Other than its
great location, interesting design and fantastic price, Businessman’s purchase
of One Shenton by CDL brought the added benefit of being a member of tower
club.
So thanks to the
venue’s nearby location, the drivers were given the day off. We arrived at the
restaurant on time, and were given a table which had a breath taking view of
the south side of the city giving us a clear view of MBS, our office and the
southern waters.
Our table was
set in elegant china, in which someone commented that this was probably one of
the nicest sets of crockery we’ve experienced using in a BML setting. The décor
of the restaurant was also interesting with lots of bevelled mirrors on the
walls and pillars and a healthy amount of gold, onyx and polished wooden
finishing around. The place was also fully carpeted. If not for the dining
tables, I would say the place had the air of a high end KTV.
As the paymaster
was late, we decided not to waste the opportunity to use the beautiful teacup
and decided it best to start with Pu’er. It was an excellent choice on our
part.
10 minutes
later, businessman finally arrived, and we proceeded to order. I remember
having a meal here once years back and was quite impressed by the seafood, but
owing to budgetary constraints on businessman’s part, we were limited to land
based dishes today.
We ordered their
house specialty starters of beancurd cubes and crunchy corn, Peking duck
(again!!!!, even though we knew it wouldn’t come close to our favourite version
at Paradise Pavilion), roast pork, stewed pork with preserved cabbage, crispy
roast chicken, sliced beef with enoki mushrooms, kurobuta pork in coffee sauce,
poached spinach, and chee cheong fun.
The beancurd
cubes were a decent treat, with the skin fried to a delicate golden brown crisp
all round and covering the soft inner beancurd. Taste wise, it is what you
would expect from lightly salted beancurd, but the texture was commendable and
well worth ordering again for a starter.
The crunchy corn
was coated with a salted egg yolk batter and also fried till golden brown. You
could taste the salted egg yolk flavour through the batter, and in this
instance, it was the crispy corn that provided the texture. Having not had any
dish like it, I think that this is definitely an interesting starter worth
ordering if you want something different.
Next up was the
peking duck. It was so-so. Better than the one we had at The Majestic, but
clearly inferior to the one at Paradise Pavilion. The duck itself was ok, but
the wrap or pancake skin was really dry, thick and had a strong taste of flour.
We were then
served the roast pork, which was more in the style of say peach garden than the
ones you get at imperial treasure, crystal jade or lei garden. Overall the
roast pork was well done and the skin was crispy throughout despite it looking
a tad thick on first glance. One of our members however commented that the dish
had a bit of a porky taste.
Our chee cheong
fun was ok taste wise, nothing fantastic. Definitely not a chee cheong fun I
would come back to. For comparison you can get better ones with more delicate
skin at even a crystal jade kitchen for the same price or less.
We were then
served our beef with enoki mushroom. This was the dish that really needed
improvement. The beef was not well marinated, and the meat was slightly tough,
despite it being in rather thin slices, somehow we felt the cut of the meat was
probably inferior, which resulted in this. The real test of the failure of this
dish was when Dann surrendered his portion (he does not eat beef for religious
reasons), and no one took up the offer, leaving his portion eventually wasted,
which is a definite no no in our club’s context considering our appetite.
Thankfully, the
roast chicken was served after that, and you could say that this was one of the
better roast chickens we’ve had. The skin was crispy yet not overly oily, and
the meat was tender throughout, even at the breast. Dann however pointed out
after heartily eating what I remember was either the wing or the drumstick,
that this unfortunately was a frozen chicken. After polishing off the meat from
the bone, he then (like Sherlock holmes, or a chicken seller 20 years in the
business) raised the bone for all to see and pointed to the colour of the
cooked bone exclaiming “you see guys, the bone is grey, which means this is a
frozen chicken”, to which I asked what a cooked “fresh” chicken bone will look
like, and he said “it should be white”. This is one interesting proclamation
that requires further investigation.
Following this
was the poached spinach. The vegetable was definitely fresh, and the broth in
which it was poached in had enough of the savoury goodness. For a vegetable
dish from such an establishment, this met our expectations.
We were also
served our braised belly pork with preserved vegetables. This had mixed reviews
with the crew. I felt it was done pretty well, with the pork belly soft and
tender throughout, and the preserved vegetables not overly salty. The flavour
of the star anise in the sauce was also just right. Someone however mentioned
that it was still a little too salty to eat on its own and recommended that if
there was white rice accompanying the dish, it would’ve been better.
Then came the
kurobuta pork in coffee sauce. This was arguably the best dish of the day. CC
commented (in his usual fashion when lost for words on a good dish), that it
was pork that did not really taste like pork. Well folks, it was definitely an
interesting dish. The pork was somewhat drier than what I was expecting, but
this gave it a crispy outer edge. The coffee sauce accompanying the pork was
very tasty with a not overly strong flavour of coffee and caramel and it was
also somewhat oily, which went well with the texture of the fried pork. This is
definitely a dish worth ordering if you are looking for something different.
We ended the
meal with fried rice that was mixed with the remnants of the meat from the
peking duck. Whilst the rice was tasty and grainy, it was also a tad on the dry
side.
Overall, Tower Club is a place that definitely sells more on its views and ambience than on its food. The damage of almost S$375 after a club member’s discount would not be considered cheap by most standards, and for this price you can definitely get better quality chinese cuisine elsewhere. But for the views, few other chinese restaurants can beat this
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