Hai Tien Lou

Hai~Tien~Lo is a chic restuarant located at the top floor of Pan Pacific hotel. Its classy, authentically chinese and offers a pretty good view of the sunset or Singapore skyline regardless of the time of the day. Some pictures in this blog were taken from my friends blog as usual so: thank you FatPig!

Price Range: $50- $80 per pax depending on the amount of food ordered.

Address: Level 37 Pan Pacific Hotel.

The view that greets you off the lift

Dish 1: Hai Tien Lou Trio of Treasures

The trio of treasures simple consisted of Fried Prawn in Japanese Sesame Sauce, Sliced Skin of Beijing Duck and Pan Fried Scallop with minced Ginger. Given the price, i really would have expected a whole lot more than the serving we were given. Minor gripe aside, the prawn was quite big, albeit its only one prawn. It tasted fresh and juicy, however, i really couldn't remember the taste of the japanese sesame sauce at all. The sliced skin of Peking duck didn't leave much impression on me either. The scallop with minced ginger also tasted fresh but i felt the ginger taste a tad bit overpowered. So i suppose only the prawn was good in this dish, quite a disappointment really.

Dish 2: Peking Duck

Now this dish was good. The skin was thin and didn't contain much fat at all so its good for the weight conscious (maybe in denial) i suppose. But the importance of it all is that the skin tasted absolutely fragrant and the white eggless crepes simply compounded the already superb dish. We had the whole duck to ourselves for this one and happily so too. Like the skin, the meat itself was cooked just right, resulting in it tasting sweet, succulent, tender and juicy at the same time. A definate must try dish here.

Dish 3: Braised Homemade Spinach Beancurd with accompaniments of Pork and Pine Mushroom Sauce

Another great dish. The beancurb was silky smooth and literally melts in your mouth. The accompanying spinach layer left a slight aftertaste but a welcomed one at that and pork/ pine mushroom sauce only served to add to its already great taste. I remember each of us having only one piece of beancurd each though, which was good, but i won't complain if more was served though. =P

Dish 4: 3 Egg Spinach

Now this dish is a mixed bag, literally. It contains 3 different types of eggs and spinach in a strangely soggy concoction which i could not take to no matter how i tried. The spinach was overly soaked in sauce and i really couldn't taste anything positive about it. Its passable but hardly recommendable. Give this a miss if you are there.

Dish 5: Steamed Prawns with Mashed Garlic

Garlic prawns served in a bamboo brisket anyone? Well, this dish was good. The prawns were big, read BIG, so even though there were about 6 prawns in total, it still felt like the dish was worth it. Add the fact that the prawns were very crunchy, juicy and fresh and you got yourself a winner. Some of my friends felt the garlic was a tad too much but i felt it was great, just don't snog after this dish.

Dish 6: Coconut Seafood Fried Rice

Well, i felt the rice was nice but tasted too much like nasi lemak fried rice. The coconut taste was pretty strong but the rice was nicely done. Soft and spongy such that you could almost taste each one. Its a decent dish but i wouldn't recommend having it while there are obviously better choices.

Dessert: Crushed Peanut Tang Yuan

I honestly couldn't remember too much about these little round balls. So it says something about the dish. Go figure.

Bill


The bill totaled to be $313 for a group of 5. A pretty good dinner considering there were a few hits and a few misses. However, the service and ambiance does make up for the minor misses and in the presence of great company, many things can be forgiven.

Score
Food: 7.75/10
Ambience: 7.75/10
Service: 7.25/10
Value for money: 7/10

Overall: 7.25/10

Last Word:

Given the location and quality of food, i'd say this is a good place to visit given the money and time to sit down and comfortably enjoy a good meal with either that special someone or a group of like minded friends. Choice of food however, has to be considerably careful on that aspect so that one can eliminate the less than spectacular renditions that is offered. Overall though, this is still a place that can be heartily recommended to everyone with a penchant for good chinese food.