Hua Ting

We are all old friends, yet we never met before. We visit each other on the web, that is how we “meet” everybody. Food brings us together, finally we can put a face to each other instead of just a nickname. From online, to offline, our food blogger outing.

While waiting for everybody to arrive, we ordered some fried dim sum for the photo shoot first. Hua Ting have more steamed items than fried ones, and the baked chicken & mango tart ($3.90) headed the list. This reminded me of the one that I had at Man Fu Yuan, and personally I felt it was well executed with the sweet mango zing and crust pastry.

I am not a big fan of bean skin roll dim sum, but since this was one of the few fried item and came highly recommended by the staff, we ordered the Deep-fried bean skin with prawn ($4.80).

Oh, the prawns were fresh. Yes they were. But, but the skin was too thick, and well they are not the best Steamed crystal prawn dumpling ($4.80) I had before.

There was the option of doing it steamed or pan-fried. But who could resist yummy-sinful fried food? Not us, we went for the pan-fried carrot cake with canopy ($3.90). Eat first, worry later! For some unknown reasons that continue to evade us, we are seeing restaurants not frying their carrot cake enough. Is it for the health conscious customers, or is it because it requires more oil? I wished they will just pan-fried it longer.

The first page of the menu comprises of the signature dim sum Hua ting serves, yet i was surprised not to find the Steamed siew mai with shrimp roe ($4.80) there. I felt that it was better than their har gau. And oh yes, there was also mushroom mixed within the siew mai.

There was nothing to fault for their Steamed BBQ pork bun ($3.90). I love my char siew bun, and when there was no char siew sou, I comforted myself by indulging in every moment of this.

Drum roll! Announcing the award for the best performer for the meal, I presented to you, Deep fried scallop pastry with onion and garlic ($4.50). My personal favourite out of the 12 dim sum that we tried that day. The pastry literally melted in my month when I took a bite. And I simple love the strong garlic taste within.

I will also like to mention the good service of the staffs at Hua Ting. While I was causally asking my friend what was inside the Steamed dumpling in Teow Chew style ($3.90), one waitress who was walking by overheard us and stopped to explain. While she couldn’t get all the ingredients in it, she went to the kitchen to ask and came back to tell us. So here it is, peanut, turnip, mushroom & celery.

You definitely will have tried char siew and prawn cheong fun before. Okay, how about scallop? Aye most restaurants have that too! All right, I give you Steamed cheong fun with sliced fish ($4.80). Now that’s something new isn’t it? It was a unique and bold creation, and while personally I still preferred char siew and prawn for my cheong fun, you need to give credits to the chef for trying something new.

Steamed soya bean skin rolls with chicken and mushroom in superior oyster sauce ($4.20). With such a long name, I was caught dumbfound and the staff had to kindly explained a few times what it was. It was actually the same as the deep fried bean skin we had earlier. But somehow I like this one more, the oozing out of the oyster sauce when I took a bite into the bean skin rolls. Oh my.

The others wanted lo mai gai, but there was none. We just have to make do with the Steamed glutinous rice with abalone ($5.20) and it was competent enough. There was the grimicky tiny abalone on top to up the prestige level, but I felt it would be better to give me Taiwanese sausages instead of that.

Not many restaurants use duck for their dim sum, it is always like what I mentioned, char siew, prawn & scallop. Therefore we chose the Pan fried shredded duck rolls ($4.20) out of curiosity.

I never like ordering Steamed pork ribs ($3.90) in dim sum restaurants. I felt they were overpriced, and under-portion. Honestly I will rather order another steamed char siew bun to give me more meat. I’m a carnivore!

Total bill was $120 after a 15% credit card discount for 6 person. We tried 14 out of the 20 dim sum available, and that’s quite a lot! I was confused between Orchard hotel with Orchard Parade hotel, so do check your maps before going down. In my personal opinion, the staffs at Hua Ting merit the good service tag, all of them were friendly and knowledgeable. Thank you!

You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!

Had our monthly dinner at Hua Ting. LSD couldn't make it last minute due to work commitments so there was only 5 of us, which was excellent company nevertheless. Helmed by Master Chef Chan Kwok, Hua Ting is reputed to dish out exquisite and fine Cantonese cuisine and its numerous accolades and awards bear a testament to that.

Situated on the second floor of Orchard Hotel and overlooking Orchard Road, Hua Ting boasts floor to ceiling windows which offer a view of the hustle and bustle along one of Singapore's premiere shopping belt. Opulently decked out in finished wood and Chinese antiques, it oozes charm and serenity, making it the perfect place to sit back, relax and enjoy the food.

I had a go at the Lichee Tea, which was something new to me. It smelt like rose tea and tasted rather bland actually. Not the strong full bodied tea that I like. Also, as there was no filter in the teacup, I had a hard time trying to take a sip of my tea without getting some tea leaves thrown in as well. The lotus root appetiser was quite good, crunchy and a little sourish/salty. The others didn't quite take to it though.

Hua Ting Deluxe Platter - The prawn wrapped in beancurd skin was quite nicely done, with the skin being crisp and the prawns fresh. However, it was a little too salty. The soy chicken was decent, tender with a slight hint of sesame. The fried eel ( I think its eel. Either that or its silverfish) was crispy and went pretty well with the chopped garlic and chilli. The char siew was decent as well, but not outstanding. Last but not least, the jellyfish tended quite a bit to the soft side, not exactly crunchy or chewy. Quite a bummer really.

It is said that no trip to Hua Ting is complete without ordering their renowned roast duck. I am inclined to agree. The duck didn't look like much when it arrived. In fact, I personally felt that it looked rather limp and unappetising. Oh boy, was that about to change. Chewing on a piece of the duck livened my tastebuds, especially after the rather uninspiring deluxe platter. The skin was crispy and the gravy a tad sweet. The meat soaked up quite a bit of the gravy but still came across as a wee bit too dry. Probably a little too overcooked. The duck did seem a little too fatty under the skin as well. Nevertheless, still good enough for me to recommend it.

Crispy Homemade Beancurd with Seasonal Greens Topped with Assorted Eggs - Aesthetics wise, no questions about it, this dish is a clear winner. But taste wise, its probably scraping the bottom of the barrel. Okay I exaggerate. Its not half as bad. The twirly thing you see is actually made from egg and to be honest, its tasteless. The chef, for whatever reason, decided on using egg tofu and overall speaking, it was plain average. It kinda reminded me of the $1 tube of egg tofu you buy at the supermarket.

Sautéed Dried Cod Fish with Egg White - This dish was really a disaster in the making. Technically, a combination of cod fish and egg white would be enough to make me drool. Unfortunately, the only thing that I got out of this dish was nausea. The dish was cooked in a creamy sauce which covered the taste of the egg as well as the cod fish. A sheer waste of a good fish if you ask me. The creamy taste (I'm sure they added milk) was so pronounced that all of us felt nauseous after a few mouthfuls. Just for the record, we didn't finish this dish.

Deep Fried Scallop Bacon Roll topped with Conpoy - Another dish that would have had me drooling if executed well. Unfortunately, it got me cringing instead. It was painfully salty and the bacon was really quite fatty. I couldn't quite taste the scallops as it was overwhelmed by the salt. Ironically, the broccoli was the star of the dish. Moist yet crunchy, we cleared it all but left quite a few of the scallops.

Fish Paste Noodle Soup with Seafood - I am beginning to think that all noodles should be made from fish paste. It offers more bite and has a more wholesome texture than normal egg noodles. The other plus point is that it fills you up real fast. That was the case with our fish paste noodle soup. By the time this dish was served, we were already close to the brim and stuffing ourselves with such filling noodles sure didn't help. In the end, after all our efforts in trying to finish it, we regrettably still had half a bowl left. Did I mention that the prawns were very fresh and huge as well? Not to mention crunchy and tasty.

I cannot fathom that the 5 of us could chalk up a bill of close to $370, but we did. Pure madness is pretty much what I think about it. For that price and quality of food, I'll be hard pressed to find a reason to return.

See my pictures here