Ambience: 5.5*very nice view of the bay area with MBS right opposite. nice place if you want to kao chabor cos it's very lomantik. indoor seating temperature is sub-zero so unless you brought your fleece jacket, sit outdoors. for dinner, it's actually quite cool cos there's a draft of cold air from indoors. It's also a better choice outside cos the view is very nice... however, we found the place a little too dim. I don't know about you but i like to be able to SEE my food (and take photos of them). the only light we had was a candlelight. hence, all photos are underexposed -.- good if you have pimples and is on a date.
Service: 5*very prompt. the waiter explained how to eat the peking duck. water was refilled promptly. plates cleared. but they forgot to serve us damp towels at the beginning *grumble grumble*
Food: 4*I found the braised peanuts a little undercooked. I expect braised peanuts to be soft, roasted peanuts to be crunchy. Their braised peanuts were crunchy so it felt weird. The waitress recommended a pork appetiser that turned out to be very thin slices of pork FAT. I took ONE slice and chris happily ate the rest.
The wood-fired peking duck is very nice. if you walk past the open-concept kitchen, you can see the firewood and oven bursting with flames. the chef sliced it in front of us and within mins, the plate of crisp skin was ready.
i enjoyed the crisp skin and tender meat very much. typically, the skin is wrapped in crepes with sauce, cucumber and scallions while the meat is used for some other dish such as fried vermicelli but here, the skin is to be enjoyed on its own with a dip of sugar while the meat is to be wrapped in the crepes which came in a bamboo steamer. as the temperature indoors was too cold, by the time the crepes were served, they were no longer hot =( they also served a sesame pastry with the duck which i felt could be more flaky and warm. they were cold and a little hard. we also had to ask for more cucumber and scallions because what we were given were insufficient. and typically, the cucumber and scallions are cut into strips for easy wrapping but here, they're presented as circular disks. the bones and drumsticks were used for winter-melon soup which we found very flavourful and comforting. it was a huge pot for two which we couldn't finish and were not allowed to "ta pao" (we asked) so some were wasted =( they must think we're very cheapskate LOL
what really surprised us was the sauteed kai lan. shocked, i asked the waiter, "we ordered kai lan... this is kai lan?" he confirmed it was kai lan... well, there were no leaves and the dish looked like asparagus. all the leaves were GONE. only the stem part, which i usually throw away when i cook kai lan at home cos i like kai lan leaves (so does west). it reminded us of a chinese restaurant in Paris where we ordered xiao bai cai and were served ONLY the stems -.- atas restaurants serve only vegetable stems?? i prefer leaves =P
price: $$$for a champagne, coke, peking duck, pork appetiser, kai lan, duck soup - $213
*ouch*
will i go back again?
probably not unless someone treats me =P i prefer my good ol' imperial treasures =)
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