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3 Reviews
2 Temasek Boulevard
Conrad International Centennial Hotel, 3rd Floor
Singapore
Postal code: Show postal code
Telephone: (65) 6432-7482
Category:
Restaurants » Chinese (Traditional)
Photos of Golden Peony - RestaurantsPhotos of Golden Peony - RestaurantsPhotos of Golden Peony - RestaurantsPhotos of Golden Peony - RestaurantsPhotos of Golden Peony - Restaurants

    Overall Rating:
    » 3 Reviews for “Golden Peony ” - Restaurants


  1. feizhu
     506
         
     24 May 2010 at 8:37 pm
       Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants

    Purportedly one of the top few Chinese restaurants in Singapore that serves Cantonese food, Golden Peony has won numerous accolades and awards over the years for its exquisite food. Weirdly enough, not much has been written or said about it though. To find out if Golden Peony really stood up to its stash of awards, a few of us had dinner there on a late Thursday evening.

    Located at Conrad Centennial Hotel just next to Millenia Walk, Golden Peony's interior was reminiscent of Hua Ting's. Everything from the layout to the chairs to the wooden beams were vaguely similar. It's not to say that the interior wasn't nice, just that I wasn't too impressed.

    quintessential dish at every Chinese dinner - the ever versatile Peking Duck, where you wrap the skin up with crepes and have the restaurant cook the meat in anyway you want it. We chose to have it diced up, fried and served with lettuce. The result was a nicely stir fried lump of duck cubes with chestnut to give it that crunchy texture and served up on a lettuce. I did find the meat a little too salty, but the lettuce effectively balanced out the salt level. The only other place where I've had it done this way was at Min Jiang at One North, whose rendition was on par with Golden Peony's.

    As for the skin, it was crispy and served up with egg crepes, which didn't come across as heavy as I had expected. Light and palatable would be most apt in describing it. Only two gripes though. First, the skin was a tad too oily, as evident by the shimmer on the skin. Second, each of us only got 3 slices of skin. The duck must have been ridiculously small, otherwise can someone tell me what happened to the rest of the skin?! On a side note, this is the first time I'm seeing a Peking Duck going for a lower price than a Roast Duck. I honestly wonder why.

    The general fault with tea marinated or smoked dishes is that more often than not, the taste of tea is lacking. This was the case with the Tea Marinated Pork Ribs. Granted, the ribs were quite a size, tender and savoury from the sweet sauce coated on it, but with no tea taste, it could jolly well pass off as braised pork ribs. Then again, I quite like it, just that the pieces of meat kept getting lodged in between the crevices of my teeth.

    Homemade Beancurd with Asparagus & XO sauce - A less than outstanding dish, but decent nevertheless. The beancurd wasn't silky but came across as firm with a pleasant lingering aftertaste. The asparagus was just asparagus, albeit two miserly ones.

    Salted Yolk Prawns seems to be increasingly common in restaurants nowadays. But not many restaurants are able to do it well. Such is the case with Golden Peony. The batter, though light and crispy, was a little too bland for my liking. The prawns were relatively fresh but weren't exactly very sweet. In fact, they had this fresh water taste which turned me off quite a bit.

    At $20 a pop, Lobster Noodles screams plain rip off. For starters, the noodles didn't seem to be of a handmade nature, more of a machine manufactured product actually. They were a little springy, that's about it. The baby lobsters were fresh but weren't exactly meaty and trust me, you get more shell then meat. Not that they tasted very sweet as well.

    Another rip off at $4 for a portion the size of your neighbourhood hawker centre 50 cents Tao Huay. To say the least, the Tao Huay wasn't as smooth as I had expected and the syrup didn't permeate thoroughly, rendering only some parts of the Tao Huay sweet. This definitely pales in comparison to the one I had at Si Chuan Dou Hua.

    Sheer disappointment pretty much sums up my thoughts about Golden Peony. I had gone there expecting a fair bit in terms of food quality but left disappointed. Add the fact that the 6 of us chalked up a sizeable bill of almost $473 and you can't help but feel ripped off. Service was generally quite good though. Now heres some food for thought. How did Golden Peony manage to snag so many accolades with its merely above average food?

    See all my pictures here

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    Rating given:3 stars
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    1. hburn10
       264
         
       24 May 2010 at 3:08 pm
         Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants

      Nice light chinese food!

      Nice of them to not have a minmum spending for their private rooms for a weekday dinner when most other hotels have. I didnt like the idea of having to hit a minimum amount even before I see what I like on the menu, so plus points for them!

      It was a family dinner for 12pax and the round table was just about nice enough for us, although the table usually accommodates 10pax. Service was quick and efficient as well, so no complaints.

      We decided on the $68 per pax set menu to make things easier for everyone:

      Steamed crabmeat and minced shrimp dumpling in egg white souffle & Golden-fried duck with portugese sauce wrapped in crispy filo pastry - Presented very nicely on a 3-compartment long plate with a cute flower in between. The dumpling was excellent wiht the seafood fresh and crunchy, and paired very well with the egg white souflle which was really chinese chawamushi, only lighter. The duck was good with no gamey taste and not tough at all; the pastry was freshly and not a hint of staleness at all. My European side of the family liked this immensely.

      Corn and chicken soup - We replaced the black chicken soup with this as was afraid that the european guests will not take to it. Very good chicken soup and lots of corn to keep the soup crunchy. Some found the consistency too gooey but I thought it was nto too bad.

      Baked chicken roll with onion marinated with lemongrass sauce - Nice lightly marinated chicken roll (which was actually fresh chicken meat) on a bed of crunchy onions and a silver of veg. The onions could have been sauteed more as not many people like onions the crunchy. Again, the meat tasted like fresh chicken instead of frozen meat.

      Sauteed cubes of sea perch with pine nuts and vegetables served in a golden nest - This tasted alot like cod for some reason. The veg are corn and cubes of bell peppers which provided some colour, but a pity that the pine nuts were over-roased which made them quite bitter. The nest of vermicilli was good too, though I felt it can be more crispy.

      Steamed mian xian noodle with river king prawn in chinese wine broth - super duper light 'main course' for a chinese dinner which managed to be flavourful and satisfying at the same time. The broth did taste of the wine and the prawn was huge.

      Red date paste in crispy filo pastry served with pineapple sauce - The pastry was okay, but I left the paste alone as am not a big fan of dates and the smell and taste was quite overwhelmimg for me.

      Was a good experience as I didnt have very high hopes when I went. But it scored quite well on every aspect! Maybe I'll try the dim sum the next time :D

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      Rating given:4 stars
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      1. Lucardia
         234
              
         10 Nov 2007 at 11:07 am
           Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants   Golden Peony - Restaurants

        Golden Peony is a rather small cozy restaurant located on the third floor of Conrad Centennial Singapore. Its supposedly one of the best restaurants in Singapore in terms of its Cantonese food offerings and this is where my foodie friends and i gathered for our monthly binge session.

        Everything here looks and feels pretty nice. The lights were rather dim despite how the pictures look, so i had to struggle to find a good light source to get my photos done.

        Peking Duck ($52) - First part of the peking duck is obviously its skin. I must say that the portion here is very miserly. 3 really small skins in crepes and it doesn't allow you to get additional items should you have a different preference. I found the skin very normal and not as fragrant as Hai Tien Lou. Still decent though, just not great.

        Peking Duck Continued - The second part of the Peking duck was served sliced and diced in lettuce wrap. Taking the meat by itself would have proven too salty but the lettuce wrap did serve to moderate the taste pretty well. However, i simply do not see a the duck here in our 6 portions which is quite a disappointment. If i pay for a duck, i expect to see a duck, and that doesn't seem to be what i'm given.

        Salted Yolk Prawns ($39) - This one i found pretty much to my liking. The salted yolk batter was not too thick and i liked it less salty. The prawns were also of a reasonably big size and freshness which made the dish very palatable. The portions were small again though and everyone ended up with 2 prawns max.

        Homemade Beancurd with Asparagus & XO sauce ($48 for 6 portions) - I found the beancurd simple and not really fantastic. Texture wise, it doesn't reach the softness and smoothness of good japanese beancurd and the egg taste didn't win it any points with me. After learning further that the beancurd was sold by the grams didn't improve my impression of it one bit. The accompanying sauce was decent but i couldn't taste the XO sauce in this anywhere.

        Tea Marinated Pork Ribs ($90 for 6 portions) - This came across as a pretty good item when it reach our table. It was quite a size and i love meat, albeit not pork. The ribs were tender and juicy though and the fatty layer was minimal. However, i wouldn't have known this was 'tea marinate' if i didn't see the receipt. Still, it was rather good and well done if not for its rather exorbitant price.

        Lobster Noodles ($120 for 6 portions) - This was $20 a portion and was it worth it? I honestly have to say a resounding No! The noodles taste like almost anything you could find outside and the baby lobster simply didn't come with enough meat nor taste to make it feel like anything except a scam.

        Tao Huay ($24 for 6 portions) - Things just keep spiralling downwards i suppose. This tao huay has nothing special i could rant about and it costs $4 a portion. Simply not worth the time nor effort.

        Bill: The total bill for this came up to $472.90. Which is a total rip off and simply left me wondering how it was possible for all those prizes displayed on its corridor.

        I honestly expected a whole lot more from this place given its reputation and the number of prizes it won to stand testament to its achievements. Yet, i left the place unsatisfied and feeling more then a little sour at blowing a bomb on a place totally not worth the money. I won't be back and i don't think anyone should either, at least until they get a new chef and modus operandi that doesn't make their customers feel ripped off.

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        Rating given:2 stars
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