Imperial Court Shark’s Fin Restaurant

We actually found this place by accident as we are looking for a place to hold our church upcoming anniversary dinner. This restaurant was opened by Gim Tim Pte Ltd. A well known restaurant in the Ang Mo Kio area with its loyal follower.

Since we just settle the paper work for the booking, we decided to have a little food tasting to see quality of the food. We ordered:

Broccoli with stir fry seafood with egg white.

Crispy Chicken (half)

Venison with Spring Onion

Seafood Fried Rice with XO Sauce.

During the month of May, they have this promotion from $12 instead of $18. The broccoli is crispy,as it must topped with the excellent sauce. The scallops and prawns tender and cooked to perfection. The egg white is nicely coated the seafood, it is soft and full of flavour and finished off with sprinkle of tobiko on top. Yummyyy.

The crispy chicken is good. It is nicely marinated, crispy skin, with moist and succulent meat. What else can you ask for. The venison, we purposely ask it to be cooked in the most simple way, with spring onion. We want to see how good is the chef, and he did not disappoint. The meat is tender, not over cooked. You can taste the character of the meat and it is nicely balance with the light sauce and spring onion.

For the Fried Rice, it is good but not great. We thought the fried rice will have tobiko in it for texture, but instead it is an XO fried rice. The XO sauce got a bit of spicy kick in it, but not overpowering, lightly seasoned but I find the fried rice is a bit soft and soggy. A nice crunchy texture in it will be great.

Location: This place is actually a hidden find. I don't think people outside Ang Mo Kio, or people that ever visited Grass Root club will know about this restaurant. I am glad that I have found it. Parking is not an issue, as the is a lot of lots in club or at the sports complex behind. Ambiance: The restaurant looks new, cosy, bright and looks maintain. Great job to the team. Service is good and attentive. The food still come at a good timing on the night, even though they have a wedding banquet the other section of the restaurant.

Overall: We actually like this place, as the food is very good, nicely seasoned ( or lightly seasoned) and very reasonable price. What else can you ask for in a restaurant :)

It was last year Chinese New Year that we had a lunch gathering. I wouldn't know this place if didn't suggested by a friend.  As it is well-hidden inside the club, and not many people go there.  So it was lovely surprise and enjoying lunch moment.

I went to Imperial Court Shark's Fin Restaurant Pte Ltd (Gim Tim) at The Grassroot Club for dinner tonight with my family to celebrate my father's birthday.. 

The dinner did not proceed very well.. Despite of us arriving on time and not taking more than 10 min to place our orders, we waited 35min for the first dish to be served.. Subsequent serving of the other dishes took 10 - 15min in between. We ordered a set dinner that was priced at $398++ for 10 pax, but the portion of the food was so small that it was hardly enough to be shared amongst the 8 of us (small & medium build). I wonder if the kitchen did something to remove additional food since we only had 8 of us??

The service staffs were not attentive enough.. My mother was taking the remaining food from a plate but a male service staff pushed the plate away just because he want to serve the next dish.. Talk about being courteous to your customers?

Granted the quality of food was still ok, a tad too salty, but it definitely does not justify the price we paid for.. Nothing to wow at... Ok, I must give credit to the Crispy Chicken.. The skin was crispy and aromatic but the meat was juicy..

I remembered good memories of going to Gim Tim every weekend for dinner as a kid.. Now the memory has been marred by the bad experience tonight. Never will I be going back there again..

On our family gathering (13 Oct 2007), we decided to have a la carte buffet lunch at Imperial Court Shark’s Fin Restaurant. This restaurant is located in the Grassroot's Club at Ang Mo Kio Ave 8 and just next to Yio Chu Kang MRT. It has a typical Chinese palatial décor – perfect for Chinese wedding banquet!

There were 10 adults, and we ordered 14 items from the menu… We did not realize then that their a la carte buffet comes in very generous portions! The sumptuous cuisine and the price tag was very attractive! Certainly value for money. Excellent for big gathering and if you happen to be on a budget. For ten persons, we spent only $230! (Perhaps it was a public holiday special?!?!). See their home page http://www.gimtim.com.sg/default.asp for latest promotions if you are considering.

As the name suggest, must try their shark’s fin soup. I have no complain for the rest of the food. Will certainly go back to try the rest.

The ambience: decor is ok, but it was crowded and noisy that afternoon... Perhaps in the evening it's less noisy...