The Paramount Restaurant

My cousin picked this restaurant for my aunt’s birthday celebration last month. Since there are more old people in the group, I think it will be a good place for dinner and celebration as well. This restaurant is right in front of the hotel and next to the main road. It is directly opp parkway parade as well. Hard to miss it with a big white signboard outside the restaurant.

From the outlook of the restaurant, white grand old looking double story building that seems that it had been standing there since I know when. There is also a big carpark jz outside the restaurant, making parking an easy thing to do. If you are really that lazy, there is also valet parking as well. Haa…

When I stepped in, I was quite surprised to see that the restaurant has 3 levels, a basement, ground floor and 2nd floor. Since we have a reservation for 10 people, we were ushered to a private room. Hee… Cool! The main dining room is quite big all with tables able to host at least 10 people and not to mention that they are all full that day. So back to the private room, I think they had at least a few private rooms there.

Inside the room, they have a table for 10 (of cos!), a tv which can watch Ch 5, 8 or U and it is hook up to their KTV system as well. Haa… Can sing and eat at the same time, but then dun expect Kbox or Partyworld kind of songs ok. Hee…… Well at least the TV entertained my nephew, making all of us free to enjoy the dinner. Haa…

We decided to settle for buffet since it will be much more worth it than ordering a set meal for 10 people and at the same time we can order more dishes as well. Well it was a no brainer choice anyway. Looking at the menu there are altogether 52 items where 3 items can be ordered only once and the rest unlimited orders.

The 3 items are:

Mini Monk Jump Over The Wall (Limited to one serving per person). They came in small portions but have to say that we are all very impressed with what is inside the soup! Each bowl will consist of scallops, shark fin, a small little abalone, mushrooms and tons of other goodie stuff that made the soup really good! All natural flavors went into the soup and no MSG. It is a favorite among group. Too bad only 1 serving.

Beijing Roasted Duck (Served with Spring Onions, Cucumber & Sweet Sauce). This one came all ready made. That means the duck skin already all wrapped up in the crepe. I find the dish a little cold and the skin is not as crispy as I expected it to be. Only limited to 2 pcs per person, where got enough?

Live Prawns (Limited to 100g per person) which can be done by either Poached Live Prawns or Deep Fried Prawns with Almond Flake or Fried Prawns with Marmite Sauce. This one came as wrong order, as we had not ordered yet they sent other table prawns to us. Well, since we dig in already, they cannot take back as well. It was poached and has to say that it is one of the freshest prawns I have eaten from sometime. The sizes of the prawns are really huge as well. The prawns are really sweet and there is no “xing wei” at all.

Below are some of the items that I think is worth to give it a shot as well.

Salmon Sashimi – This came in big potions and thick slices as well. It was a hit with my cousin who loved to eat sashimi. Well I am not a big fan of it. However from the way they keep ordering this dish, I think they are really fresh (well I ate one slice), and it was as good as any common jap restaurant that you can find.

Crispy Vietnamese Spring Roll – This came as a surprised. It came to us hot and very crispy. They added in mango and cucmber in the roll which make it extra crunchy.

Cantonese Style Roasted Spring Chicken – I loved to eat chicken and this dish does not disappoint me. The skin is roasted to turn very crispy and have to say very little fats on the skin as well. The meat is juicy and tender not dry even when eating the breast meat. No need the help of the salt, the chicken is already very tasty on its own. Ordered this dish twice.

Barbecued Combination – It came with cha siew, soy sauce chicken and roasted duck. Not too impressed with this as the dish came cold, like in a cold platter. The cha siew tasted quite good on its own, not to sweet as well. Too bad it is cold.

Seafood Salad with Fresh Fruits – This came as a simple salad but because of the fruits used are very fresh, sweet and crunchy, it becomes the highlight of this dish instead of the seafood. Surprising even left on its own, it does not become very watery as well.

Crispy Fried Stuffed Dough Fritters Coated with Mayonnaise – This came in very small portion so we got to order more so that everyone could have at least one. Haa…. Usually this dish will be very oily, but then it turned out to be crispy but not oily. Together with the mayo, it is a prefect combination.

Sautéed Scallops with Celery in X.O Sauce – Well the combination of scallops and celery is enough. Plus the scallops are not over done, not to mention that they are huge! The celery is green and cruchy not overcooked. When both are combined with the sauce, it is so tasty that we had to order another one more.

Deep Fried Marble Goby Fish with Chef’s Special Sauce - According to my mum this fish is very expensive, and were quite surprised when they served us 2 fish. The fish is deep fried and therefore very crispy. It is slightly floured so when eating the fish on its own is able to taste the sweetness and have to say that it is fresh as well. The sauce jz heighten our taste buds and makes the fish taste even better. Haa….

Coffee Pork Ribs – This dish dun look appealing as it came dark brown and not appetizing at all. However looks can be deceiving. The coffee taste is strong enough to taste but not strong enough to overpower the taste of the pork ribs. The pork ribs are chewy and came with a little bit of fats making it melt in your mouth. Of course we have to order this the second time as well.

Sliced Ostrich Meat with Ginger and Onion in Clam Sauce - This one came in a claypot all sizzling. The meat is not over cooked and tender, with the sauce, I can eat this dish all by myself. Now someone pls hand a bowl of rice to me now.

Sweet and Sour Pork Served in Yam Ring – This came as surprise as well. Who will combine sweet and sour pork with yam ring? The sweet and sour pork tasted normal, nothing out of the ordinary. However it was the yam ring that made us asking for more! It is so soft and fluffy, and it is coated with a thin layer of flour before it was deep fried. It is not oily as well. In fact we all finished the yam ring instead of the pork. Haa….

Ice Cream Puff – Out of all the dessert, this one stand out! Reason being, the puff is light and fluffy with ice cream inside the mouth sized puff, prefect. We jz ordered more and more and keep throwing more and more into our mouth as well.

Some of the dish that you can give it a miss, well have to be fair down here right:

Crispy Soft Shell Crab with Salted Pepper – We all got high expectation for this dish but this is a major disappointment as it came to us cold and the soft shell **** going all soft on us. I wonder did they leave it in the counter for too long before serving or what. We can taste all the resuide oil in the crab. Disgusting. We rejected the first serving and when then second serving came back to us, at first no one touched it, so I took myself to the task and the result, it is still the same. I rejected it and told them no need to serve us this dish again.

Steamed Red Tilapia (thai style) – This fish somehow is not fresh and not really a lot of meat on it. Next!

Red Bean Pan Cake – This one is a different version from what I expected. The whole pan cake was covered with sesame seeds. I think with the overloading of the seeds, it downplays the appeal of the dish and the skin of the pancake seems to soaked in a lot of oil, so each bite of the pancake oozes out a lot of oil.

Service wise can say that it is very good. The tea cup is never left empy for long. However at one point, our tea pot did went missing. Haa… Wonder where it went? They also keep replacing our plates and clearing our empty dishes as well. The dishes are also served promptly as well. The waiter that served us also had a permanent simile on his face, making him more friendly as well.

Now the bad, as it is an ala carte buffet, you cannot expect me to remember what I have ordered. Of cos when you asked me if I ordered this dish, I will say yes. Hee…. If you have run out of the dish, you could have informed me earlier rather than when I remembered and I asked then you mention to me that the dish is out of stock.

The price is quite reasonable, you can refer to the above post. If we ordered a set meal, I think the price will be much more expensive and we will not able to each so many dishes again and again.

By the end of the meal, all of us are very full and very happy as well. So much so that we brought a birthday cake along, however at the end of the meal we only cut it and took it back home. Haa…. When they know it is ur birthday, they will also play the birthday song over their PA system. Haa… A bit like those old type of Chinese restaurant. Be prepared to hear someone sing using the KTV system, with the sleazy type of MTV that came along with it. Haa…

Overall, it was a very filling and great dinner especially got older people in the group and they always like these kind of traditional food. Everyone in my group is happy with the food. This is a good place for gathering where can have free flow of food and can chit chat at the same time. I will be back again when I got the chance.