Man Fu Yuan 满福苑

Okie, I am somewhat a frequent customer of this place - I mean I don't come everyday, but I think I come often enough to notice the tweaks in the menu and to find out about dishes not inscribed in the menu... And that's why I decided to review this place again.

Came recently with my mom for a dim sum lunch and despite all the talks about swearing by Wah Lok's dim sum, we were somewhat bought over by what we had here.

We had a few steamed dim sum:

Jing Chuan Jiao - 3 pieces of dumpling drenched in a spicy, salty, and tangy sauce. I love dumplings but sometimes run out of idea when I've to decide what dumplings to eat; you know, whether the filling is pork with leek, chives or cabbage, they somewhat taste the same, especially when you dip it in the traditional ginger and vinegar dip. So this is really something rather refreshing and more importantly appetizing for us.

Siew Mai - Obscenely good. Unlike my undying love for dumplings, I am not a Siew Mai person. To me, they always possess one or more of the following traits 1) too tough and rubbery they occur to be as rubber balls 2) has the stinky pork stench 3) stinks of alkaline water due to the use of inferior wanton skin. But the Siew Mais here........ lovely tender piece of floured skin that seems almost non-existant due to the generous filling of huge, juicy, succulent prawns, mixed with just a little pork AND topped with a decent portion of scallop on top. Enough adjectives used. You get what I mean.

Fun Cheong with Century Eggs and Fish - An unusual combi in the local food scene, but the manager was telling us how popular this is in Hongkong so we decided to give it a shot. And no wonder it is popular - even when I detest some incarnations of century eggs (I hate them in stir fried veges and tri-colored steamed eggs), this was good. I can't really point out why so pardon my incompetence, but the contrast in flavors and textures in this dish really stands out in a good way. I'd order this anytime in place of Fun Cheong with char siew or whatever filling, even though I'm a char siew fan.

Bu Ping Chang (Also a fun cheong, despite an extraordinary one as the name suggests) - The manager tipped us about this "extraordinary" fun cheong, and boy was it extraordinary. I thought he was joking when he told us about it, but turned out he was being ultra honest about this. One look at the dish, you understand why it's named like that. Unlike most fun cheongs that are rolled up into a log, this is an UNROLLED version of fun cheong. So imagine, a THIN layer of the conventional fun cheong skin, topped with char siew ALL OVER, DROWNED in the sauce that always doesn't seem enough, and inevitably, to serve, some utensil will have to be tucked under the skin to lift this monster up for transfer into the serving plate, right? The result of this - the skin will turn into a piece of wrinkled mess (thus "bu ping", cuz it's not smoothly flat). But also due to this, this fun cheong has like double the amount of flavor and filling and smoothness cuz the proportion of char siew and sauce to the skin is tweaked! Of course, given its extraordinariness, the price tag is also extraordinary. A normal fun cheong should cost around $6-7, this is $18. Note this is a CNY dish that doesn't appear in the main menu. So given that so much about it is out of the ordinary, it's worth a try I would think, despite the price.

Of course, nothing's perfect. We tried a few steamed crystal dumplings and figured that the crystal skin here is a little too soggy and mushy - doesn't have the chewiness of that at Wah Lok. Kindda disappointing we thought, and obviously the next time we come, we'd give those a miss, maybe until someone tells us things have improved.

Lau Sar Pau - Amazing! Comparable to those I had at East Ocean Teochew Restaurant, only that it's BIGGER. Usually, Lau Sar Paus suffer from execessively tough or moist skin and an interior that doesn't leak when you break the pau open. But the version here has a fluffy skin! And the filling - molten! Try pulling it apart... you'll burn your fingers when that sweet and salty larva of salted egg yolk and god-knows-what comes bursting out. But that's a perverse pleasure that I love to indulge in. Haha.

Sesame Lau Sar Pau - This is tinier than the original version, and the centre is less gooey than the original, but still this baby kicks ass. The sesame filling is a thick, luscious fluid that is more savory than sweet, making it a dessert that is satisfying without being overly sinful. Certainly, the original version is more intense in flavour, but then this is intense stuff too, just that the power of salted egg yolk can't be easily beaten, can it?

Baked Dim Sum:

We tried only two... one is this seafood or crab dumpling wrapped in a normal dumpling skin, which is then wrapped again in a crispy, flaky pastry skin. Seriously... Effort is involved in the construction. Actually I think the description is enough to suggest that this is good stuff, so I shall leave it as that.

Another baked item is the Bo Lor Pau, which I have to say is not fantastic. The bun is soft but the crust on top is not as crumbly as Wah Lok's or Li Bai's. Also, there is a lack of what I suspect is a buttery fragrance that I find in Wah Lok's version of the crust... yes butter is bad for health but we always choose to ignore the fact in the face of good food.

We also order the jelly fish which I felt was much better than the ones I had elsewhere. Common faults I find in others are that they cut the jelly fish till they're so tiny I feel I'm chewing on strips of gum, OR that the dressing is too thick and gooey I often regard them as slime, OR maybe the dressing has overpowering flavors my tongue goes numb. Here, the dressing is not thickened with starch, it's also just adequately strong to flavor the otherwise tasteless jelly fish, and the jelly fish comes in huge cube-like chunks that are crunchy, not rubbery. For $8 a plate, this is well worth the money.

Despite this being a restaurant in a good-class hotel, the prices of the dim sums here are pretty wallet-friendly. They typically cost between $3 - $7, same as what you get as decent dim sum places. But for the quality of the food, the superb service and quiet ambience, you might find this a rather impressive dim sum place to dine at.

Another thing to note, the dim sums here are usually less oily than what you get elsewhere. So if you're a little concerned about your health, you might like it here. Of course, I'm still not saying that dim sums are healthy, because we know very well they're not, too much of meat and refined carbo is always a bad thing.

On account of the complimentary Peking duck, I decided with much trepidation, to give Man Fu Yuan a chance to redeem itself after my previous dim sum lunch there turned out absolutely disastrous. This time it was for dinner though.

Peking Duck - I honestly didn't expect much from a complimentary dish and to say that I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. The duck set the tone right for the evening with its crisp skin sans the fat, wrapped in a lightly chewy/elastic crepe that reminded me uncannily of kueh. Interesting and definitely a change from the usual ones. The sliced meat did pale a little in comparison though, coming across as a wee bit too tough but at least it wasn't too gamy. Just for the record, the duck goes for $60++ on the menu.

Braised Homemade Beancurd with Live Prawn, Shimeji Mushroom and Minced Pork Sauce - The homemade beancurd had a nice savoury and mildy sweet taste to it, coupled with relatively small but fresh and sweet prawns and drizzled with a full bodied meat sauce - A simple yet appetising dish. I would have liked the beancurd a little more silky though.

Poached Asparagus with Bamboo Piths, Chinese Lyceums and Greens in Superior Broth - This was a simple yet tasty dish, with the superior broth (上汤) light yet flavourful. The asparagus, which came wrapped in crunchy bamboo pith (looked to me like fish maw at first glance), was cooked just right - crunchy and not too soft.

Mango Pudding - We rounded up our meal with a heart shaped mango pudding that was probably the sole disappointment that evening. The taste of mango was rather watered down but the sole consolation was that it didn't come across as too milky.

Red Bean Pancake - Well at least the red bean pancake fared better. Flaky exterior with just the right amount of flour, it would have been great if the red bean paste was slightly more concentrated. Still a good eat nonetheless.

I would say my perception of Man Fu Yuan has turned on its head 180 degrees after this dinner, putting me at a crossroads as to whether I should return. Prices are definitely not cheap and comparable to renowned Chinese restaurants in other hotels. Service was alot better this time round and so was the food. My take? I'll be back for their dishes but not for their dim sum.

See all my pictures here.

Six of us came here for dim sum on a Saturday afternoon. Good service – frequent refills of tea, quick clearing of dishes and changing of plates. Nice cutlery and classy ambience. They only have one page of dim sum items, and we ordered a long list of stuff . (Most items we ordered 2 portions since dim sum usu come in 3s) . I thought everything was delicious, above average, and exquisite. The siew mai had a visible sharksfin slice, and I could bit into the orange roe. Portion can be abit too small (eg the tiny Baked Pastry Puff with char siew) at times, esp since the food was good. Din think the food was pricey, since the items we ordered were mainly $4 - $5 range. Nothing to expensive, except desserts ($6 - $7) per pax. When the bill came, first on the list was $30 for tea and misc (tidbit, towel etc). That’s $5 per pax. Much as I like the food, I am hesitant to go back again and get ‘penalized’ one dim sum dish per person.

I would have never imagine this; I froze at the mention of it, the sacred foie gras. And hold on a second, what were they saying, I thought I heard something like Juicy dumpling with foie gras. Wasn’t this supposed to be XLB, now where did the foie gras came into the picture?

Believe it or not, they actually contain the French delicacy within our XLB, well maybe just a morsel of it since there wasn’t any trace of the foie gras.

Fresh, is one of the word which has been over-used to describe food. How else would you use to depict the prawn within the crisp vermicelli, well maybe I would say juicy, succulent, and I ran out of vocabulary. Oh well. Deep-fried filo dough.

It was wet, a little moist inside, so I stuck my finger in, and poked it in a little further. I took a bite, beneath the crispy exterior, was duck shreds. Deep-fried yam croquette with minced duck.

I was caught by surprise when they told me this was called the Deep-fried scallops with sugar cane. I was happily biting it off the sugar cane (read: I use it), thinking it was very prawny, and there they were, telling me it was deep-fried scallop!

Naturally I was amused, how could scallop taste like prawn? Ignoring that, the slightly-sweet-slightly-sour sauce was most excellent - it was refreshing. And the sugar cane added some brownie points to the whole artistic value.

May I introduced to you, ladies and gentleman, the scarce Harm Soei Gok, or Deep-friend traditional chicken dumpling. Honestly, I did not know about its existence before this, since many places didn’t served it due to the complexity and effort needed to produce it.

The whole, Shark’s fin within the soup, it was so big! With an equally flavourful stock, all of us agreed that the Double-boiled dumpling with Shark’s fin was a delight, well maybe not for the sharks lovers.

I liked this. I’m a char siew sou man. And I was disappointed when there was no sight of it on the menu. And then the baked fluffy skin pie with chicken and mango came. Having the same (or almost) crispy, buttery pastry skin, the interior of the usual char siew was replaced by chicken and mango instead. And the marriage of chicken and mango was a good one, those two totally complimented each other well.

How can one reinvent a dish already done to death and found everywhere? Well, they either provide premium stuffing or reinvent the skin used to wrap the stuffing. For the steamed pork dumpling, they did neither but it was still a cut above the rest. The prawn was sweet and there wasn’t an overly-porky after-taste.

My, my. It was interesting to note, a mini version of claypot rice appearing in a restaurant. Call it a classic, the Mini pot rice with chicken was nothing mini in taste; the tasty Chinese sausages, the succulent mushrooms, and the tender chicken chunks. I had it a taste without any sauce initially, then I added some of the superior sauce that came along with it, and it did wonders - it literally enhanced the taste of the whole mini pot.

There was three different types of steamed rice roll served, but I just showed one photo since all rice rolls looked the same less the fillings. It was the standard-trio, scallops, char siew and prawn. And needless to say, most Chinese restaurants definitely uses fresh ingredients, so it was really down to the rice roll to determine the winner.

And I must say, Man Fu Yuan had silky smooth rice roll, and most importantly, they were not overly-thick.

I never liked beef balls, or for that matter, any type of meat balls. Just the sight of it made me full, I took a bite of the beef balls with bamboo pith, and unexpectedly, it wasn’t as heavy as I thought it would be. And there’s tripes at the bottom of the beef balls too.

It is a fine line between tradition and new, and I feel Man Fu Yuan balanced it very well. There are the traditional dim sum available for the purist who want their fix regularly, and not neglecting those who craved for innovation and excitement in their dining experience, the chefs played around with some other ingredients that are not commonly used in Chinese cuisine.

This marks the end of the dim sum marathon, and I must say I’ve enjoyed myself very much together with the rest; chatting and enjoying the good food. My appreciation to Sharon, the PR manager for hosting us, and Cuisine & Wine Asia for the invitation.

You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!

Brought a visiting friend to Man Fu Yuan based on its reputation and to check out Citibank's $68++ 1 for 1 deal for this month. Ambience wise, the place is really small by Chinese restaurant standards and furniture looks it has seen better days. Really dated.

Food
Appetiser was literally half a normal piece of peking duck in wrap with the usual bits and a piece of seafood fried with rolled vermicelli. Not the least impressed.

Soup was the shark's fin soup. Again it was ok, you will find more crab meat than shark's fin but at least there were little bits of the fins that was discernable.

Fried perch with thai chilli dressing was pretty decent. No fishy smell and thai chilli dressing was not too sweet. However, I would have much preferred perch not to be fried...hardly doing justice to a fine fish.

Sea cucumber with mushroom and vegetables. This sounds a lot better than it is. What you get is a overcooked piece of sea cucumber that has lost most of its bite. The piece of mushroom was flavourful and a whole lot more interesting than the dish.

Mee Sua. It's interesting in a good way. Steamed egg white with bits of possible dried scallop in a whitish broth. However portion is probably more suitable for a girl on a diet.

Pomelo, Sago with Mango. The dessert was pretty refreshing but not enough to save the meal.

Would I be happy paying S$68++ each for the food alone? Hell no! Even at S$43 nett after you include the $5++ for the tea and misc, it's hard to be inclined to make a second visit. It was hardly a satisfying meal.

Service wise, the waitresses were friendly and trying hard to be at the same levels at top restuarants. Having only 2 waitresses for a small restaurant only worked because there were only 2 tables dining this evening. As the restaurant is small, acoustics aren't very good and the manager and chef should have their discussions away from the guests rather than plonk themselves at one of the many empty tables.

As for the $13.80 per dish offer for the weekends, it states it's for per person and I would be inclined to think the portion is hardly sufficient to be shared.

Man Fu Yuan, according to my plebian Mandarin, can prolly be translated as Houseful of Fortune. However, after eating there on Mother's Day, I quite think otherwise.

Food: Below average for the prices charged. Mother and I had the standard yum cha items, coupled with soup and deepfried white bait and eefu noodles. Dessert was pretty good, but not as good as Peach Garden's.

Service: Expected better from a hotel restaurant. Waitstaff very clueless.

Ambience: Standard Chinese resto.

Bumped into three other friends who also brought their mothers there on the same day. We all looked at each other, shook our heads and unanimously issued an Underperform, SELL rating.

Been taking my parents around to try different Chinese food for special occassions and this visit to 满福苑 was marked by Mum's birthday. And being a huge supporter of UOB, I got us the birthday deal, which comes with 20% discount off the a la carte menu & a birthday cake.. hopefully baked by the Intercontinental Hotel.

The restaurant is 'well-hidden' at a corner of the hotel on Level 2, accessible by both the elevator, as well as the stairs. Silly me took the stairs with Mum, coz we missed the elevator lobby, but after which I had to meet my dad at the elevator lobby.

Well-attentive service crew, which sees to your every need, from continual refilling of your tea cups, as well as request for green & red cut chilli. Soft-spoken and polite and definitely added more pleasure to my visit.

1. XO Prawn Balls, which were served with broccoli, was a pretty good start to the whole dinner. Although I am unfamiliar with the taste of XO, I must say that the prawns were nicely soaked in the sauce. Succelent and fresh, coupled with the soft, yet not soggy broccoli... SHIOK!!

2. 2 Steamed Fish Fillets, of which I can't recall their names.. one was grilled before it was bathed in a creamy sauce, while the other was steamed with egg white. Both fillets were nicely steamed.. soft and sweet and well-complimented with its respective sauces. One can indeed taste its freshness!!

3. Bi Feng Tang Crispy Chicken, which was garnished with fried garlic bits. The accompanying sauce was sweet, yet carrying a tinge of sourness in it as well. Much of the meat served was from the drumlet and thigh area, which was a bonus for Dad and me, since we ain't big fans of breast meat.

4. Claypot Beancurd with Mushroom & Seafood, which actually comprised mainly of prawns. In this case, the prawns were not as succulent as that of the Prawn Balls but in general, it was a pretty good dish coz the beancurd was really soft and the sauce was really tasty. Furthermore, one can see that flour was not used in excess in making the sauce, as it did not clump or solidify together after turning cold. Plus point there!!!

5. Vermicella (if I spelt it correctly) with Seafood was the necessary carbohydrate required to round off the dinner. Not too dry, yet sprinkled with loads of prawns, scallops, fried egg etc. It was an excellent dish but I unfortunately, could not appreciate it wholely, as I was already too full from the above-mentioned dishes.

This will be a perfect place for hosting family dinners, especially birthday bashes for the older generation or to bring foreign friends to try out Chinese food. It won't exactly be a good place to be recommended for romantic dates coz the place is too brightly lit!! A total opposite to what is required for a romantic date.

If you have a table of 3 persons, it will be sufficient to order the small portions of the dishes, as they really do fill one up. Furthermore, small portions mean that one can try a greater number of different dishes as well!! =)

If u are looking for Tim Sum, look no more, this is the place! Fresh shrimps in all the dumplings and best shark fin dumpling in fantastic broth. No over fried seafood . I had went there for at least 10 times over the last 2 yrs!

This is a silver service restaurant. and this comes at a cost. Excellent for business lunches, or private dining. Service is smooth, efficient, discreet. Food is excellent, with a well balanced array of flavor and texture. Their Peking duck is excellent, as are the salt and pepper prawns. They come in the shell, as they should. Eat them shells and all. The crunch is part of the experience. The Wu Xi Pork Ribs are excellent. The wine list is small, but good quality.

As usual, I over ate in Man Fu Yuan. Top of my choice is their baked cod fish. Slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the outside, it's so delightful I could steal it off the plates of my fellow diners.

The sea cucumber and fish maw dish is also very good. It's not overcooked (which will make it too hard) and does not have any "funny" smell to it.

Oh gosh, now I am feeling desperately hungry...