Dropped by the new Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant — not to be confused with Jia He Chinese Restaurant; whilst both restaurants are run by the same folks within the same address being within the compounds of One Farrer Hotel at Farrer Park. Jia He Chinese Restaurant is the older restaurant of the two, which has since opened its doors in 2019 and faces Race Course Road. Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant on the other hand had only officially opened in December 2022 — taking over the former premises of the now-defunct SOCIEATY which was a multi-concept restaurant by Les Amis that housed brands such as Indigo Blue Kitchen, Peperoni Pizza, Tenjin, Tarte by Cheryl Koh and more all under one roof. Having done quite a revamp to the space after they had taken over the shop unit from their previous tenant, Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant had pretty much simplified the looks of the interior of the restaurant — the restaurant now looks more like a large ballroom with just a simple counter located by the side of the entrance that faces inside the restaurant where the cashier is also at; dining tables and chairs lined with linen that are meant to cater across different group sizes are being placed across the entire area. Towards the left and right of the main dining hall will be a number of private dining rooms segmented out by conference room-style padded panels that could be readily shifted around to increase seating capacity for the space. There is otherwise nothing much to be said about the interior decor of Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant otherwise, which seems to be poised towards banquet service — save for the interesting ceiling decor that seems to resemble a flock of birds flying past the diners.

The menu at Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant is segmented into the Dim Sum menu (which also contains the Dessert menu), the Ala-Carte menu and the set menu — the Ala-Carte menu coming with further sections dedicated to Appetisers, BBQ Meat, Shark’s Fin, Soup, Abalone / Seafood, Live Seafood, Seafood, Meat, Vegetable / Beancurd, Vegetarian and Rice / Noodle; it is noted that the both the Dim Sum menu and Ala-Carte menu at Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant does carry a minimal number of items that are also listed on the menu of Jia He Chinese Restaurant. The set menu would feature a combination of dishes from their menu catering to different group sizes, ranging from sets for individual diners (minimum for two pax), four pax, six pax, eight pax and ten pax.

Having primarily made our visit to Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant for their dim sum, one of the dim sum items which had caught our attention very early on while we were skimming through the menu on the website prior to our visit was the Crispy-baked Savoury Pork “Mangosteen" Dumpling. Shaped just like a mangosteen, the dumpling comes with a purple hue resembling the fruit itself, whilst coming with a cap with a green hue that resembles that of the leaves and a stem that is made from carrot; all that whilst seemingly baked for a crisp texture. Taking a bite into the the Crispy-baked Savoury Pork “Mangosteen" Dumpling, it is noted that the “mangosteen flesh” itself comes with crispy bite and a mochi-like chewiness; the “mochi” itself also carrying a slight hint of sweetness that is almost akin to that of sweet potato. We also liked how the “mochi” also did not seem to be particularly sticky to the teeth despite its chewy and stretchy texture — a plus point for this item. Inside, the savoury pork filling would be similar to what one would find in a typical crispy fried dumpling for other Chinese restaurants or dim sum establishments; that savoury pork filling comes with minced pork that comes with a texture almost akin to that of the char siew filling of BBQ pork buns from similar establishments, while it comes with a savoury sauce that seemingly contains oyster sauce and soy sauce. That being said, we did feel that the flavours of the savoury meat filling was a little overwhelmed by the sweetness of the “mochi” skin itself — could certainly help if they could ante up the flavours of the savoury meat filling to provide it a better balance overall.

One thing we found it to be a little lacking at Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant was the vibe. While we did understand how the flexibility of the use of its space for events and banquets was probably the key consideration in the design of the entire shop unit, the interior does feel somewhat dated in today’s context where the space felt especially open without any form of segregation that transitions from one area to another. We also felt that there was a lack of details being placed in the presentation of some of the items — we found the metal teapots which they were using a little bit of a misfit to what we have seen from other such establishments thus far, while we also thought that the cocktail toothpicks used for their Ice Chilled Sweet And Sour Pork was a little bit cheesy with the coloured heart shapes that it features. Food-wise, we found that the various dishes that we have had at Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant were pretty decent overall, though we have had better dim sum from other dim sum specialty restaurants before — the only qualm here would be the prices of the dim sum which are upwards of $6 per serving depending on the item chosen; could also be said as a little upmarket. One thing that Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant could definitely do better would be in terms of their service — perhaps this might have also been due to the fact that the service team is new, but we could not help but to feel that the service was particularly cold here with most of the staff being relatively silent while serving; not even mentioning the names of the dish whilst placing it on the table or informing us that they are topping up water for our tea; rather atypical for a Chinese restaurant. That being said, Jia He Grand Chinese Restaurant is probably worth checking out once for those who are interested in what they have to offer.