This establishment has been around for the longest time. Been there a couple of times but this was my first in trying their dim sum menu. Located in the middle of nowhere, at 201 Keppel Road, and nearest MRT would be Harbourfront.
There's valet parking if you are driving there.
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| entrance to the building |
Head right in and take the lift to Level 9. Depending on which lift, there's one that requires some more climbing of stairs. After which, there's an escalator that will bring you to the restaurant. The restrooms are at the start of those flight of stairs.
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| interior |
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| view |
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| view changes |
If you are dining on a weekend, do note that last order is 2pm and the restaurant closes at 230pm. We were there at 1 pm and the feeling was a tad rushed. Would recommend to allocate at least 2 hours to enjoy the experience.
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| boiled peanuts and pickles |
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| chinese tea |
There are set menus with reasonable pricing of about $288++ (for 10 pax) and one gets their popular Peking Duck, shredded scallops in egg white, fish maw soup, noodles, a fish and a meat dish, vegetable dish and dessert. But we were there for dim sum, so ala-carte it would be.
Our modus operandi would be somewhat simple, like
"give me one of each". Haha!
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| tableful of delicious dim sum |
My de-facto order would be the char siew bao and siew mai as these are basic items of any dim sum meal. They served it steaming hot, and that's good because we'd be taking photos first. Oh, but poor har gao, they should be eaten quickly!
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| soft, fluffy 叉烧包 |
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| look at these beautiful fillings |
The siew mai at Prima was dense and with a very visible prawn. But I'd prefer if the prawn had its tail peeled. I know it's visually appealing but still...
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| prawn siew mai |
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| har gao |
Was rather hungry, so those har gao or siew mais were devoured fairly quickly. And then, there were some rather interesting stuffs too. Like steamed rice rolls with century egg and mango. Say whuutt?!
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| steamed rice roll with century egg, pickled ginger and mango |
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| no kidding! |
I sincerely thought that dish would taste weird. Pungent century egg, with pickled ginger, mango and wrapped in soft rice roll? Hmmm. I don't know because it sounded a tad scary.
Surprisingly, it works. It was just a pity that the century egg yolk was not those soft lava kind that you find in Hong Kong, but the combination of QQ'ness from century egg skin and the rice roll, that ultra sweetness from the mango and pickled ginger was refreshing.
Finally tried the 炸兩 (zha leong), of fried dough fritters and wrapped in steamed rice rolls. The one we ordered had squid paste stuffed into the fritters. Nice texture and while I couldn't taste the squid, it was nice to chew on and I do like savoury chee cheong fun.
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| fried dough fritters stuffed with squid paste wrapped in rice rolls |
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| savoury rice rolls |
Other staples dim sum included the chicken feet, pork ribs, and fried carrot cake. The classics, if you may.
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| steamed pork ribs |
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| steamed chicken feet |
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| pan fried carrot cake (and that's my camera reflected o the spoon, =x) |
There's stewed beef tripe too and by now, was feeling rather full.
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| stewed beef tripe |
But we are not leaving until we tried their house specialty too. Yes, the Beijing Duck and the Shredded Scallops with Egg White. One could opt for the service staff to portion out the dish, or DIY. For the Shredded Scallops with Egg White (赛螃蟹), one could opt to add the black vinegar in. I preferred it with vinegar, actually.
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| Shredded Scallops with Egg White 赛螃蟹 |
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| vinegar, if you wish |
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| look at this luscious bowl |
For Peking Duck, they'd show you the whole uncut duck first. After which, the skin is removed from the duck and served with egg crepe, cut cucumbers, sliced chives and sauce for DIY wraps.
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| Peking Duck wrap starter kit |
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| glorious skin |
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| artistic plate from Hence |
It was pretty fun to wrap up the skin and eat it. Some of us may wrap it beautifully, while others may wrap it functionally. In the end, we still enjoyed the food!
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| yummy package |
The second serving of the duck, we chose it to be simply stir-fried with onions. Meaty and flavourful. It was of a nostalgic taste like home-cooking.
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| duck, second serving |
The food was delicious, the view was great and the service was efficient. Best thing was the companionship that like-minded people brings. Thank you to fellow foodies;
Ivan,
Hence, Tracy,
Kris,
Tiara and Rachelle for spending Saturday lunch together. Cheers!
We spent about $43 per pax for the meal. It was super duper filling.
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