Xi Yan

I love eating out & trying various types of cuisines. However, my visit to Xi Yan was an extremely pleasant experience that surprised my jaded taste buds!

The first thing that stood out was the private location in a conserved shophouse, where the restaurant is hidden above a flight of stairs lined with tealights. Once inside, the area opens out into a cosy yet elegantly designed dining hall. The warm colour tones complimented the low lighting, which made all the art pieces on display pleasing to the eye.

The food served were all very unique pairings of east & east cuisines. The Chef's forte must be in his creativity with sauces. The food is full flavoured & every dish was as interesting & as different from one another.

Most memorable were the lobsters stir fried together with kimchi, leek, shanghai rice cakes, chicken broth, & topped up with mozerella cheese. As a Singaporean crustacean lover who's used to having it done 'chilli', 'pepper' or 'butter', I must say that this is definately a better 'fantastical' way to have my lobster... with mozerella & kimchi! The gravy was so good, I could have scooped it all up pieces of fried buns.

I also enjoyed the foie gras that was lightly pan fried on the outside, yet soft & moist inside, & drizzled with chinese plum sauce. This was served on a bed of japanese somen noodles prepared with shabu sauce. The combination of tastes and textures made this the best foie gras I've ever had!

The dessert was equally satisfying. The humble tang yuan as you thought you knew, was bursting with flavours you never knew existed in tang yuan. This is because instead of 1 ingredient, the Chef has skillfully mixed 5 ingredients to make the filling.

The marvellous cuisine was also patiently explained to us by the knowledgeable service staff, who also recommended some boutique French wines to us. One of the wines recommended was Chateauneuf Du Pape Costier 2004, which was a perfect balance with the rich tasting food, with a long velvety finish.

Overall the group of 12 of us were totally stuffed, but we consider this experience as calories well invested. And would like to thank the chef & service staff for their attentiveness!

Xi Yan was one of the first few places i went to ever since my foodie journey began. It's safe to say it was the first step i took into seriously considering doing blogs on food and such. So it would always be an interesting memory in my book. Thats not to say its a good experience though.

This first thing to note about Xi Yan is rather simple. Reservations only. Also, minimum of 6 people to a table to have dinner. And the dinner (supposedly) starts at 730pm sharp. I suppose the age old adage of people "Always wanting what they can't have" is the gimmick behind this exclusive restuarant. As is the reason for its exclusivity and high price, which i will rate after i've presented the dishes in full below.

Dish 1: Greenhouse Tomatoes in Sesame Sauce - The first dish of the day came as a little bit of a surprise. The greenhouse tomatoes were pretty big and it actually allowed each of us to have about 2 pieces each, which is good. I enjoyed this dish quite a bit because it was fresh and the sesame sauce had traces of wasabi in it as well. This all complimented well for this dish to allow it to be a pretty good start to the meal.

Dish 2: Cold Tofu Pork Floss - The second in the appetizer series. The tofu honestly wasn't too great as it wasn't silky smooth nor held much taste to warrant this dish holding its own weight. In fact, i felt the addition of the pork floss dumbed down the dish somewhat, making it feel like a Breadtalk creation despite its rather complicated ingredients of pork floss, salted egg yolk and dried shrimp.

Dish 3:Shrimp and Crab Paste on Baguette Toast - Despite the rather nice name and presentation, this was something i felt should never have been a part of the evening. The shrimp and crab paste tasted simply like something you could find in any chinese market and the baguette combination simply didn't work for me.

Dish 4: Sichuan Pickles in Spicy Sauce - This to me was another lacklustre appetiser. The pickles and raddish were soaked in some sichuan sauce that gave them both an extremly, read: EXTREMLY sour taste. Maybe it is suitable for some who love sour stuff but it certainly didn't work for me. It did however, make me feel more hungry for a good actual meal though.

Dish 5: Deep Fried Prawns in Salted Egg Yoke - Being the first main course to arrive after our 4 appetisers, i'd expected great things from this dish. The prawns were suitably fresh but not excellent though. The salted egg yoke it came with did however, give it a pretty special taste. Still, i believe its possible to get this in a coffeeshop setting at less than half the price.

Dish 6:Stewed Beef Shin with Tangerine Peel - Now this dish finally allowed me to heave a small sigh of relief. I quite liked the beef shin as it was tender and tasted sweet with the tangerine peel. This goes well recommended in my books but as with the rest, is not excellent so far.

Dish 7: Sichuan Salivating Chicken - This is the main deal for the day. Supposedly THE dish that everyone comes to Xi Yan for. I would describe this as a cross between Hainan Chicken rice and Korean cold noodles. Ingredients found in this dish included chicken, yam noodles, peanuts, chilli, coriander and century egg. The preparation is such that everything would be given a good mix and then served to its patrons. I found this to be an interesting dish but not exactly award winning stuff. The chicken was tender but nothing special. I did find the initial smell that arose prior to mixing very pleasing though. And also, its a good choice to seperate the chilli oil if you can't take hot stuff. It is very punishing.

Dish 8: Fried Lemongrass Shrimp Paste Grouper - As adviced by the waiter, Grouper is usually steamed at most outlets to preserve its freshness and to bring out its taste. However, Xi Yan has to be different so they deep fried the grouper which is coated with lemongrass shrimp paste. The result? A fish that is moist, succulent and full of freshness on the inside and crispy, fragrant and pretty on the outside. The accompaniment you see are pomelo bits which actually helped to complement its taste. I liked this dish pretty much even though i felt that it would have been much better had the fish been steamed instead.

Dish 9:Basil Sorbet Intermezzo - The sorbet was refreshing and sweet. There's still a tinge of sour to its taste but i found the combination to be rather wierd when mixed together.

Dish 10: Furong Chicken Soup - The chicken soup was supposedly boiled for 4 hours but i couldn't really taste a difference in it from other chicken soups i've had before. I found the meat inside easy to break apart and quite palatable without being overly salty. Overall, its a passable dish.

Dish 11: Young and Old Happy News (Jiu Xing Huan Xi) - The entire group was guessing what this dish would turn out to be given the interesting name. What came however, was what you see here. Its basically a combination of dou miao and preserved vegetables fried together. Nothing really special about it and it didn't really come across as a surprise per se, but more of a shock. It did taste decent though.

Dish 12: Tofu Ice Cream on Pandan Glutinous Rice - I would probably have to say that this is without a doubt, the best dish of the day. When it came at the end of the barrage you saw above, we were actually quite adament about how it would taste since nothing before it managed to wow us. The toufu ice cream was nicely done and suitably smooth although i wasn't sure where the toufu taste was supposed to be found. The pandan glutinous rice was sweet and none too filling either. The result of having both together resulted in a wonderful combination that somewhat gave us a good ending to the mediocre offerings before it.

Honestly speaking, i really can't recommend this place due to its absurd price and under performing dishes which simply did not provide enough to justify its cost. Simply looking at the dishes is enough to tell you that there's only one feeling to be had after the meal. The feeling of being ripped off. The ingredients were normal and hardly expensive and the cooking was sub par. Its only saving grace was the company i had that day and even that is pushing the envelope for acceptance. Given this price, i'd be better off dining at a Buffet like "The Line" at Shangri La. Not recommended to try unless they dropped the price to 50 per pax.