Hua Ting

Hua Ting

Orchard Hotel

Hua Ting reminds me slightly of Man Fu Yuan, (from the decor to the type of dim sum they serve) but much more delicious and cheaper. Don’t really understand why there are so many positive reviews about man fu yuan dim sum when they really taste only quite ordinary but charged at a premium price. At Hua Ting, they focus more on traditional dim sum with some interesting new ones that change monthly and most importantly, their dim sum are all reasonably priced at about $5 per basket. Decor-wise, it looks a little like the 90s and the general crowd there consists mainly of families. Lets take a look at the dim sum.

They serve this dao key thing for appetiser. It tasted not bad and really looks like lap cheung. Maybe they are trying to make vegetarian lap cheung. It has a good consistensy and is nice to chew on. It feels like it has been marinated in soy sauce for a while before cooking it.

Then we got the mango chicken tartlet which is their signature tart. This tart was really delicious. It is something that Man Fu Yuan has too but tasted better over here. The tart was really soft and fluffy while you can still taste the mango bits in it. Somehow mango can be used in savoury dishes too, and actually complements the taste of the chicken cubes. The top of the tartlet should be sinful as lots of butter must have been used to prepare that top fragrant layer.

This is weirdly named as polo char siew bun as it should be char siew sou or pastry. There also isn’t any polo structure on it, so am really baffled by its name. Anyhow, this char siew sou is very delicious too. The bbq pork in it has the right sweetness and still tasted very savoury. The pastry was soft, thin, flaky and you could get to the juicy char siew very quickly upon biting on it.

This is garlic scallop pastry. Another superb pastry here as it is really soft and fluffy again. The scallop is coated with some garlic sauce which tasted really fragrant and delicious as well. It’s not the pungent awful kind of garlic taste, but the aromatic kind. A combination that I have not had before. This dim sum depicts the wit and creativity of the chef I feel. Yummy.

Then we move on to the steamed dim sum that I never fail to order. This is the vegetarian dumpling and the skin is pretty good but maybe could have been slightly thinner. Vegetable fillings in it were crunchy and delicious too.

Got the interesting crab and egg white dumpling. It wasn’t the best combination I thought as the tastes of both ingredients somehow did not complement each other totally. I could just taste crab and egg white.

We also got this assorted mushroom dumpling which is again their specialty for the month and I loved it. Very soft and thin skin while the mushrooms are so fragrant. There’s my favourite jin zhen gu in it which gives it a slightly springy texture as well. Super yummy.

I am not too sure, but I would like to declare that this is one of the best liu sha bao I’ve had. The bao doesn’t look as rotund as most other restaurants’ but the filling in it is really near to the skin and would explode at any moment. Liu Sa is super fragrant and intense, more intense than most of the restaurants that I have been to, which makes me wonder it may be a bigger calorie bomb than most other restaurants. Just eat in moderation I guess and you can still savour on this sinful bao.

Then we got the coconut jelly dessert to share for $12. This was really a pretty good dessert as the meat tastes creamy and refreshing. The jelly in it is not too sweet and goes really well with the coconut meat. I managed to scrap all the flesh out although the hole carved out is small.

Yes, Hua Ting is one of the dim sum restaurants I would recommend to friends. It is very strong in its pastry I feel while slightly weaker than Wah Lok when it comes to steamed dim sum but still decent and pretty good. Priced at about $5 per basket, I find it reasonable. Service is pretty normal and just slightly above average as they would leave you to guess the dim sum on your own. This place is really quite popular among Singaporean families. I tried booking one week ago and couldn’t a table so I did two weeks in advance this time to secure one. So please book really early in advance if you want to visit this restaurant!