The hot and sour soup was excellent - spicy yet smooth. For mains we had ma puo tou fu - ok but too salty. The stir fried kai lan was about the only item we ordered that was not soaked in salt. The steamed fish was fresh and tasty. Menu seems ''limited'' - some fish as well as vegetables on the menu were ''not available''.

The xiao long pau was average.

The peking duck was disappointing. The marination or seasoning must have been inadequate - the strong unpleasant smell of duck was too overpowering.

Let me start by saying how I had sort-of high expectations for Min Jiang @ One North. I expected it to be a swankier, finer version of Min Jiang at Goodwood Park. In all, I was disappointed. Perhaps I should not have had such high expectations to begin with.

1. The service at Min Jiang has some high notes, but lacks the finer touch. Some staff are unable to speak or comprehend proper English well. One even wrongly described the dish that was served - as we were a little puzzled. The captain was attentive and friendly but the same can't be said of the rest of the staff. Maybe its a traditional Chinese restaurant thing - but the clanking of expensive cutlery when placing, the complete ignoring of the blatant need to change plates after 3 dishes and the thumping of plates and drinks when serving gets to me a bit.

2. The food. The food is average by all standards of comparison. For some reason, I felt everything felt extremely oily - even the Tofu.

We had the following dishes:
A. The Appetiser Platter - which has all the recommended stuff - lobster medallion, scallop, and a wasabi chicken and fried eel. Quite disappointing overall. I felt the chicken was the most original and solid one out of the 4. The scallop and the Lobster did not really amaze. The description on the menu way outdid the actual taste. The humble chicken was the most well done. I originally thought it was prawn!

B. Hot and Sour Soup - Averagely Decent

C. Sea Perch - We had it done 3 ways and I would say it all turned out very oily tasting and I had to have multiple gulps of tea to wash down the oil from it.

D. Deep Fried Sole in Milk crumbs ( I think) - Oily again

E. The Spinach Tofu - Decent, very soft, but the outside was overfried, making it a bit too crisp. It felt really oily too for some reason.

F. Camphor Tea Duck - opted to give the Peking Duck a miss, since we didn't have one "booked" and didn't want to start begging for it. Was good and tasted like a sturdier version of Peking Duck. Same as I remember from the original Min Jiang

G. Pork Belly - Average at best. I think I've tasted better. Also beware that the mantou bun that is supposed to come with it is actually some fusion interpretation and its a "stick of mantou flour" So if youre like me and need your pork belly with a good ol' mantou bun, you'll have to order that separately.

H. Also, Tea comes at something to the tune of $10 a person if you let them pick what Tea.

All in all, don't think we will be visiting it any time soon. Hei Tien Lo at Pan Pac and Summer Palace at Regent is a tingle more expensive but a whole lot better. Not just the food, but the service makes you feel all happy to part with those few hundred bucks for a 2 hour meal.

On the high side, Ambience (minus the service) was good. We had it alfresco and even as a typical air-con loving singaporean, I must say the alfresco was well received by my parents too!

I recalled that there was this one night that I was being summoned from my lesson in a nearby university to help my wife and friend finish this delicious fowl dish. After listening to the taunts over the phone, I whispered a good bye to my professor and sped over to, this fowl of a place, Min Jiang in Rochester Park. Since I was just doing a good deed by helping to finish the food, I did not pay...... :)

The Peking duck is a must try. Due to its popularity and the chef's insistence of still doing a good job of preparing this fare for you, PLEASE CALL TO BOOK YOUR DUCK! I've had Peking ducks from else where but having it in all alfresco style, in a restored Colonial style bungalow set among the greens, is quite a refreshing feeling. How do I express that feeling......hmm how about imagining you're a duck being liberated....ok cut the crap!

The Peking duck is served with many condiments and of course, it includes the tangy popiah skin that we wrap the duck skin with. Dip it into the special sauce that is provided, close your eyes and then let it slide into your mouth ...... Mouth watering climax achieved!

In another occasion, I had a family lunch and we were seated inside of the bungalow, on the 2nd floor. The duck was still good and the air conditioning was most welcome. I wouldn't encourage an alfresco lunch in our humid climate.

The original Min Jiang is at Goodwood park hotel. I won't go try it though as I feel adamantly that the same food will taste better with a good ambience.

Visit my food diary at......
http://4-the-love-of-food.blogspot.com/2008/09/min-jiang-one-rochester-what-fowl-place_09.html

True, Min Jiang's duck is done authentic Beijing style, with the meat sliced together with the skin, and the meat is very tender, but if you're like me what you're really after when you eat peking duck is crispy, melt in your mouth skin. And in this regard the duck was lacking, the two times I've had it. But if you just love duck, by all means go for it. They do the first serving in 3 ways; my personal favourite is still the traditional pancake, scallion, cucumber and sweet sauce style, but the pickled radish was a refreshing accompaniment. For the second serving, I would recommend you give the black pepper duck a miss. It somehow tasted like american chinese stir fry. The noodles were much better.

But everything else was good. The most recent time I went there we had, besides the duck, the appetiser platter, tofu with century egg and spinach, and asparagus with scallops and tientsin (I think I got the spelling wrong) mushrooms. At $22 a person, the appetiser platter was expensive, but was the highlight of the meal for me. I recommend you order at least one to share, because you get to try the best of the chef's appetisers. But, besides the crispy eel, there was only one of each thing, so sharing may be a little tricky. My favourite was the lobster with molten salted egg served in a kueh pie ti shell.

Service was attentive and well-meaning, though our waiter couldn't really express himself very well in English.

The food, though good overall, was not good enough to justify the price tag. So this is not a place I would come just to give myself a treat. But it would be a good place to treat someone to dinner at, since the ambience is nice enough.

If you ask me, this place is a much better place for Chinese food than Hua Ting.

I absolutely love the way they do their Peking Duck. It is not cheap though, we were fleeced. My good friend wanted to try everything that was recommended and we had our own plating of succulent fish, sharks fin soup and their wonderful wonderful coffee ribs amongst many other things. We couldn't even eat the noodles at the end

...will have to save up to go back there again.

If not for the fleecing, I would be back there every other day. So, do order from the menu.

Service was impecable, but if you take into account the fact hat we were "leaving it to them", that is expected and takes the Service level down a couple of notches.

Ambience is great as is expected of all Rochester units.