Hua Ting at Orchard Hotel Singapore (Food Review)

My family headed to Hua Ting last night for reunion dinner. We have made reservations at 730pm and arrived just in time after some traffic jam along Thomson road.

Everywhere also jam!

Our table was all ready and waiting for us when we arrived. We were seated by the windows facing the main entrance, which was really cool cos we could see all the cars and buses streaming in. The hotel was nicely decorated with Chinese New Year lanterns and drapes. Actually we quite liked the hotel interior.. A bit old school but bustling with activity. Don’t mind going there again!

I didn’t manage to take many pics coz I was busy taking care of Am (who was particularly naughty last night!). But I noticed something really nice in the restaurant which is that they got this work station in the middle of the restaurant where they will cut up the Peking duck.. And get the food ready before they serve the customers. It’s right in front of the tables so we could see what they were doing. I thought this was really nice – it’s a delight seeing staff at work handling our food with expertise and care!

The restaurant was full when we were there last night – they have a big private dining room where there were 3 tables inside, and maybe a couple more smaller private rooms – all full. But somehow we didn’t feel very cramped or disturbed cos it was nicely spreaded. I think my table was the noisiest with kids!

We took our order with this waitress who was busy but yet patient enough to recommend us the dishes. This restaurant actually is like any other Zhi Char restaurant where you can customize the dishes! So we ordered a steamed Soon Hock fish, stewed chicken with fungus, stir fried broccoli, 3 of their signature baked pork ribs and a plate of roast duck and roast pork.

This was the appetizer which is really very tasty! Even Al the picky eater loved it haha.

Their chilli sauce which I found it too sweet.

This mixed platter came first. The waitress said Hua Ting is good for their roast meat and we had to agree. The roast pork was filled with flavour and bursting with juices. The roast duck was unexpectedly tender and I was impressed 🙂 I think it may have won the platter I ate at Imperial Treasure (Changi Airport)!

Steamed Soon Hock. It was a medium sized fish. Al was very happy with the watery gravy cos it went with her rice really well!

It was a fish well done! Hua Ting really cooked it well – not fishy at all, flesh was not over cooked, just nice. Even Am was eating bits of it greedily haha. My mum in particular loved it (guess old folks all like fish) and tackled all the bony parts.

Stir fried broccoli. This was a customized dish (you won’t see it in the menu) – very good too – the broccoli wasn’t too hard nor too soft. Just right! Even Hubby ate it – first time in my life I see him eat broccoli lol.

When we saw the size of the pork ribs, we were quite amazed. Very big, very thick.

Must be a huge pig??

Anyway everyone of us loved it. Even Al, who had finished her rice, was eating bits of it from my plate. We ate
Such pork ribs before at Peach Garden some years ago – Hua Ting wins hands down!

I did not manage to take a picture of the stewed claypot chicken but we all loved it – the chicken was super tender and flavorful 🙂 goes very well with rice.

After dinner we decided to order dessert xD so we had the red bean pan cake and almond cream.

This was really good!!!! Yes I had 2 pieces even though it’s filled with flour 😦

Almond cream with egg white. Ended up I had the whole thing coz no one could take the overwhelming almond taste.. Which I thought was beautiful..

Besides the delicious food, the service was top notch too. Am was naughty and didn’t want to drink her milk at all. So I went to a waiter and asked for a cup or bowl of hot water so I could sit the milk bottle in to let it remain warm.

The waiter took my bottle, and returned a few minutes later with a huge bowl of hot steamy water where he placed at the big workstation. He came and told me that the bowl was too big to put on our table, so he asked if the bottle could be left there.

I think that was a very sweet gesture – he went out of the way to get that big bowl of hot water just for Am’s milk bottle 🙂

I also noticed a couple of tables with Caucasians having wine and dining at the same time. And even though it was
9 plus already, there was still a queue outside the restaurant! Wow.

Bill came up to be $232. The fish alone was $57 and the roast platter was $30. After using our $100 ala carte voucher, we spent $132. For such a wonderful dinner, $132 is really worth it!

It’s a great restaurant for special occasions. Earlier this week we visited Pontini and The Piano Bar at Copthorne Waterfront. Actually it’s because hubby bought the ala carte membership card for a year (which costs a few hundred bucks) and we received all sorts of vouchers from the millennium hotel group, including hotel stay, dining vouchers, free bottle of wine, 50% off meals etc. So we will be celebrating all our special occasions at the millennium hotel group restaurants this year haha.

Next up – Cafe Brio’s to celebrate my mum’s birthday in Feb!