Lei Garden is one of those restaurants that makes me wish I had a better salary. That way, I can enjoy the food without blinking at the price list.

Despite the apparent poor service many reviewers here seem to have experienced, both times I had dined at Chijmes left me feeling satisfyingly attended to and, well, served. The first was my ROM lunch where I was impressed from the reservations process, to the way they explained layout and the menu with me, until the actual day itself - no complaints and my guests were all happy.

And then there was the family dinner yesterday. We had a set dinner menu and added half a suckling pig, with a bottle of champagne. Although it came up to more than $500 for 6 people, it felt reasonable to me, even if I am normally a renowned tightwad.

While I am keen to inflate the ratings to even out what I feel is unfair judgement based on a single visit, I shall resolve to be fair myself, and give the ratings that I think Lei Garden truly deserves.

The food is markedly better than the run-of-mill wedding dinner standards, perhaps falling short of Pine Court at Mandarin (but then, I was treated to their most expensive set, so any comparison is inherently skewed).

Ambience is pleasant and reasonbly comfortable for easy dinner. There isn't much noise and children are mercifully in small numbers.

Value is harder to qualify. I would pay this amount for the food I had, but it is not the kind of expenditure that would agree with my bank balance.

Service is straightforward but attentive. The waiting staff and captain do their job politely, relatively unobtrusively and pays attention to details, such as wishing my father in law happy birthday and asking for the name of guests before presenting their name cards.

I can't remember the exact menu but roughly what we had
1) Suckling pig - the skin was heavenly, as i remembered it to be. Served with sweet bean sauce, sprigs of spring onion and 'mantou' skin. They later returned with a plate of the remaining meat. Delicious.

2) Shark's fin with fish maw - the stock wasn't heavily starched like most wedding dinner variety and you can taste the freshness of the stock, large pieces of shark's fin and shredded fish maw. They did not serve vinegar with the soup and I presume that they wanted the guests to taste the soup on its own. Nevertheless, instinct kicked in and we asked for vinegar.

3) Deep-fried live prawns kampong style - live prawns deep-fried with curry leaves. Very fresh. Everyone devoured the crunchy prawns, shell and all, and sucked up the very last curry leaf.

4) Traditionally steamed grouper belly - fresh fish steamed in soy sauce, ginger and minced chicken. There is not a hint of fishiness at all. My serving had too much bones for my liking but then I never did like fish.

5)Scallops with asparagus and mushrooms - The scallops were sliced too thin, even if they were sweet. I had hoped for those large juicy scallops oozing with the ocean's flavour.

6) Seasonal vegetables with fried conpoy - too plain for our liking. The vegetables were cooked in a sublime milky stock, but the combination did not do well; tasted like normal vegetables to all of us.

7) Crispy duck and fried tofu - The tofu was immaculate, even in its simplicity. The serving size of the duck was a joke though. 6 of us shared a duck drumstick! As tasty as the duck was, it felt more like a teaser than a dish!

8) Seafood fried rice - maybe it was our mistake to choose fried rice, because it isn't the kind of food that can turn out miraculous. So it turned out just as it was expected. Normally well-done fried rice. Which isn't too impressive for the jaded singaporean palate.

9) Mango puree with pomelo and sago - not many singaporeans have been spared from this tropical dessert. Lei Garden's version is subtle, not too sweet, not too sour and just enough mango and pomelo to give it a delicate texture.

Verdict? I would love to dine here again, but only on special occasions or when I strike lottery.

Haven't been this this join for ages. It was a embarrassing to serve my overseas friends with such food. I ordered 4 dishes -

Shark Fin Soup
Braised Sea Cucumber
Vegetable
Steam Fish

Shark Fin soup - just taste ordinary

each was served with a Small thin Sea Cucumber - poor quality - should have used big sea cucumber and sliced to per/serving

Vegetable - just taste as usual

Steam Fish was uncooked with blood oozing all over the fish when serving. The captain tried to cook the fish by scooping the gravy over it. The captain then said "fish shouldn't be over cooked"

yes, steam-fish should be under cook but not to that extent

Well, maybe this is their standard

I had the worst ever dining experience in Lei Garden during Chinese New Year in early Feb. My group of 23 had to wait half and hour despite our $1000 per table reservation! Half of the 8 dishes served were unbelievably bad! Can you believe sliced vegetarian gluten was used instead of real abalone as stated in menu! Roasted chicken tasted like it was left in pantry for half a day before being served! Steamed fish that was not fresh, not whole but hard! You pay $1000 per table and you don't even get a whole steamed fish and a slice of real abalone?

When written complaint was lodged, not a single apology was given. Instead director was extremely defensive, stating she didn't see any problem and maintained no wrong doing on their part!! Captain claimed we had no confimed booking and only waited for 10min! Would anyone bring party of 23 without a confirmed reservation? Director chose to believe her captain's word instead of my group of 23 who can vouch waiting for half hour!

Even though it was the busy Chinese New Year period, it was completely unacceptable and inexcusable for a "top-notch" chinese restaurant charging a $1000 a table to make such blunders. Worst of all, it never admitted its blunders! Director has the cheek to indicate that mine was the only complaint she received out of the many thousands of guests served!

Absolutely appalled by such high-handed, audacious, non-apologetic and defensive stance! The worst ever dining and customer service I've ever experienced in my 45years of living!

Went with an almost empty stomach and left with a overfilled one.

Here's the review of the dishes:

1) Double boiled S/F Melon Soup - 4.5/5

for any cantonese restaurant, the soup is a must for meal. the LEI "TONG" was unavailable when we reached at 8pm on friday. so we ordered the above. Was not disappointed at all.. was begging for more but my gf and i could only have 2 bowls of soup each.. taste is perfect..

2) Spare ribs with Sweet and sour sauce - 4/5

this is the one that killed me, the size was 5" by 3" but it's very filling. The meat was soft and tender and the rib bone was so soft too you can chew it down.. that's what i did.. and it comes with 4 "man tous" buns to go with the richly flavoured sauce

3) Baby Roast Duck - 4/5

this is a tad too ex for ex.. though it's very crispy and juicy but u can hardly eat any meat other than the drums. i would recommend, go for the big one... if there is any left.. had only opted for this when our first choice roast pork was out of stock.

Vegetable dishes: forgotten the name of it.. but it's light on the taste bud...

Desserts : Glutinous Dumpling with Seseme, Double boiled B/nest with pumpkin and some other cold stuff. forgotten bout the name in english... 4/5... the dessert is must try too.. light and not too sweet to down the meal.. it's a GOOD cantonese restaurant..

one have to be cantonese to know cantonese food well.. and to review well too...

Services : impeccable...

I was depressed, when word got to me that the Tea House at China Square has been closed for business for more than just a while. Afterwhich, I have been hunting around, doing research for an alternative, but was never satisfied. And after much searching, I finally found LEI GARDEN!!

*Come someone, please clap for my accomplishment!!*

Anyway, my family did not intend to visit Lei Garden, but rather, we were undecisive on where to go for lunch on a Sunday afternoon. On impulse, I suggested for Dad to park at Raffles City Shopping Centre and we'll decide where to go from there forth.

After a maze-like search, I finally found Lei Garden, hidden in the central courtyard of Chijmes. But my excitement to visit the restaurant got 'killed' at the registration table, coz as we did not have a reservation, we had to wait for ~15 minutes. But doing the time-saving method, I selected the dim sum to be ordered from the menu. =D

Word of advice, really do make a reservation before appearing, otherwise, not only will one end up waiting for his table, the kitchen will start having depleting supplies too (which was what I experienced =(.)

Siew Mai & Bai Ku went out of stock at about 2.15pm, so we had to give these 2 usuals of a dim-sum outing a miss. =(

Shanghai Dumpling with Minced Meat (Xiao Long Bao) was indeed commendable!! The vinegar and ginger was (somehow) really well-mixed and the dumpling itself had a soup base, which was not overly salty!! Mum really enjoyed this dumpling much better!! =)

We had the Mini Pork Dumpling (Jing Chuan Jiao Zi) too, which was really a surprise. I was expecting a normal-sized dumpling, but guess, I overlooked the word 'mini'. The sauce was spicy enough and this dish really reminded me of the good old days in NUS, when my friends and me were feasting on the dumplings from the Bizad Canteen.

And the Fresh Prawn Chee Cheong Fun was really good!! YUMMY!! Full succulent prawns lying on top and inside the chee cheong fun!! AWESOME!! And the chee cheong fun was really soft!! Not like too thick and all. =)

We tried the Deep Fried Fresh Crab Meat (Jin Si Xie Rou Juan), which was pretty interesting, coz we saw cheese-like stuffings inside instead. Maybe coz the chef has minced the crab meat up into a paste?? But it was good but the thread-like outer covering was a test of one's ability to eat without creating a mess.

The Prawn Dumpling with Mayonnaise (Sha La Ming Xia Jiao) was pretty typical. I don't mean the taste but rather the skin used to wrap the prawn meat!! Instead of using those white-coloured skin, the chef must have used the skins meant for wantons, coz it was really yellow. But what's good about this dish?? There is an awesome amount of prawn meat stuffed within!! YUMMY!!

Li Yuan Bai Da Xiang Cao i.e. a dish which was a mixture of prawns, mushroom, fish & capsicum, of which all deep-fried and housed in a web-like basket. Interesting dish and was pretty tasty too!! Yummy!! Loved the big huge prawns and the mushroom!! The fish was fried together with the capsicum, so it had a pretty unique taste. Think fish with crunchy capsicum!! =D

Lei Garden had a pretty good view of the central courtyard of Chijmes and thus this will make a good place for people-watching. However, the dining area at Level 1, was really a little too small, thus it can't exactly house that many people, and that would explain the waiting time.

And with the service crew sprouting lines of cantonese, coupled with the clinging sounds of the utensils etc., it really reminded me of having dim sum in Hong Kong. Not to mention that once in a while, a service crew might pop by and ask if we would like anything from the platter of dishes that she had at that point of time.

Service was pretty brilliant at Lei Garden. Efficient and pretty friendly and really saw to the needs of the customers. Commendable and much credit to be given to them.

And yes, will I return to this place? Definitely, if I'm in the area and if I have a craving for dim sum. This is because, parking in the City Hall area is pretty much a nightmare and there is no way that I will walk back to Chijmes for a meal, if the car is parked at Suntec or Marina.

Meanwhile, cheers to my alternative dim sum place!! =D