Jiang Nan Chun

Jiang Nan Chun

Four Seasons Hotel

It’s chu er of CNY and had a feast at Jiang Nan Chun at Four Seasons Hotel. The restaurant is prettily adorned with beautiful flowers at its entrance and the interior looks plush and elegant. Really inviting for a yummy oriental meal indeed. Having heard that the chef has also recently collaborated with the my all time favourite Lung King Heen which has a three michelin star tugged firmly under its belt, I was even more excited to have a meal there. Coincidentally or not, these two restaurants are both from the Four Seasons Hotel group.

We had the Lunar New Year Oriental branch and it costs $98 per person. Menu was really extensive and we started off with the dim sum. Dim sum was not bad though some tasted really normal. The skin of the steamed stuff such as Har Gao and the other yellow prawn dumpling is slightly thick and I didn’t like that while the lao sa bao tasted averagely good and desserts were quite normal. The mango pudding wasn’t very good as it felt a little coarse inside. The sesame mochi was the better dessert as it’s more fragrant. However, there were two dim sum that I loved a lot.

That is the really yummy cod fish puff! Looks like curry puff don’t they but they actually tastes slightly milky and there are bits of cod fish in it. Super yummy while puff is fragrant and flaky. Yummy! My first time having such a dim sum and I loved it.

Ooo… and this is my other favourite. It’s the signature dish of Jiang Nan Chun and indeed it has impressed. Sesame bits were fragrant while the crust is light and flaky and the char siew were really well made. Super savoury. Just want to savour every bit of it!

We also had the buddha jump over the wall. Only limited to one serving per person. It was OK but I prefer the one at Hai Tien Lo as broth was more flavourful and intense there. Couldn’t feel that this was simmered for hours but the ingredients were still commendable and there’s an abalone in it.

Then we got some of the main dishes. The roasted stuff were disappointing actually as the meat isn’t as soft and is slightly bland. It requires quite a lot of sauce to make it taste better I felt. Fish skin was crispy and OK while the scallop stirred fried with beans would have been much better if normal oyster sauce was used instead of chilli sauce. The scallop is fresh and has a good texture though. The following will be the more commendable dishes.

Fried prawns with wasabi sauce which is easy to satisfy as long as batter isn’t too thick and prawns are fresh while wasabi mayo isn’t too thick and queasy. Pretty tasty and I finished it quite quickly.

The braised sea cucumber claypot was of the right fragrant and texture is soft and soothing. Good sea cucumber.

Got the portobello market with vege and I like it. Sauce wasn’t too salty at all while portobello mushroom is slightly springy and smooth. Good vegetable dish.

This baked sea perch is so yummy with egg white underneath! FIsh is really smooth, moist and tasty. Slightly sweet yet savoury, this is our favourite. I like such fishes as they taste slightly creamy on the inside!

Steamed fillet cod with preserved vegetables was also well cooked. Super smooth fish and really fresh indeed, we could have ordered more of this if we not too stuffed!

On the whole, this meal slightly disappointed me as there were more misses than hits I felt and most of the dishes were just normal! Maybe also I went in with a higher expectation after looking at the resume of the chef and started off beautifully with some of the yummy dim sum. Though the hits were spot on and marvelous, the misses caused this pretty expensive meal to feel less worthy of $98. I always go in to a buffet with an expectation that there will definitely be misses, but this was a little too much for a $98++ buffet. Perhaps the chef specializes more in those set course menu as the courses look pretty good from blogs. Maybe I should have gotten the CNY menu instead and would be impressed. Also, I felt that this buffet couldn’t also match up to Cherry Garden at Mandarin Oriental whereby its buffet is at a lower price of $68++. Then again, I think it’s buffet would not cost that much on a normal day as this is a Lunar New Year menu.

Verdict: An above average – good restaurant.