Ting fish with Olive, Chilli & Garlic - A most forgettable dish - steamed fish at its most uninspiring. The fish was fresh but not particularly sweet. It didn't help that the fish was rather small as well.
Sauteed Fresh Scallop with Assorted Mushroom - The scallops were supposed to be the main focal point in this dish, but ironically I preferred the mushrooms better. Tasty, juicy and the direct opposite of the scallops, which were a tad too soft without much bite and rather bland. Portions are pathetic as well and we had to limit everyone to 2 scallops each. Talk about rationing.
$61.50/pax is rather expensive for such an average repertoire of food, the Peking duck withstanding. Service is excellent and all of the wait staff are attentive and friendly. After doing my math, I reckon I'll be back just for the $28 Peking duck. No more, no less.
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Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!wellsounds like the Peking duck is a real steal..
11 Oct 2007 at 2:28 pm
It is. And I intend to go back just for it :D
11 Oct 2007 at 3:21 pm
Read the newspapers review this palce before. Aslo not bad. Maybe shall pop in some time to take a look.
11 Oct 2007 at 4:30 pm
Sitting pretty at the top of Labrador nature reserve overlooking the sea, Villa Seafood Galleria is a little paradise all by itself, shrouded in greenery. The private dining room was set amongst a pool and oozed pure class through its fall to ceiling windows. The air conditioned common dining room, however, didn't impress that much but was spacious and comfortable with yes, floor to ceiling windows as well.
less than interesting name, a less than interesting dish. The Crispy Almond Chicken was essentially chicken coated with almond on the skin and baked. The skin was nice and crunchy from all the almonds but the meat was a little on the dry side. Ironically, for a name like Almond Chicken, there wasn't the faintest taste of almond at all, at least not that I could detect. However, the biggest gripe about this dish was that some pieces of chicken had a slight oil residue, which is a big no no.
Fish noodles usually come in soup so this variation of Fried Noodle with Seafood came as something new to me. Not that I'm complaining though. The noodles were slimmer and more springy, with the extra bite evident. However, I did find it a little too oily though, which made it almost unpalatable when cold. On a positive note, the toppings of prawns and scallops were plentiful, making the dish all the more enjoyable.
You can't really go wrong with vegetables and the Kailan with Scallops and Crab Meat was well, simple yet tasty. Fresh and crunchy, the vegetables were topped with generous servings of crab meat and gravy.
Huge prawns which were a little crisp along the edges yet succulent and full of bite topped with a thin layer of wasabi and mayonnaise. Now who wouldn't like that? The wasabi sauce honestly didn't look like much but it got really strong after a while. The small slices of cut fruit, though nothing fantastic, were a nice complement to the prawns.
Another first for me, the pumpkin sago was smooth yet not too starchy. Coming across as sweet and refreshing with the fruits and grass jelly in it, it was a little small for the price though. It helped that the sago was served really chilled as well.
I would say that the food at Villa Seafood Galleria tends towards the finer side as compared to its sister restaurant, Made In China, but of course prices are steeper and portions are smaller as well. $113 for 2 pax does seem a little on the high side but the ambience and service more than makes up for it. If you have a big group (10-20pax), you must go for the private dining room by the poolside.
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Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!The glass house on water dining seems pretty cool!
10 Oct 2007 at 10:23 am
Yes its cool, but you need to spend $1000 for it lol
10 Oct 2007 at 2:32 pm
The interior was rather cramp, evidently with the restaurant trying to squeeze as many tables as possible in the relatively small room, resulting in a less than comfortable boxy looking dining area. I could easily overhear the adjourning table's conversation, not that I wanted to though. I guess that gives you an idea how close the tables were.
Have you ever tried pork rib noodles that were sweet? I for one, have not. Thats why Nanxiang's rendition came as quite a surprise (or was it shock?). The broth was sweet, not the MSG kind of sweet but literally sugar sweet. The pork ribs were sweet as well, which was rather weird, considering that I had expected the entire dish to be salty. The noodles were rather springy though and appeared to be the only thing that was "normal". Sorry but sweet broth and pork ribs just don't cut it for me.
For $8.50, I had expected better. The Yang Zhou Fried Rice was a joke and I'm not kidding. Served in a rounded symmetrical form, the rice looked like it had been pre-prepared and scooped from a container using a bowl (I'm just guessing). The de facto Char Siew was replaced by luncheon meat which is a poor substitute in my humble opinion. The rice lacked taste and came across as rather bland. Probably the only thing that I liked about this dish was the homogeneity of colours.
The Fried Prawns with Salted Egg came piping hot, with the gravy still bubbling and frothing. The relatively fresh prawns were of average size and overall tasted decent with the gravy buttery and a little coarse, probably due to the bits of egg yolk. However, this dish is best eaten hot as the gravy tends to harden as it cools and things get really gross from there.
The baked mini puffs looked like your normal curry puff, but break it open to find pork, mushroom and bamboo. Supposedly of course. Truth is, I only found pathetic bits of mushroom in it with what seemed to be scrap morsels of minced meat. It was like eating the pastry more than anything else. Not that it tasted good by the way.
Steamed Soup Bun with Crab Roe and Pork Filling - Purportedly Nanxiang's signature dish - the Xiao Long Bao (XLB). I honestly wasn't the least bit impressed. The skin was way too thick and I had to literally tear it apart before I could take a snapshot of the filling. And there is something about the QC of their XLB. Some had loads of fluids contained within, some had minimal. Talk about consistency.
I have never tried Pan Fried Pumpkin Cake before and I don't think I ever want to try it again, at least not at Nanxiang. The cake was soaking in oil but tasted decent though, a little sweet and crispy on the outside.
$59 for such mediocre quality food is plain absurd. The only redeeming factor was the reasonably good service but I don't think thats enough to make me go back.
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Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!:o 2 stars? Now that's out of your norm. hee... looks like this is really not worth going to ah.
09 Oct 2007 at 10:35 am
Theres the occasional terrible dining experience ie. Xin Wang lol
09 Oct 2007 at 11:41 am
Take the ear popping but rather cheaply finished lift up to the 69th floor and walk the remaining flight of steps up to the 70th floor where you are ushered into a small dining area aka Jaan. And here you are in for a big surprise. The pictures of Jaan in food magazines show grandeur and finesse. What greets you is a tiny room which seats probably about 30 pax and done up with cheap looking wavy lights that scream bad taste. Well to be fair, the lights do look a lot better at night, almost mysterious. But in the day, they are better left off. View wise, its better I leave the talking to the photos. This is definitely Jaan's trump card and words just do not do any justification.
I had gotten this starter because I was sick of eating the scallops which I usually have when I go to Jaan. I guess bad choice sums it all up. The Crabmeat and Shrimps Ceviche was pretty normal but the Bloody Mary Granite was a total disaster. When was the last time you tried a tomato which was extremely salty yet cold? I'm sorry, but I just can't accept ice which tastes like tomato and yet be so salty. I was literally grimacing in my futile attempts to finish it.
The Red Port Jus was a recommended sauce for my medium rare steak and kudos to the waitress for the great recommendation. It hinted subtly of red wine without being artificially sweet. The steak came almost medium well, but still packed in a punch with its tenderness, juiciness and sweetness. A pity about the size of it though. It can hardly feed a 12 year old kid, much less a greedy slob like me. Probably a comparison is in order between this and Buko Nero's offering. No prizes for guessing which was the better of the two.
Jivara Mille-Feuille - Poached Rhubarb In Sangria, Chestnut Ice Cream - Now with such an interesting name, one would expect an equally interesting dish to go along with it. Sadly, that wasn't the case. The Chestnut Ice Cream didn't quite taste like Chestnut. I can't really put a finger to what it actually tastes like, but it wasn't very sweet and left a pleasant aftertaste. Not bad actually. What can I say about poached rhubarb except that it tastes like soft apple? The tiered chocolate piece by the side (I don't think it appears in the name of the dish) was chocolate mousse and the only good thing about it that I can think of is its light and not too sweet. Again, portions are smaller than small. Oh and one interesting thing to note. Sangria is a Spanish recipe, so whats it doing in a French dessert?
We went to Jaan hungry and left hungry(at least for myself). And it didn't come cheap at about $82 for 2 pax. I had to resort to eating MacDonalds after that, so imagine that. The only draw of this place, to me at least, is the respectable mains and panoramic view. Service, though reasonably good, seems rather biased towards Caucasians and well dressed customers and serving time is slow. I might probably do lunch again, but only lunch. Dinner is criminally expensive and I would be better off eating elsewhere.
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Login to add your comment. Or, Register for an account now. It's free!You always have expensive taste... haha.
09 Oct 2007 at 5:58 am
Victor's custard buns were probably one of the better ones that I've tried so far, with the custard milky, smooth and moist while the bun soft, fluffy and warm. The only thing that's lacking is the richness of the custard, which I did find a little lacking. Maybe I'm just picky.
Tasty Chicken (Hong Kong Style) - I didn't find this dish too fantastic as the taste of the rice wine was overwhelming and personally, I'm not really a fan of chicken cooked this way.
The Char Siew Cheong Fun was probably one of the weakest links in Victor's offerings. The skin was a little too thick and came across as rather starchy, unlike the silky smooth and translucent thin skins that good cheong funs should have. The char siew was rather normal as well, which kinda sealed the fate for this dish.
The Tasty Queen size Siew Mai wasn't really queen size per se. It was just slightly bigger than your average siew mai. What I liked about it was that the proportion of fatty meat to lean meat was relatively low, which didn't make me queasy after eating too much. But the skin was a tad too dry though
A hot favourite amongst customers, the prawns in the har gao were very fresh, albeit not too crunchy. The skin was nicely done, lightly stretchable and not too thick, but please eat it when its still hot.
Marginally smooth with a fair amount of bite best describes the Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake. Sure it isn't exactly near the best that I've eaten, but for the price, no one's complaining. One gripe though, I couldn't taste or make out any traces of scallop or sausage in the carrot cake. Talk about misrepresentation.
Maybe its a norm to call it something as grand as phoenix porridge in Hong Kong, but in Singapore, we call it pi dan chow, or century egg porridge. Victor's rendition wasn't the least bit impressive, being average at best. The porridge tasted like normal slightly runny porridge with small pieces of century egg and prawn balls in it.
A filling dim sum brunch for 2 pax cost us about $20, which is cheap for the above average quality dim sum that you get. Of course there are better ones out there, but don't forget that they cost a lot more too. Try this place out, but please don't get your expectations too high and you will enjoy it.
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