thywhaleliciousfay eats

I’ve been to Crystal Jade Golden Palace for dinner (More than a year back) and recently, for dim sum. Called on a Saturday evening to make reservation for the next day at 12.15pm successfully. And over the tele-conversation, I was told that there’s a 1 hour 15 minutes time limit for each table. Well, I am not too used to having a time curfew, but it sounded fair enough.

It was a pleasant surprise when we were led into one of the rooms, instead of the main dining area, which provided us the privacy and allowed the children to run around. Ha. =) We ordered a fair bit for 7 adults from the menu, with the dishes which left an impression being (Do note that they do not serve buffet, everything is ordered a la carte):-

1) Diced barbecue pork (above) – Comprised of 9 pieces and served with a dish of mustard, the skin was thin and crispy. And together with the thin layers of fat, the meat of the pork belly was tender and juicy. A must try!

2) Steamed char siew (barbecue pork) buns – It’s always a visual treat to peel / spilt the bun into halves to see the red, juicy char siew (pork) that’s within with steam coming out. =p The sweet pork fillings went well with the soft bun. A must try! Eat it while it’s served piping hot too.

3) Liu sha (custard) buns (above) – Frankly, this is my first time trying this dish, and I regretted sharing the orange bun after taking my first bite of it.

4) Sharks fin, scallop dumpling (above) – Pardon me if I got the name of this dish wrong, but this is a gigantic dumpling served in a bowl of soup. And when the thin skin of the dumpling is broken, all the expensive ingredients spill out. I did not really fancy the dumpling skin, cause I prefer to consume the soup with all the sharks fin, etc on its own. Ha.

5) Pan fried rice rolls – This will be like our chee cheong fan, but presented differently. Instead of a mess of cut up rice rolls, we were served with a plate of rice rolls neatly stacked on one another. It was a little spicy for me (I am not spicy trained) though I have to acknowledge that the rice roll was smooth amidst the spiciness. And it was commented by the rest that it had the ‘old school’ taste.

6) Glutinous dumpling with grated nuts & sesame, $1.30 per piece (minimum 4 pieces) (above) – The presentation was nothing to shout about, being 8 nut-covered balls served cramp-ly on a white plate (We went with the dry version). But it was simply delightful to bite into the skin of the glutinous dumpling, which was chewy with the right thickness, and have the sesame burst out. A must try!

I will definitely recommend this place for dim sum. For the price of almost $200 for 7, I would not say it’s expensive, especially with the quality of dim sum served. But come in a group though. What’s dim sum if we are going to order only 2 to 3 dishes? Imagine the price tag if you’re ordering 5 dishes for 2. And even though we were in the room, we were always promptly attended to by the staff.

As for the time curfew? We managed to finish our last dish by 1.25pm, with us settling the bill at 1.30pm. But apparently, I guess the 1 hour 15 minutes includes for the staff to clean up the place and have it ready for the next time slot. Cause when we were leaving our room at 1.30pm, I overheard the staff whispering harshly into her ear piece “They are standing up already. They are standing up already.” Definitely a pat on the back for this staff who managed the situation well and chose not to spoil our dining experience by chasing us out at that very last minute of 1.30pm.

UPDATE 1: Restaurant was awarded 1 Michelin star by Michelin Guide Singapore 2016.
UPDATE 2: Restaurant was awarded 1 Michelin star by Michelin Guide Singapore 2017.
UPDATE 3: Restaurant was awarded 1 Michelin star by Michelin Guide Singapore 2018.