Cherry Gardens: Dim Sum for that special occasion
Crystal pacific grouper dumpling
If you ever need to find a place to impress your future mother-in-law and pop the question to your future father-in-law, then bringing them to Cherry Gardens for Dim Sum might make it a bit more difficult for them to say no.
Afterall, a future son-in-law who is willing to splurge over $100 just for ONE dim sum dish can't be all bad, especially if he has just started on a new job after completing NS.
Yes, this is the type of Dim Sum place for that special occasion or business lunch where you need to impress. And the way to impress them is to order their symphony of live pacific grouper which will be prepared in three ways. The first course is the crystal dumpling where the fish fillets are wrapped in crystal skin, then steamed with soy sauce and ginger. How much you have to pay is dependent on how big a fish you order and how big a fish you order will depend on how desperate you are to impress.
But I jest.... or maybe not.
You don't really have to order the live pacific grouper. It can still be quite impressive if you just brought them here for the normal Dim Sum as the rest of the dishes are also very good. (You just have to make sure that the future in-laws don't already know that there is the special live pacific grouper dumpling or else, not ordering it might still make you look like a stingy fella).
They have quite a wide variety here, but one of the items that impressed me most was the Kurobuta Charsiew bao. They are probably one of the best Hong Kong style Charsiew Baos I have come across. 4.5/5 I heard their Kurobuta Sio Bak and Charsiew here are also well worth the calories, so that is on my next "to eat" list.
The other impressive dumpling is the Teochew crystal dumpling. Actually, it is the skin of the dumpling which impressed me most. Beautifully transparent yet with an excellent level of chewiness, it perfectly complemented the crunchy vegetables in the dumpling. 4.25/5
Conclusion
Great place for Dim Sum for that special occasion.
Cherry Gardens
5 Raffles Avenue
5F Mandarin Oriental
Singapore Tel: 6885 3538
First recommended to me by Damien
I was invited to give my opinion of this Dim Sum by Cuisine & Wine Asia magazine whose article was published in their June issue.
Weekend ala carte dim sum buffet $45++
27 comments:
interesting. But wah, $100 plus for one dish of Dim Sum, no wonder I can't get married.
Well, I think their all you can eat ala carte Dim Sum is around $50. So that might be a possibility.
Anyway the $100 pays for the fish dim sum, and two other dishes, one of which is a noodle.
Lucky I married already. All I had to do in the past was to volunteer to wash her windows before Chinese New Year
Wash windows is an easy job!!!
Taukwa, quick go look for a gf and bring them to the eat all you can!
Or you can bring me as a guinea pig and test the dim sum before you bring your date =D
-Pong-
Sounds like someone is proposing a date! Ok lah, we won't get involved.
i'm seeing an interesting upward trend in local dim sum restaurants getting very creative with ingredients + ingredients pairing, while for HK, they're known for the authenticity. maybe it has to do with their proximity to the china hinterland, a place of huge resources......
there were views sometime ago that s'pore is getting very near to standards of HK for the dim sum, and i think we're now there. hahahahaha.....
and yes, me think that uber expensive grouper dish would douse any fire in a lover or impress any date! got taste in choice + the wallet breaking potential siah......hahahahahahaha......
I am glad you agree! But I think Singapore Dim Sum still has a way to go to catch up with HK. Over there, it is such a big part of their culture and there are so many restaurants competing. Here in Singapore the number of places selling really good dim sum is limited and often restricted to high price joints.
Mong, thanks for your offer but I still cannot afford.
ieat, like you said, it's a culture over in HK but not here. However, that said, not all places there serve good enough Dim Sum.
And I do think that there are quite several places here that have DIm Sum comparable to the best ones in HK too.
Perhaps you can let us know some of them since you just came back from HK?
ieat, not a date, don't spoil his market, I'm just a guinea pig.
-Pong-
ooo... Pong wants a date... :p haha... Kidding... The few good dim sum places I tried in Singapore were Shangri-La's Shang Palace, Red Star, Victor's Kitchen (before he got famous from tv coverage and maybe ieat's coverage too! and the standards dropped). I think that's about it. I don't think I can afford this Cherry garden... Shall have to wait (long long) for a treat. haha
Looks very impressive - unfortunately dim in the UK is nowhere near as advanced as this place but can be very good for standard fayre - I have tried to blog a few places in Liverpool in my FoodManChan Blog - would be grateful for any observations - Liverpool feels like a relative desert when compared with Singapore for the dedicated foodie
No treat for you Ping! And I do not want a date! And don't need a date either :X
-Pong-
Ooops! I think I just caused a Ping Pong War!
FoodManChan, many of our kakis would gladly trade their dim sum for a seat in Anfield!
They also serve the dim sum buffet for dinner on weekends I believe.
Need to check out Jade @ Fullerton!
I've just tried Jade at Fullerton's dimsum buffet last week, not that fantastic. Disappointing in fact.
i feel Noble House's dim sum not bad. any views?
ieat no worries, no Ping Pong war. =)
Hahahahaha, you haven't really see us fight yet.
-Pong-
Agree with Taukwa that our dim sum standard not too far from Hong Kong's. I'm married, so no longer need to impress liao. The $50 all you can eat is still acceptable for a nice date with wife. She's already impressed with me without expensive meals. ; )
I think you had her at "Hello"
may i know when is their all-you-can-eat buffet available?
They are available on weekends. I am waiting for them to get back to me on a special for our readers.
wah, Les, you're the best! Always getting specials for your readers! :) Thanks! (Even if I can't get to enjoy the benefits right now.)
Hong Kong dim sum are too salty, whoever thinks they are good are just people who likes unhealthy salty food or just plain brainwashed by media
well Anon, if u're that longtime flamer and going to continue channeling your life's frustration on innocent bloggers, i do pity wat u're going through. if u're not, i'd like to add tat HK food do tend to be a tad saltier but there are good dim sum places giving value for quality to the bucks.
the vast hinterland they enjoy from china gives many produce tat we s'pore have to import from faraway countries, which in turn, the freshness makes the food good there. though the AVA is now exploring to narrow the reliance by nurturing local kelongs.
dim sum is all about freshness + creativity + skills into making the little morsels a memorable meal. no more, no less.
i'd also like to add tat foodies like us, unlike men who club to bait chicks, allow only the tastebuds to do the thinking + judgement. the eyes tat roam any media weighs almost nothing to us until the tongue chops the stamp of approval. so yes, we think with our tongues, not by the brain, or by the pants.
wait, does tat make us bimbos? oops. hai ya! tsk.
true tat taste is highly individual, we can know how discerning our tastebuds are simply by seeing how the mass public react to tat business. if the food is good = good biz. if it isn't = we won't see it around for long.
food biz is a simpler equation than most other businesses and i think many readers would agree with me.
so, dear flamer Anon (if u are), if u'd like to damage this blog, i'd highly suggest u to polish up your tasting skills to prove we (or Dr Tay) wrong. bcos only then, will your rants stand strong and tough = we all agree with you.
if not, u're just a small fry creating a buzz tat no one bothers. and tat, is really truly sad. =)
i've my share of flamers (and good God, i'm not even a famous blogger!) and i know where they're coming from.
P/S: Dr Tay, my IE always hangs these days when going into your blog, so i'm now using Firefox to access. if u notice someone visits here via the Fresh Fry blog many times *facepalm*, it'd be me. hahahahahaha.......
Yes, my IE hangs as well. It didn't use to do that.
I agree that not all HK dim sum places are great but hvg said that, the atmosphere and fun of squeezing 5 pple (complete strangers most of them) onto a table less that 1m wide in an eatery so packed that you are literally back to back with other customers... a little unbeatable :) BUT, i am still waiting for a singaporean dim sum place to offer other versions of siew mai (we accidentally ordered one with a topping of pig's liver and what a lovely accident!) incidentally, we ordered the same dish at 2 different places in HK and one was perfect while the other was way overcooked :p
btw, jade @ fullerton is seriously overrated. i preferred the food at cherry garden. is shang palace good?
What I really love about Dim Sum in Hong Kong are those places where you just walk up to the lady to grab your basket of Dim Sum! Of course the restaurants are great, but the roadside shops are more fun.
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