Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine (Marina Bay Sands)

We have some guests in town and wanted to bring them to visit Marina Bay Sands so we decided to have lunch at there as well. We have always been impressed with Imperial Treasure’s Custard Bun (流沙包) so decided to visit their outlet at MBS. We were quite shocked to see that only 40+% voted to say that they will return to the same restaurant but still went ahead to try.

 

As it turns out, we had a fantastic memorable Dim Sum meal! Cannot understand why the score was so low! We were served by a well dress gentleman called Henry and he was ever so helpful and polite.

 

These are the food we ordered:

 

1. 鸭下巴 – Marinated Duck Chin. We have always loved to have duck tongue but chin…..? Curiosity got us to order this “new” dish and it was really good. We went for a second order. It is actually the lower half of the duck beak with the tongue in tack! Really shiok! - 10/10

2. 鱼翅汤饺 – Shark Fin Dumpling. A common dim sum dish but this is very well done. Plenty of sharks fin and the combination of the ingredients mixed with the superior stock soup give it a very satisfying taste. - 9/10

3 鸡脚 – Steam chicken feet. Another common dish done superbly well. One of our guests who would normally avoid this dish loved it! - 10/10

4. 虾饺 – Steam shrimp dumpling (Ha Kau). I normally do not like this dish but….. The prawn in the dumpling is very big and crunchy and you can tell it is very fresh and not due to it being treated with additive.  The skin is thin and smooth. - 10/10

5. 蘑菇鸡酥 - BBQ Chicken with mushroom Pastry. The pastry is so tasty and fluffy that melts in your mouth and the ingredient in the pastry is excellent. 10/10

 

6. 蒸虾粉肠 - Shrimp Rice Roll. Fresh and well done but nothing to shout about - 7/10

 

7. 卤鹅干 - Braised Goose Liver. This is the worst dish and it cost a lot at $38 for 2 thin slices. Texture was a bit too hard and the taste is just not right. - 3/10

 

8 沙了炸虾饺- Deep fried shrimp dumpling with salad cream. Well done but nothing to shout about. 7/10

 

9. 水晶包 – Crystal Red Bean Bun. This is a very difficult dish to be done well. The skin has to be thin and soft but with a little bit of chewiness. They have done it! The red bean paste texture and sweetness blends so well with the skin! 10/10

10. 蛋挞 – Egg Tart. A very common dish and yet, not many restaurant can get it right. The tart pastry skin has to be crispy and fluffy and the centre filling has to have the right liquidity.  The chef has done it well beyond our expectation and we just loved it! - 10/10

 

11流沙包 - Custard Bun. The best we had for this dish is from their Paragon outlet but the chef at this restaurant has done it even better! The outer skin is not sticky and the custard has the right liquidity and fragrance! 10/10

 

We had a very satisfying meal and will for sure return for another visit.

Dropped by this place for dinner tonight.  Wife and I had a sudden urge for peiking duck and having heard so much about Imperial Treasure's Peiking duck and being so close to Marina Bay Sands, I guess that was the place to go.

Be warned, getting to the restaurant when at MBS is not a simple thing if you have not been there before.  The electronic guide tells nothing about how one can get there and the staff wasn't much of a help with vague directions (Hermes watch shop???).  In the end, the best directions to the restaurant was from the internet (where else).  Basically head towards UOB and look for a lift lobby near it then head for 2nd floor. You can figure out from there.  (Sounds like a RPG game huh?)

We arrived there with reservations placed, which was lucky because there was a queue outside the restaurant.  We were seated quite promptly (despite being 10 mins late, a common situation in such bizarre location I'm sure).  Setting was undeniably fine china, for those who appreciate such stuff.

Range of food is wide but at the end, we ordered a Peiking duck (whole only unfortunately), some pepper Perch and kai lan with ginger and wine.  We also asked them to prepare the duck "shell" in a ginger and onion style which cost us $10 extra. 

Peiking duck was served less than 10 mins later being skinned on the spot by this expert-looking chef.  Clearly he had the skills to disseminate the duck in a swift and sure manner.  What was interesting was that unlike the usual style we had in other Chinese restaurants, the duck skin on the breast (with the fats removed) was cut into four slices while the rest of the duck was sliced together with the meat.  The assigned waiter even came back and explained that the breast skin was meant for eating by itself while the skin and meat were supposed to be wrapped in the popiah skin (?).  This proved tasty since the skin by itself is a crispy treat and would have been lost in the sea of spring onion and cucumber (which was served in generous proportion).  Having the meat attached to the skin wrapped in the usual stuff gives it a more substantial taste, letting the duck flavour mix well with the fresh cucumber taste and "springy" onion taste.

The perch tasted great and have that melt-in-the-mouth taste when eaten hot.  The seafood flavour accompanied the crunchy and fresh-tasting celery very well.  The kai-lan however was pretty ordinary despite the alleged wine and ginger.  It is fresh, no complaints to that. 

We also ordered soup which turned out well.  Soup was ordered on a per-person basis and my order was the shark bone soup with fish maw.  Portion was dissapointingly small, but flavour was very full.  My soup came thick and milky with its fair portion of fish maw and bamboo pith (given its small bowl). 

Service-wise, the assigned waiter was very attentative and it is not difficult to locate him for service as and when needed.  Only regret was he should have advised us if we had ordered too much for two people.  Other than that, he was attentative with the tea and our needs.

In conclusion, it was a surprise that the rating given for this restaurant was so low.  I would have given it a higher rating anytime.

I heard quite a few bad things about this restaurant before I went but so far service is good and food has been good too.  This is my 3rd review - does that tell you how much I like the place?

Check out photos at Brownie In Vancouver

We wanted to try Imperial Treasure dim sum and happened to see an outlet at the MBS.

It was around 12:00 on 15 Feb, 2012.  The restaurant was crowded but we got a table immediately.  The ambience and service were typical of an up market hongkong restaurant and acceptable.  The dimsum is good although they don't have carrot cake with XO sauce which we would have liked to try.

We think the charge of $7.00 for pickles and tea for two plus 10% service is excessive but seems to be the norm for Singapore dim sum nowadays.

Roasted Pork (Siew Yoke)$12.00

Glutinous Rice/Chicken      4.50

Shrimp Dump./Salad           4.80

Carrot Cake                         3.80

BBQ Pork Pastry                 4.00

Pickles                                 3.00

Chinese Tea                         4.00

Scallop Dumpling               4.50

Stm Beancurd skin              4.50

Stm Custard Bun                 3.80

For complete review with pictures, please drop by: http://rollingwrites.blogspot.com/2011/12/imperial-treasure-marina-bay-sands.html

The decor of this place is pretty traditional, infused with some new elements at some spots- leather seats with two cushions per person. Now, before you conjure a warm and fuzzy image while eating, the only thing floating in my mind was how often they washed these cushions.

We ordered Peking duck, three types of egg with spinach, salt and pepper tofu, and scallop with veggies.

The Peking Duck ($78) has a non-egg skin as wrapper which was kept warm in the dim sum bamboo thingy. I like how every person has an individual sweet sauce + sugar platter. As we chose not to include the duck meat in other food items like noodles, the chef left the skin on the duck meat. I would have very much preferred, though, if the skin and meat were separated. I think it's not worth it for this price, unless you don't mind paying for the platter with the duck head.

The Three egg dish with spinach ($16) was homely. Homely, in this instance, means that anybody is capable of whipping this dish in the kitchen and that you shouldn't be paying so much to eat it in a restaurant. It was century egg, salted egg and normal egg.

The Salt and pepper tofu ($18) had some minced prawn on top, probably to make it seem more exquisite than plain old tofu. I pretty much liked this dish, just that I think they could have added more of those deep fried stuff to give it more flavour and a crunchier texture.

The Scallop with vegetable ($30) was pretty interesting. I have never eaten a grilled scallop. It tastes like BBQed scallop. I'm not sure if I like BBQ tasting scallops that much and I would rather fresh scallops just to savour the just-out-of-the-sea taste. But in any case, the scallops were huge and juicy despite being grilled, so no complaints about that.

Service wise, there was a range of standards. Servers who were pleasant, and servers who looked like we were their servants. The waiter who wrote down what we wanted to eat, had a condescending look and was very ya ya (refer to Singlish dictionary for meaning).

In all, I would rather go somewhere else for my Chinese food. 

Visited this restaurant on Valentine's day as Hide Yamamoto nearby was fully booked. Anyway, the food is what i have expected from the restaurant chain, good quality and tasty in my opinion. Service wise is pretty good as well as the lady kept checking with us if everything was fine. The shark fin soup is thick and flavourful. Like the roast pork as well as the skin was extremely crispy, though i found the portion too small for my liking. The vege with abalone was another well done dish as the gravy was very very tasty and the abalone was cooked to perfection, not too hard. The Scallops with Foie gras was another fantastic dish. Interestingly, they goes well with each other, one of the fusion dish i guess, foie gras, a french delicacy cooked with scallops. The noodles are average though. Not forgetting the beef cheeks which has a rich and flavourful taste. Overall, a nice and pleasant dining experience.

The restaurant is located within the MBS and before reaching the restaurant, u will actually walk pass the casino floor. The ambience is that of a standard high end chinese restaurant.

For photos, please see Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow.

Imperial Treasure is most proud of this branch so they employ a very good manager. A good manager really makes a difference to the service, 14K says. When the manager is around, the dishes are changed after each dish. But when we were there, the manager was at another branch, and the service was a little sloppy and rude.

However, 14K, a regular, still managed to get us a booth, which was luxurious. There were two leather chesterfield sofas, plumped with cushions. So comfortable. Social connections matter! Be an MP! or be Sun Yan Zi.

We ordered (in the order the dishes came):Roasted Pork ($10); Stuffed Crab ($18/portion); Peking Duck ($78); Garlic Beef ($26); Tri-egg spinach ($16); Sugar Taro ($14); Hasma ($9/bowl).

14K and hookerlily liked the stuffed crab with cheese very much. It takes an hour to prepare the dish so you have to order in advance. But I thought it was ok. I liked that it was piping hot but I thought anything baked in cheese can't go wrong.

Another dish which they liked and I didn't is the roasted pork, which wasn't oily, and had a good skin-fat-meat proportion. But I thought it was cold and bland.

One dish that I did like is garlic beef because I thought from the cube shape that it was going to be tough. But wow, it was so soft and tender, lightly coated with soy sauce so that the it enhanced the beef taste, not masked it. But they thought it was ordinary.

The rest of the dishes were ordinary.

That's 7 courses. We ought to have stop at 4-5 and I think I particularly regretted saying yes to the Peking Duck. We all said yes when the waitress recommended. I regretted because it was expensive and wasn't particularly exciting or good. Just normal. If we didn't order it, the bill would come up to about $45 each, but with it, it's $65 each, an extra $20. If it were $40, then I would recommend this place. But at $65, I think I'd rather go to Summer Palace or Pu Tien or Xin Li Yuan.

Arranged to meet up with a friend over dinner at Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine (or ITFCC for short), purportedly the crème de la crème of the Imperial Treasure group of restaurants, which of course explains the choice of location - Marina Bay Sands.

Situated alongside the celebrity restaurants on the second floor of the Marina Bay Sands shopping arcade, ITFCC's decor is reminiscent of its sister restaurant, Imperial Treasure Cantonese - modern classical with lots of glass and sombre colours.

Roasted Pork - We started off with a well known dish from the Imperial Treasure group - roasted pork, which had a good fat to meat ratio with a crisp top. Unfortunately, it wasn't served warm and that marred the experience quite a bit.

Roasted Duck - Roast goose wasn't in the menu so we had to make do with duck instead. Lean crisp skin coupled with succulent and not too gamy flesh made for a good eat. I still prefer goose though.

Sauteed Prawns with Italian White Truffle Oil - My usual order of scallops was out so the wait staff recommended substituting with prawn balls, which on paper, sounded equally enticing. But in reality, the truffle oil just didn't gel that well with the prawns however huge and crunchy they were.

Four Types of Vegetables with Oyster Sauce - Basically the kitchen chooses what four varieties of vegetables you will be getting based on what's available on that particular day. Served up with slightly starchy oyster sauce. Decent.

Yong Chow Fried Rice - Apart from the plentiful prawns and char siew (BBQ pork), I couldn't find any other reasons to like this dish. Lacking in wok hei and tasting flat throughout, the fried rice looked the part but failed to deliver.

Durian Pudding - A sweet and smooth ending to the meal and probably the highlight of the dinner. At least the quality was consistent with what I had at Imperial Treasure Cantonese.

We could barely walk after the meal. Heck, we could barely even finish the meal, all at a cost of about $130 for 2. Going by what we ordered, that's not exactly cheap and I certainly wouldn't consider it value for money for the quality of food. Don't get me wrong, the meal wasn't bad. In fact it was above average but personally I just felt it didn't warrant such a price tag. Especially since Imperial Treasure Cantonese @ Crowne Plaza can produce better food at that price point.

See all my pictures here.

Having been to Imperial Treasure at Great World City, Marina Sq, Ion Orchard and Paragon a few times each, I generally think that the food is pretty consistent.

This outlet in particular offers a nice view if you can get a private room facing the shopping area. As we were staying at Marina Bay Sands over the weekend, the hotel helped us make a reservation but we were told that we had to arrive at 6.30pm and leave by 8pm. We arrived around 6.45pm and were shown to a nice private room for 4 facing the shops. Located on the Celebrities Restaurants floor, we could see the casino in action below.

There were 3 adults and we ordered the Canto pork chops, spinach tofu, beans fried with minced pork, pig stomach soup, fried rice and beef horfun.

Every dish was well executed. I especially liked the pork chops which were well marinated and tender with a fair amount of fat, spinach tofu which was soft on the inside and the soup which was nice and peppery.

I am of the view that Tunglok has deteriorated in standard in comparison with the Imperial Treasure Group.

 

 

Where do I start with this one?

Well, my mother-in-law made dinner reservations for 7:30 pm on a weekday. When we got there, albeit a few minutes late, we were told we had to wait. After standing there for more than 15 minutes, we decided to check again with the staff what the hold up was. We were told that the table was still being occupied by the previous patrons, who had already paid for their meal but would not leave.

So.....we waited.....and waited.....another 10 minutes went by and we again asked the staff when we could be seated. The same excuse was given. What made it more frustrating was that there was no seating area or chairs out front for us to wait and the staff appear not to know how to offer any further assistance to upset patrons standing around aimlessly at the front of the restaurant.

Finally we got to our seats at 8 pm or shortly thereafter.

The service at the table was reasonable but I am still going to give just a rating of 2 because the service at the front desk was less than desirable. The food was however delicious and the standards comparable with the other Imperial Treasure branches.

So while the food was good, getting a table there on time, even with a reservation, is looking like its going to be a bit of a gamble.

What of course is a certainly, through no fault of the restaurant at all, is that you will pay through your nose for parking. In my case, it was $18 for about 3 hours worth.

I guess the house always wins!