Crystal Jade Palace

Address: 4th Floor, Ngee Ann City, Orchard Road, Singapore
Tel: (+65) 6735 2388

Crystal Jade Palace, not to be confused with Crystal Jade Kitchen in the basement (which serves up no-frill Hong Kong style cuisine) or Crystal Jade Golden Palace in Paragon (which does Teochew delicacies), is one of the busiest restaurants in the Ngee Ann City complex; and if neighboring high-end restaurants and boutiques were to judge by, one would have thought that it does pricey Cantonese cuisine. However, as modern and sophisticated as the crystal decor may look, the menu is priced very reasonably.

The seven of us opted for the a la carte menu for our Mid-Autumn Festival dinner. I should point out that I was dining with a bunch of overseas born/bred Chinese/Chinese descendants and two Singaporeans who have absolutely no idea what this festival is all about. So immediately, I am sure for those Chinese-at-heart, it would take little for you to imagine what dishes we ordered.

That aside, the dishes were fresh and delicious. The deep fried salt and pepper squid with minced batter was crisp, the squid is chewy yet soft, and the minced batter added an interesting twist to the original S&P squid. Another memorable dish was the prawn sautéed with ginger and onion sauce. The prawns were peeled, fresh, fried briefly in oil before leaving it to simmer with other ingredients. Boys being boys (meat eaters), the only vegetable dish we ordered was broccoli with bamboo fungus and mushroom. It was nice, albeit a very standard dish that you can’t go wrong with unless if they failed to use the freshest greens available. It is yet another dish where we see how oyster sauce can work magic.

The manager has recommended the sautéed snapper slices which was nice but me being as biased as I maybe, I felt that nothing taste better than steamed whole fish which is the only way of cooking fish that is capable of sealing the fresh fishy essence. However, I suppose the sliced fish was a good choice given the demographics (and thus culinary preference) of my companions. For a start, I don’t want to have people complaining about bones in fish. The Peking duck, roasted in whole, looked extremely palatable but unfortunately it was ordered by our neighboring table. There was a point where I wished I was at the other table (for the food). I comforted myself by munching on the roast bbq duck that we ordered but unfortunately it was not as piping hot as the Peking duck, and the skin was not crisp.

It was a pleasant experience overall, though I started to reminisce about my first visit to Crystal Jade. I came along with companions who were more culinary advanced on the Chinese side, and we ordered a meal of scrumptious classic Cantonese dishes. Nothing fancy (as in fusion), but simply good food with presentations appealing to the eyes.

Verdict: Delicious Cantonese food in a restaurant with elegant crystal décor. Crowd is noisy as usual. Service is smooth, but can be choppy at times.

Bill: SGD$246 (includes 10% service charge & 7% GST plus tea) for six dishes. Most mains are around SGD$20-40. Exquisite dishes and seafood are >$40+ or market price.