I've been to Club Chinois just once, so many years back when the Dad was on a whim..then it was fusion food..in portions enough to feed a mouse and hefty price tags to match.

It offers cantonese cuisine now. 113 dishes they've got to offer, soups aren't allowed..and must I add, they look really tantalizing! Cantonese are famous for their soups, afterall.

The portions are accorded to the number of people on the table!

The range of food is soooo diversified, you can really pick and choose a week's worth of food! Pity we didn't have the stomach space to try more...all in I think we tried 30 odd dishes...about a quarter of what they have to offer. Pity they don't allow soups as part of the buffet...that'd have completed the cantonese experience. Overall, pretty decent food!

Truly you can't fault their impeccable service, the young servers may have reduced the exclusivity of the place but I really don't mind smiley and friendly servers! They gently remind that tea is optional and the charges involved, rather than slapping you with a fee you can't refuse. I'll give them props for not removing the unfinished dishes to reduce wastage, we had to polish off the whole plate, literally!

http://thefoodchapter.blogspot.com/2008/12/club-chinois-orchard-hotel.html

Went for a la carte as they now only offer a high end Degustation menu at $120. Amex cards get a dish free for three others ordered. We plumped for different meat courses between the 3 of us.

Amuse Bouche – complimentary. Clean and fresh tasting, nothing mind-blowing but good showcase of fusion style in 3 items.

Prawns with Mayo and Sundried Tomato – Perfectly done prawns, the sauce is slightly spicy but nicely different from the usual wasabi mayo. Somehow the sauce isn’t a perfect accompaniment to the fresh prawn flavor, masking it somewhat. Still enjoyable.

Oxtail wrapped in Japanese Tofu skin – Basically shredded oxtail meat mixed with crunchy water-chestnut, wrapped in a large roll of sweet inari. Fantastic rendition of an old school Hainanese favourite (particularly the sauce) in a modern style.

Roasted Lamb Rack with eggplant – Tender to the point of being slightly artificial in texture (although that’s typical of some old school Cantonese meat dishes). If you can get past the “tenderized” type of texture, this is a fantastic dish.

Kurobuta Pork Cutlet – Tiny portion, so beware. Didn’t get to taste this myself but my dad gave it thumbs up.

Spinach Tofu – Most unremarkable dish of the meal, in no way poorly done but just a traditionally prepared version of this ubiquitous dish. I’ve tasted more silky tofu elsewhere, but the spinach was tender and smooth.

Fried Jasmine Rice w/ Foie Gras in Claypot – What a sinful and indulgent dish. Cubes of foie gras (not top grade) sit atop fried rice so the juices flow into the rice, making it oily but oh so fragrant.

Service was excellent in the restaurant, except for phone interaction during reservations, where they had difficulty giving me more info about the menu being served, giving me wrong information, and finally failing to email me the menu as promised. Not cheap, but the Amex promotion brings prices down to a decent level for the quality of food and setting, so worth a return visit for sure.

We came for the buffet lunch on weekends, priced at $48++ per head. There were 120 dishes listed, including appetisers, dim sum, soup (1 serving each adult diner only)seafood, meats including pork, beef, chicken & mutton, rice, noodle and desserts. There was enough choices to please anyone. What that was more outstanding was that each item was prepared well with fresh ingredient and beautifully presented (Cursed myself for forgetting my camera).
We tried 15 dishes excluding desserts:
The har kow was one of the best I have ever tried. They were also some of the biggest served in a fine dining restaurants, stuffed with fresh and crunchy prawns.
The other 3 dim sum items (scallop dumpling, vegetable dumpling and a prawn and chive dumpling)were good but not as outstandingly good.
My wife had sharksfin soup with crab roe.
I tried the hot and sour seafood soup with sharksfin. The hot and sour soup was unexpectedly good with lots of ingredients including fresh prawns, scallops and of course sharksfin. The vinegar added gave it just the kick to stimulate one's appetite for more food:)
The prawn dishes were uniformly good. The most outstanding being the wasabi mayoneise deep fried prawns, just unforgettable.
We tried a deep fried cod fish in brown tanfu sauce. The cod was melt in your mouth tender and crispy outside. The salmon was good but not as outstanding.
The beef in mayo and black pepper dressing was a tad salty but the beef was very soft and tender. The deep fried honey pork ribs was nicely done with the meat separating from the bones readily, wonderful.
All seafood and meat dishes came garnished with fresh vegetables. Pleasing to the eyes and helped to balance the nutritional value of the dishes.
Had a number of vegetable dishes. They were good but not outstanding. It is very difficult to be outstanding in the vegetable dishes in Chinese cooking, I think.
The asparagus was fresh and crunch. The deep fried tofu with mushrooms and greens was smooth as silk. Water chestnut with chinese cabbage in tanfu sauce was interesting. The cabbage upstaged by the water chestnut which was so soft and tender that they melted in the mouth.
We were not able to sample any of the rice and noodle dishes.
We tried 3 desserts. The aloe vera jelly with lime sherbet was gently refreshing after such a heavy meal. The Chinese pastry with custard filling was crispy, not too sweet and fresh from the oven. But neither could compete with the pumpkin cream with purple rice. The scoop of ice cream in the pumpkin cream contained chocolate chips and walnut, making it an unforgettable combination to round up a meal.
The restaurant was designed for fine dining with the tables reasonably far apart. Service was courteous and attentive, almost impossible to fault.
We had difficulty walking out of the restaurant because we were just too full:)

I went for a gathering on Saturday and embarked on the ala carte buffet which gives quite a good deal with Amex card members. I have never been impressed with alacarte buffet and thought perhaps this place will be different.
We placed our orders for 2 tables in advance and when the guest arrived, told them to serve it. The food in slow-mo, each 10 minutes passed before the next dish came out. They even got our orders mixed up with the tables. We placed more orders and the food NEVER CAME! This is one of the worst I had given it is a tung lok establishment. Truly, they function more like 2 star restaurants. Even, they serve the food faster and FRESHER.
Needless to say, our orders did not come, we went off feeling hungry and angry. Seldom, have I come across a Tung Lok establishment as bad as this one; run so poorly without the pride of a well-organised restuarant associated with the TL group. If you want to visit, think three times. It is not worth your money and time even with any card promo deal and you can expect 35% of your orders to be fulfilled.

I had the opportunity to preview the UOB Chef Creation Series at Club Chinois which will be running for the next six months. The Chef Series allows top notch restaurants in Singapore to put their creativity to the test and create customised lunches for $68 and dinners for $128. One eats free with every four diners.

Club Chinois was one of the earlier Tung Lok restaurants that has been known to pride itself in the ingredients used. In the early days, the proprietors were known to fly all over just to source for the freshest fish. Now that's passion.

But back to my meal, the Chef Creations is a surprise meal so I did not know what to expect. A manager will take the time to explain each dish to the diner and field any questions that one might have.

The good thing is that Club Chinois intends to change the menu every two weeks so one would be in for a surprise each time. For my meal, the amuse bouche was caviar on a pastry. The next course I had was the duck, which went well with the dark sauce but a tad dry.

Next was the scallop dumpling soup. The scallop dumplings were like fish balls but with the use of scallop meat. While it looked mild, it can be very sharp on the throat and one would feel the after-effects of the spiciness right away.

More mild was the tofu. Silky smooth, it paired well with the abalone which was dark and rich in taste. Unfortunately, while we were all having a good time, all good things must come to an end and it was time for desserts. For desserts I had the bird's nest with a custard
pastry, a cream puff with red bean paste and some aloe vera with almond jelly. Certainly something sweet to end off the night with.

In summary, I would put this experience as good qualty food to be shared among good friends. Service was excellent and the managers were good in interacting with the customers.