Min Jiang @ One-North

Based on the title, many will defintely ask where is the best and the answer is Paradise Pavillion at MBFC.

However, the Peking duck here is commendable. They served the delicacy in 2 different styles, the original peking style and the Sze chuan style (Can understand since this is a Sze Chuan Restaurant). Like the Sze Chuan style as its more spicy and different. After all these years of the standard Peking duck, it is really nice to have something different. They serve their peking duck the Beijing method, skin with meat and using white flour skin. Most restaurants in Singapore use yellow skins, which is made using eggs and thats why the yellow colour. The white skin is plain.

As for the rest of the dishes, most are served individual portioned. The spinach home-made tofu is very tasty and well done, the sauce taste great too. We had the baked Chilean Sea Bass and i would say it taste like cod fish. Its very well done and the meat is very juicy and tasty. The desserts are fine too.

The restaurant is surrounded by greenery and therefore, has a very relex and casual feel when u sit outside the restaurant. However, the inside of the restaurant is crampy when all seats are filled up. The outside seats are more romantic and dim. However, one drawback is that you may not be able to see the dishes served clearly and fail to enjoy the food presentation. If you are sitted outside, you can see the corner where they roast their Peking duck.

I had the luxury to visit Min Jiang @ One North with my family days ago.

First of all, we had to alight from the taxi at the main entrance (where One Rochester is at), although we were told by the staff that we could have entered through the other road, which drives us right to the door step. (Dumb us!)

We were greeted by a simple front deco. The dining area is nicely covered for more privacy, despite them by one wall apart.

We arrived 'early' for dinner @ 7pm. Tables were hardly taken at that point of time. For 3 of us, we had quite a number of dishes (in my opinion)

Dish 1 - Hot and Spicy soup. It's forgettable. It really tasted like campbell soup, no matter how hard I try not to link them together. Maybe even worst..

Dish 2 - Sauteed beans with minced beef. It tasted a little too salty and spicy. However, we enjoyed it very much together with a couple bowl of RICE.. :)

Dish 3 - Asparagus with Scallop. My all-time favourite dish. Greens weren't oily at all. Asparagus seems to be stir-fried and finally ran with hot water to give it crisp and clean flavour. Scallop was a tad over-cooked but I still loved it to the max.

Dish 4 - Peking duck (Pre-ordered). I enjoyed the Chef's showsmanship of slicing the skin off the neck. We were offered 3 different way of eating it. 2 were to wrapped with their signature 'skin' which was a tad too thick for me, but heavenly for my mum and sis. Lastly, the skin with sugar was out of the world! I didn't know it would work like this...

Dish 5 - Double flavoured Prawns. It came with oat? (if I did not remember wrongly) and strawberry sauce. The strawberry flavoured was really different, nothing like the ones I had. It's good to be unqiue. But nothing special on the palate, really. After consuming a piece, I found a strand of hair, nicely 'standing' on the other prawn. The server replaced the dish promptly. No complains :)

Dish 6 - We asked for the remaining duck meat to be stir-fried with rice. We practically had rice only. Even though I knew it was supposed to be diced-duck, the diced-duck was however too small to be seen. Doesn't matter anyway. We were pretty much full already.

Dish 7 - Was a dessert ordered by my sis. It's like deep-fried 'Nian Gao' with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Min Jiang has this practice that only the server taking care of the station can/should serve the food. Hence, when the dessert was ready at the counter, the other staff went over to tell her. However, it was left on the desk for about 2mins? before she was able to send us the dish after being a temp-photographer. You should know what happened.

Dish 8 - White fungus dessert. Cold and refreshing. Nothing special but pleases me much. :)

Overall, I had a good experience at Min Jiang. The reason I tried this restaurant because I heard the Peking Duck was really good. However, I felt it was so-so only. I might be wrong because I have no clue what a good Peking Duck is like. It just didn't pleased my palate. I am still on the hunt.. (Any recommendation?)

We all know there are many places that serve better chinese food than MJ. But, for the combination of ambience, service and everything else, MJ is definitely one of the few restaurants that provided me good vibe. Cheers.

This is a must-try place if you like Peking Duck. And the ambience is lovely too for a nice a posh Chinese meal. Of course such combination comes at fairly pricey range. But it's good indulge yourself and your loved ones once in a while.

Me and my family went to Min Jiang for my Dad's birthday. Normally I would not have stepped into such an expensive place without doing extensive research, but my mother decided we were going.

So I made the reservation, and I was asked if we wanted to pre-order the special, which was Peking duck. I did.

On the actual day, we looked through the very extensive menu, and decided we were going to get one of the set dinners, as we are indian and it is difficult for us to know what is good. 

I truly enjoyed the peking duck - the skin was roasted to perfection, and practically melted when I ate it with the sugar. The rest of the food, whose names I honestly do not remember, were alright, but I don't think it was value for the kind of money I was paying.

The other thing our family enjoyed was one of the very expensive teas that they have. It was expensive, but it was aromatic perfection, and something I don't normally get to enjoy at chinese restaurants. I do remember that the noodles was very plain and something I would get to eat at a hawker centre.

The ambience was really good - perfect for a date, I have to say, even though I wasn't on one.

I apologise for this terrible review - I meant to write it right after I went, which was in August, but I completely forgot, so I forgot most of the names of the dishes.

It's been a while since I've had noteable Chinese cuisine. Last night was well worth the trip to Rochester Park (which is all honesty is far more accessable that Dempsey Hill) being only a 5-10min walk from Buona Vista mrt.

Anyway, I came with a British-Chinese friend of mine who had previously been and was rather impressed.

I left underdstanding the recommendation, and frankly as I write this I am craving the duck we ate there.

What really impressed me about this restaurant was that considering the location and the quality of the food, it is neither ridiculously expensive nor snooty. The service is good, and they actually speak english!!!! (Sorry, not to sound like a total expat but considering English is meant to be the languages of business etc in Singapore, I keep finding places where it seems only the owner can speak the language...something i'm yet to phathom).

So, the service was good, the atmosphere is elegant but not pretentious and the food, well - i'll tellyou more about it now.

We had a 1/2 Peking Duck, which was cut in front of us and then prepared by the staff in both traditional and Sichuan styles. Both were exquisite, especially the Sichuan style which I had not tried before. The second serving was duck noodles..again very good. On top of this, we also got 2 Hot and Sour soups which were very flavourful and balanced.

All in all (UOB 15% off discount - Cheers UOB), the meal was $60 i.e. $30 each. Not too shabby for a place like that for dinner.

Really no complaints. It was very good and I will be back soon.

Among the restaurants found in Rochester, sadly Min Jiang is housed the furthest from the carpark and is the most hidden and dilapidated(at least from the front) of the Rochester bungalows now used as restaurant premises but as long as the food is good right? Having patronised Min Jiang @ Goodwood Park Hotel several times before, I had pretty high expectations for the Rochester branch. 

There are 2 levels for indoor air conditioned dining as well as a lovely veranda for al fresco dining.

The menu at the here is not quite as extensive as the one at Goodwood Park(since there isn’t any auntie with a pushcart of fried items) so I was slightly disappointed as some of my favourite items were missing. 

The Pan-fried Carrot Cake($3.80++) was well executed. The exterior was crispy but not overfried such that there was the bitter charred taste of burnt carbs. I would recommend this.

Deep Fried Prawn Dumplings($4.80++) were boringly nice. The prawns were fresh and what’s not to love about a mayo dip?

The Baked BBQ Pork Puff aka Char Siew Sou($5.50++) was sub-par. The pastry wasn’t buttery as it was flaky and the char siew fillings were pathetic in both portion and taste(or the lack of it). The addition of pork floss was a nice little touch but I’m still left swooning over Hua Ting’s CSS though, which is one of my favourite so far.

Ubiquitous in every dim sum meal; the Har Kow or Steam Prawn Dumplings($7.50++). The ones here are a little more special, the prawn filling supposedly comes with Lingzhi mushroon and Australian Asparagus, though I didn’t detect any as I gobbled it all down in one mouthful. I would have savoured it a little more had I known it was an atas Har Kow. Nevertheless, the translucent Har Kow skins means the thickness is just about right! If you can close one eye to the heftier pricetag, I think it’s definitely worth a try.

Another dim sum staple, the Steamed Rice Noodle with Char Siew aka Chee Cheong Fan($4.80++) had a smooth silky texture and slid down my throat effortlessly. It’s such a simple dish and yet so many places get it wrong but I’m pleased Min Jiang is not one of them.

Mum’s the expert when it comes to Chicken Feet($4.50++) and since she had no qualms with the ones here served in Sichuan Chili Black Bean Sauce, I assumed it must have been alright, at least to me it was good. I’d love to think of the springy glistening feet as being high in collagen or some other mineral good for complexion and such, but deep inside I know it’s just fats…still we can dream, can’t we?

Mention Xiao Long Bao and most people, myself included, will immediately think of Din Tai Fung but with falling standards, the Steamed XLBs($6++) at Min Jiang easily trumps the former. It’s not the best around and the skin is slightly on dry side, but the soup is flavourful and meat tender and savoury. Slurps…ahhhhh….

There was nothing particularly memorable about the Char Siew Baos($5.50++).

I love scallops! So I’m not being very objective when I say I love the Steamed Fresh Scallop Dumpling($4.80++). My only gripe is that the scallop and prawn fillings are too small!

Congee is such a modest and humble dish. We had Century Egg($6++) as well as a Fish Congee and it went down well with me. Something light to wash down any oil from the fried items.

Overall, I feel that Min Jiang serves above average dim sum that is pleasing to the palate. Although it’s still far from being the best and the types of dim sum served at the Rochester branch is somewhat limited, I do appreciate the serene feeling of dining among the luscious greenery.  

Bon Appetit! 

For the full review/pics, do visit http://yumyumformytumtum.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/min-jiang-1-north/

We just celebrated my mom's birthday here.

The ambience was a little weird with Christmas music being played in the background, but still, al fresco dining in the cool evening breeze was enjoyable. The lamps were a little too dim, barely illuminating the dishes and thus not doing the food presentation much justice. There was a little difficulty reading the menu at the beginning and signing the bill at the end...

The service was good, except that my dad commented that he would have much preferred the waiter to lay the Peking duck condiments on the table before launching into his explanation. As the waiter was explaining while he held the dishes in his tray, all three of us were craning our necks to see what he was referring to... and as he was speaking right over our food, one can't help but wonder how much of his saliva went into our condiments :)

Food was impeccable. Duck was one of the best we've tasted, the double-boiled abalone soup was flavourful and the tofu-mushroom & crabmeat dish was a delight. Even the duck noodles at the end packed a punch.

Bill totalled around $45 per person, which we thought was a steal for such great food, relaxing environment and attentive service.

Definitely coming back.

The ambience here is very pleasing and soothing. Just try to mentally block out the cars passing on the nearby road, which is just beyond the shield of trees.

The Peking duck was very tasty, though not as tasty as the duck in Beijing itself.

The restaurant is truly beautiful though.

So, the rich mate decided to give me a fine-dining treat in the far end of singapore as a very belated birthday meal. He tempted with the lure of juicy peking duck in 3 different versions in Min Jiang and I agreed without hesitation.

The highlight of the meal to me would be (1) Margarita on the rocks & (2) Wrapped Peking duck.

The remaining of the duck was used to stir-fry with black pepper and wrapped in crepe with spicy sauce. The stir-fried duck was a tad too dry (whatever happened to the juicy promises?) and the combination of peppers with it was just too much for me. We ordered a side dish of dumplings, asparagus with scallops and for the life of me I don't remember the third dish. The vegs were ok, the dumplings' skin were slightly too thick (believe me, Din Tai Fung was much better in this) and the third dish must be too forgettable to warrant memory space.

My friend called me ungrateful when I mentioned that this was not worth the money. Oh well, there goes my last ever treat from him.

Service is excellent, I must say. But Min Jiang is a place meant only for bringing foreign friends for a fine-dining chinese cuisine to give them a 'WOW'. It will not be able to draw the locals who knows what good local food really should taste like.

I arrived for dinner with great expectations because my parents always said they wanted to try out Min Jiang.

Mediocre. Mediocre. Mediocre.

We got the set menu at $88+ per person x2 for the three of us to share. Ordered some other dish as well. Appetiser was all right(I don't know what it is) and sharks fin soup was salty but not too bad.

Then the hairy crab dish arrived. Waitress kindly opened the crab for us but the hairy crab was dismal. The taste was lacking and there wasn't much of the meat to eat(which was ok). Lots of crab roe though. I didn't like the crab roe. The sauce for dipping didn't go very well with it either. However, as hairy crab dishes are typically prepared steamed, if it tasted bad, the problem lies with the crab and not the cook then. I am not an expert with crabs but my taste buds were not delighted.

The next dish was some mushroom and fishcake... Oily and salty. Not to mention weird. Fried rice was oily and salty too... But it was edible. Spinach tofu dish was OILY too.

Maybe we ordered the wrong set today. Maybe the chef was in a bad mood.

Fried mantou was good though. But I have yet to find a restaurant that can screw up even the mantou.

Service was painfully slow even though the staff tried to be accomodating. We left without eating the dessert because my father got pissed off by the mediocre food and how slow the dishes took.

I will not return again. I understand that this is a well established restaurant with followers who enjoy their food. However, my experience was disappointing.

I really didn't like the hairy crab :(