A Chinese Affair 💄

The highlight of our meal at Restaurant Home is the Steamed Red Grouper with Preserved Turnips (part of the Prosperity Menu B — $248/4pax available from now till 2 March 2018). Having it steamed allows us to taste the freshness of the fish, which was huge and filled with lots of meat. We even had trouble finishing the entire fish because we were so stuffed from the big potions!

You know you’re in for a treat when your food comes messy in its most natural state with no time for any plating. We had the Red Grouper Fish Head Steamboat ($22 for small) that is good for 2-3 people and we chose to have the fish meat (no fish bones yay!) without the fish head parts. Soup refill is available self service from the kitchen area! The meaty and thick slices of fish were very fresh and especially appetizing when dipped in the garlic-ky white vinegar sauce as it was tangy. The steamboat is served with a myriad of zichar dishes and you cannot miss out on the Tofu Prawns ($13 for small) with egg tofu, large prawns drenched in an almost-like-chilli-crab sweet, sour and spicy sauce. We also had the Sambal Sweet Potato Leaves ($6 for small) which unfortunately had too little sambal.

Serving Huaiyang Cuisine with a Western twist, the Cod Fish (part of the 6-course set at $88/pax, 1 for 1 opening promo from now till 19 Feb 2018) is served with a purée made with spring onion, ginger and soy sauce. Nicely glazed with the charred edges, the cod fish was definitely a crowd favorite!

A piping hot and sizzling Quinoa Brown Rice made me forget about the carbs and went for a second helping! The charred rice grains at the bottom of the claypot was my favorite part of the dish as it gave extra fragrance to the rice! Even without meat, the rice was nicely seasoned without being overly greasy.

The Signature Lobster Porridge is a must-have at Wan He Lou. The chicken based soup broth is incredible — boiled for hours till rich and extra comforting, completed with some umami goodness from the lobster that is added towards the end to prevent it from over cooking. Deep water lobsters are also used for its sweetness that adds flavor to the broth!

Specializing in 9 different flavors of crabs ($9/100g), the note-worthy and unique flavor at Holy Crab is the Green Chilli Crab. Using its homemade spice blend made with 2 types of green chilli, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, ginger, candlenut and onion, the aromatic sauce was finger licking good! All crabs are served with a generous amount of sauce, so it makes it hard to resist their Fried Mantous ($4/5 pcs) to wipe out the entire plate!

The Premium Slow Roasted Char Siew is one of the multiple new dishes at Char, as they bring in a new head chef who injects his personal Cantonese dishes into the menu. Do not belittle this char siew — using the kurobuta pork belly cut with a good amount of fats, the pork belly is first marinated for two days before being slow roasted over charcoal and sweet lychee wood. That work of magic (and hard work) translates into a beautiful smoky charred taste that makes you want to savour every bite of it.

As portions are very limited (10 portions during dinner service), it is highly recommended to reserve a portion before heading down!

Charcoal Duck Buns with a slightly sweet crusty bun enclosing a shredded duck filling. It reminded us of the char siew version that we usually have as the duck did not taste very apparent and did nothing to distinguish itself. That said, thankfully the crust and sauce was good so it was still enjoyable!

The Xiao Long Bao ($6/5pcs) was filled with lots of broth on the inside with a fairly nice skin enveloping it. Another dish that we liked was the Wantons in Vinegar and Chilli Oil ($7.8) as it had a good amount of meat filling on the inside, drenched with a garlicky tangy spicy sauce. The menu has a striking resemblance to a certain famous Chinese food chain and I must say the food was fairly comparable.

As part of the nation's birthday, Yum Cha introduces the Bak Kut Teh Xiao Long Bao ($5.2/3pcs) from now till 13 August 2017.

One look at the heavy sag and you can tell that there is a lot of broth within it. The herbal fragrance of the broth greeted us as we bit into the dumpling and it is made with a mixture of fragrant herbs, pepper and garlic. I liked that subtle herbal taste which complemented the minced meat very well. This is a really good creation that I would go return for more!

Yum Cha members and DBS/POSB card members get to enjoy 1 for 1 Bak Kut Teh Xiao Long Bao so that's a really good deal!

Lotus Kitchen serves contemporary vegetarian cuisine with a wide variety of selections ranging from dimsum, stir fried dishes to noodles/rice — one of which is the Signature Stir Fried Laksa. As with the other dishes that I've tried, even though there is no meat or in this case, no cockles in the laksa, I thought the dishes were had very good flavors.

It's another dining option for the vegetarians and even the non-vegetarians!

Peony Jade at Clarke Quay is introducing a brand new Red Hot Chilli Crabbers 5 course set lunch that is available daily. It is priced at $138.80++/2 pax (minimum 2 to dine), available daily.

Kick start the sumptuous set lunch with a trio of delicately made dimsum combination. Be assured of quality when you dine at Peony Jade because you can taste the fresh and plump prawns in each piece. The steamed shiu mai had a thin skin that gently envelopes the chunks of filling on the inside. The poached shrimp dumpling is cooked in a hot and sour broth which tickled my tastebuds with its stronger flavors, which is similar to 紅油抄手 (spicy wantons). Lastly, the pan seared prawn in a golden brown filo wrap had a light and nice crisp drizzled with a refreshing passion fruit sauce. I was afraid that the dimsum would fill my stomach way too fast but the excellent execution on the dimsum by the Chefs did not make me feel stuffed at all!