This is not my first time at Peony Jade. The past 2 times had been nice, this third one seems even better. Despite being the CNY season and all tables were taken up, they managed to serve the food promptly.

We ordered the CNY set menu. Almost all the dishes were satisfying with the exception of the dessert which consist of one rice dumpling in ginger soup. The service was great. Tea was topped up very fast, plates were promptly cleared and the staff were always greeting you with a smile.

Highly recommended for a delightful family gathering.

Read the full review at http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com

Peony-Jade consistently ranks as one of the best Chinese fine-dining restaurants around. They serve Cantonese and Sichuan classics, in a traditional setting filled with vivacious red hues, sophisticated dark woods and hanging Chinese lanterns and grand chandeliers. In addition, the restaurant's location on the second floor of a converted godown along Clarke Quay ensures gorgeous views of the Singapore river and hence cements this place as one of the go-to places for entertaining business guests or friends from out of town.

Please note that it's best to make reservations on weekends. The food's a bit pricey but it's undeniably delicious. Plus you get a good 15% discount with an OCBC credit card.

We had:

1) Braised Fish Maw & Dried Scallop Soup ($15) which arrived in an unusual but pretty cocktail glass. The portion was small but it was comforting and yummy

2) Stir Fried String Beans with Minced Pork ($18) wasn't the best I've tried, but this was commendable. The string beans were perfectly fried to a smoky fragrance, and wilted just right, while the chunky minced meat was tasty without being salty. A little spice would have enlivened this dish

3) Braised Homemade Beancurd with Golden Mushroom and Dried Scallops ($18), silky soft and wobbly beancurd, with a nicely browned exterior, and a generous slathering of rich gooey mushroomy gravy, accented simply with conpoy

4) Braised Ee-Fu Noodle with Prawns and Golden Mushroom ($22), noodles were braised just right, soft, not limp, with beansprouts lending crunch and mushrooms adding texture. My only gripe was the somewhat artificial crunch and slightly alkaline quality of the prawns

5) Sea Perch Fillet Steamed with Crispy Soy Bean Crumbs ($17) was too tiny a portion. Good as it was, and moist as the fish was, this still totally wasn't worth its $17 price-tag

Had dinner with a couple of friends at Peony Jade @ Clarke Quay one weekday evening to celebrate the mundaneness of working life (how ironic!).

Honey Char Siew - We started off with the honey char siew, which was definitely nothing near the best I've had but still passable with little charred bits along the edges. The meat could have been more fibrous and the sauce, a little richer though.

HK Kailan - Stir fried with garlic, this was one weird kailan. The initial taste was one of sheer bitterness but subsequent bites yielded slightly different tastes. The funny thing was, the more you eat, the more it normalises. And I wasn't the only one who thought so. Strange indeed.

Golden Mushroom Beancurd - One of my two personal favourites of the dinner, the smooth beancurd was savoury with tons of golden mushroom atop and soaked in a not too starchy gravy. Simple yet satisfying.

Smoking Duck - Apparently one of Peony Jade's signature dish and also one of the flops that evening, the smoking duck was just too dry and gamy for my liking. The smoking was also quite uneven and I could taste strong hints of tea in some parts while other parts were just gamy. I did like the semi sweet clam shaped mantous that came alongside though but I did think that they could have done with a little more moisture.

Salty Yolk Prawns - The salty yolk prawns were as good as I remembered them to be - de-shelled, fresh, crunchy and ladled with a creamy and rich sauce that carried a little curry tinge towards the end. However the gravy honestly did seem a little more watery than before. Signs of cost cutting?

With a 15% discount, dinner for the 6 of us cost about $212, which isn't very expensive but quality seemed to have dipped somewhat. I wonder if Peony Jade's other outlet @ Keppel Club is any better?

See all my pictures here.