from my Facebook dated 28.10.2016 –

today my RI buddies bought me a belated birthday lunch & did many wonderful things for me.

this kai garden 嘉苑  truely the best fine dining Chinese restaurant i have been to…chef & staff from taste paradise…

food & service both super.

green tea cake from flor patisserie also super👍👍👍

my RI friends arranged this lunch on 28.10.2016. ^^

the friend who organised picked the menu items.

there were 4 items to start off the lunch.

the sweet vine tomatoes was marinated with sweet plum, unique & appetizing. 🙂

i like the tasty crunchiness of the cloud fungus 爽口.

& the garlic & slight sourness of vinegar. 🙂

this roast pork 烧肉 also very good.

though i did not think it was any better than the roast pork 烧肉 at tunglok signature orchard parade.

for me tunglok signature’s looked better & tasted better la. 🙂

the xo carrot cake was good.

flavourful, not too strong xo sauce.

the 4 appetizers were followed by 2 dimsum.

the fried siu mai was a special here.

it was nice, tasty, i guess uncommon, not sure it was better than normal steamed siu mai.

anyway siu mai not my favourite dimsum, but i know it is for 1 of my friend here. we had to order it in hong kong for him…lol! ^^

the charcoal shengjianbao 生煎包 was quite excellent, tasty quite juicy there’s actually some soup inside. 🙂

seemed that a friend asked the restaurant if they have squid-ink dish (he said i like to make squid ink dish), the restaurant said no but they have charcoal 生煎包. lol! ^^

shengjianbao 生煎包 not my favourite. like a ba pao 肉包made as 锅贴. many places no much juice. this one here a bit of soup, but overall experience still cannot compare with a good xiaolongbao 小笼包.

the pig intestine soup 猪肚汤 was really superb!

so very tasty, intense yet smooth. the best!

i think there was 金华火腿 to give it the smooth & deep flavours. there was also intestines & sea whelk.

the peking duck 五彩北京鸭 is a signature dish here. see also top photo.

it was certainly visually commanding. impressive la! 🙂

there were 5 colours skin & 5 sauces. all the skin were excellent!

we could only take 2 pieces each.

i tasted all 5 sauces. for me the original sauce & the sesame sauce were the best.

overall, a very pleasing dining experience. though i generally prefer roast duck to peking duck for purpose of eating duck.

the tiger garoupa poached in lobster broth is another signature dish here. 🙂

very impressive on bed of chipped ice like sashimi.

the server doing the shabu涮, poaching the garoup fillet in the lobster broth.

another superb dining experience. ^^

very tender, tasty garoupa fillet & wonderful lobster broth.

so good! 🙂

i will try to think up a similar fish fillet dish at home.

they did salt & pepper garoupa 椒盐班件 for the remaining pieces.

salt & pepper 椒盐 not my favourite preparation as many places have too much batter.

this one here was very well done la. 🙂

the fried duck meat 炒鸭件 not so popular.

we were all quite full by then.

it was not badly done, but i prefer just to eat the duck, just as i like to eat roast duck.

the mushroom chestnut roll in pumpkin sauce was a fine piece of cuisine.

looked nice, tasted great, but not particularly a dish i need to eat la, especially i saw it cost S$22 on the menu.

the noodles on a bed of chawanmushi like steamed egg white was quite excellent.

the grilled scallop was very well done, and the poached kailan crunchy & sweet.

a nice dish to round off a fabulous meal.

i tried creating this dish at home, but not too successful. will give it another go!

my friend went to get a macha jelly cake from flor patissierie.

lovely cake! really nice.

the restaurant provided the longevity buns. quite odd that the only complimentary item they provide & it was quite bad. the lotus paste was dry not moist & tasty. the complimentary buns at hung kang & swatow all better than this. maybe they bought this item from some supplier???

this was a really enjoyable lunch for me.

my friends did me several great very pleasant surprises la! very memorable this lunch, so must commit to record on my blog & FB! ^^

among the best fine dining dishes i had so far.  for me, majestic, tunglok & xin cuisine all very good chinese fine dining. for elaborateness & presentation, kai garden maybe more fine on some/most dishes.

the other notable thing was the service was superb throughout from every server. & almost the entire staff came in to sing the happy birthday song. we stayed quite long & late & they served us very well.

i think my friends gave them a good tip.

c.h.e.f andy

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Kai Garden 嘉苑