Paradise Pavilion
Not your average Chinese fine dining restaurant, Paradise Pavilion at the Marina Bay Financial Centre has become renowned in Singapore for its daring departure away from Chinese typicalities. With striking French-inspired neo-classical designs, you could be fooled into thinking this restaurant isn’t Chinese at all, when actually, it’s a remarkably refreshing interpretation of Chinese fine dining at its very best.
And with a reputation that slates it as the best dim sum and Peking duck restaurant in the entire city, the Victorian-style furnishings and gorgeous chandeliers just make you want to stick around that little bit longer…
Helmed by Paradise Pavilion’s Executive Chef Chan Wing Kwong, the elaborate menu features a wide selection of classic Chinese dishes and the restaurant’s own signatures. The star of the show is without a doubt the apple wood-roasted Peking Duck that is artfully crafted by stellar chefs formerly from Quan Ju De, Beijing’s famous Peking Duck Restaurant, to ensure that the authenticity of this traditional delight is up to scratch.
The Peking Duck is freshly roasted on a fire brick oven with the apple tree wood adding extra flavour and fragrance. Once golden and tender, it’s then carved right before diners’ eyes, where the duck’s breast skin – the fattiest and crispiest part – is first served as thin slices, best enjoyed with a dab of sugar. The rest of the duck is then meticulously sliced and served with rice flour crepes, cucumber slices, spring onion, sugar and a homemade sweet sauce.
Other Paradise Pavilion specialties include the Chilled Abalone and Crab Meat Salad with a sumptuous truffle-mustard dressing, Poached Chicken in a Szechuan-inspired sauce, the homemade Braised Edamame Tofu with an airy crab roe and, for dessert, the molten-centred Crispy Custard Man Tou with a creamy vanilla ice cream.
The restaurant is unsurprisingly a popular dinner spot thanks to its glimmering ambience and sweeping Marina Bay views, so during lunchtime, Paradise Pavilion also offers a selection of their finest dim sum alongside set lunch menus. Don’t miss the grilled Siew Mai skewers, and be sure to finish with the restaurant’s refreshing Mango Pudding.
Hands Off – Forbidden Rice
Emperors reserved this fabulous tasty black-purple rice for their own consumption because it was thought that it would enhance health, virility and prolong their lives. It was said that stealing just a few handfuls would result in a mostunpleasant death. Gruesome punishment aside, their belief was a great insight because we are now finding out how beneficial this forbidden food was. Loaded with antioxidants (even more than blueberries, which are famous for their anti-aging properties), vitamin E, fibre and with anti-inflammatory properties, this rice is one of the world’s ultimate health foods.
