Mandarin Court – Dinner

Mandarin Court is situated on the 35^th Floor of the lovely Mandarin Orchard Hotel.

The restaurant had a very high ceiling, but other than that, nothing else about the ambiance was special. Even though it’s on the 35^th floor, and I had a window seat, the view was nothing magical. Perhaps, it was too dark to see anything and I’m sure the restaurant would look better in daylight.

Image obtained from Groupon.

Tea and peanuts are chargeable at $5++ a pax. We had the Xiang Pian and I liked it.

Soup of the day – $10.00++

Peking Duck – $78.00++

(The whole duck cost $39++ with Groupon. I paid $39 online to obtain the Groupon.)

They actually served it like this instead of bringing the duck over to slice it in front of you (unlike all other restaurants I’ve had peking duck at) so there’s a reason to doubt their integrity.

This is the portion for one whole duck and the number of pieces of skin here may seem little, but actually there’s more piled underneath, in the centre. And also note that each piece was bigger than usual.

The skin wasn’t the most crunchy or crispy but this is definitely one of the better ones around. It is definitely true blue peking duck and not like regular roast duck.

The texture of the pancake was similar to that from Royal China, Paradise Pavilion and Imperial Treasure Nan Bei. For those looking for the egg crepe pancake, you’ll not find it here.

Overall, I liked this dish and had no regrets about it! It satisfied my peking duck craving well.

Duck Sautéed with Spring Onions and Ginger – $10.00++

This was the 2^nd serving for peking duck. A top up is required for it.

The meat was tender and did not have a pungent ducky taste (like how regular roast ducks/ badly done ducks do).

The spring onions used were in large excess, which was good as it provided some greens to this meal.

The portion of the peking duck skin and the 2^nd serving was more than enough for 2 pax. It could probably feed 3 pax full. We couldn’t finish this and had to have it packed.

Custard Buns – $12.00++/4

For dessert, we had the custard bun. I like my custard buns to have flowing custard but this was too liquidised. The flavour of the custard was kind of diluted for my taste too. I still prefer Taste Paradise/ Paradise Pavilion’s custard bun.

Another thing worth mentioning about Mandarin Court was that the service was good. The servers were very amiable and nice. One of them told us to enjoy our meal when we first stepped in, another payed attention to how the dishes were placed on the table and helped us move it when we couldn’t reach, and another was ethical enough to inform us of card discounts (which we were unaware of) which entitled us to 20% off non promotional items by paying with DBS/POSB card. Note that they do have discounts with other banks too, like 15% off with Citibank. There should be more but I’m not sure so you could call up to check.

*****

Ambiance: 7.5/10

Food: 8.5/10

Value: 8/10 (with Groupon)

Overall: the peking duck sure did not fall short from expectations. The overall experience at Mandarin Court was very pleasant.

*****

Mandarin Court

Mandarin Orchard Singapore

Orchard Wing, Level 35

333 Orchard Road

Singapore 238867

Tel: 6831 6262