Grand Mandarina Restaurant

I entered the restaurant like a Royal, yes it made me feel that way with its luxurious designs which kind of reminded me of some up-class Five Star hotel dining. Its glamorously good looking, lavishly decorated in mirror black, silver and gold.

Plush cushioned chairs with lightly embroidered table cloths and napkins in warm lighting makes the entire dining atmosphere warm and welcoming. Chinese styled round tables, spacious enough for stretching your legs with temperatures kept at a cool crisp 25 degrees away from the warm afternoon heat outside. Interestingly, almost every table is placed a fish bowl with live guppies and water ferns, keeping the entire atmosphere relaxed and close to nature while I spotted a calm looking Empurau fish in a huge tank in the middle of the dining hall.

Lift to level 2 opens up to a huge hall with special VIP rooms, chic decorations and large round dining tables with TV and i suspect a karaoke system. Sound insulation was good as we could hardly hear the merciless chit-chatting from the outside, though we could still spot some laughters and the noisy road beneath was pretty much silent.

The dishes arrived pretty nicely decorated with a little bit of surprises here and there and service was more than excellent and my personal dining portion of the table always kept promptly clean. There were a few wows factors for some of the dishes but i'm gonna just talk about the " MUST HAVES"

1) Appetizer: Fried Soft Shell Crab with Chicken Floss and Curry Leaves - Crispy and fluffy that is overwhelmed with aromatic turmeric and curry leaves that left a nice fragrant after taste. Crab was fresh and juicy while the chicken floss adds on the texture to the dish.

2) Appetizer: Crispy roast pork belly was exceptionally good. Served in half slabs, the proportion of the crispy skin and the juicy tender savoury meat had a great balance. Pretty much suffice for one mouthful each piece, extremely well executed and was not oily at all.

3) Appetizer: Honey Glazed Barbecued Pork loin or some calls it CharSiew could just be one of the more uniquely delicious BBQ Pork i've ever had. The glossy shine of the crispy caramelized crust that covered the soft juicy interiors made this dish look extremely yummy. At the first bite, i could feel the crackle of the sweet skin letting out the savoury juice of fresh pork and while i chew on i was surprised with the tenderness of BBQ pork and the texture of the sugar coating was just right which gave a good crunch.

4) Seafood: Stir-Fried Scallop with lily bulbs and gingko nut in "Si Chuan" style: I was just amazed by the green, crunchy and beautiful kailan stalk that looked like little green flowers on my plate. They tasted just of the right rawness and paired well with the lily bulb and scallop. Lily bulb looked kinda like onion but had a texture of garlic with a very light taste. The dish was refreshing and interesting.

5) Baked Silver Cod with spicy lemongrass infuse was one of our friend Eric's favourite. Travelled and tasted many Michelin chef with food reviews on Foodolicious, Eric has got what we deem exquisite taste for food and this is his absolute favourite. The fish was well prepared, seasoned with a yummy tasting sweetish sauce, served in a good portion and had a little surprise. The cherry tomatoes, though skinned tasted like PLUM.. I had a shock when it burst in my mouth as though i juiced a tangy sweetish plum. It was well paired with the fish, balanced my palette or more like gave me a pleasant shock.

6) Dessert was our (Tian Mi Mi) ending with Refreshing green apple jelly served with lime sorbet and a Lui Sha pau from the dim sum menu.

The Liu Sha pau was the absolute favourite of our good friend Rina from Rinaloveslife.com. Being a cafe-hopper and reviewer, she's got a good eye for whats good and whats not to savour.. and she loved the Liu Sha pau... The skin was yummy, not too floury and the pipping hot liquid custard and salted egg yolk was drooling and steaming while we break open its cover. The fillings was generous with a right balance in taste. It was very well made...

The overall experience was very good, venue nice and amenities ample. The restaurant is swanky, warm and welcoming which is great for casual dining and official events. Service is attentive, nimble and staff friendly with a good knowledge of the menu and ingredients. Ingredients used were fresh and dish display is outstanding. The variety of food choices though mostly Cantonese styled was plentiful with choices of dim sum for tea time, everyday staples at economical prices as well as lavish dishes for high end dining such as the Empurau fish that i heard goes for S$888 and must be reserved a couple days earlier. For sure I will come again and will bring my friends as I enjoyed myself tremendously...