Taste Paradise is one of the best Chinese restaurant in the Chinatown area. The restaurant is situated among the shophouses along mosque street. It has 2 private dining rooms that can be used collectively as one. Public parking may be an issue during the weekends. However, valet service is available. For a restaurant in Chinatown, the service quality is quite good.

I have revisited this restaurant for a free meal ( a really nice lunch treat from 2 of my friends), for the degustation menu, and I'll still have the following as my favourites.

Double boiled superior shark's fin soup :
No offense here to the shark conservationist, I like this the most. The broth is boiled with pork bone and chicken stock for 12 hours and it is served with the spring onion crispy stick. Everytime I'm here, the waiteress will inform that this dish is best not to be eaten with pepper or vinegar as it'll spoil the original flavour of the broth.

Wasabi mayonnaise prawn :
The wasabi bring's out the natural sweetness of the prawn. (This one I still prefer the Majestic Hotel one...... somehow)

Pan seared foie gras :
The foie gras is seared to the right texture and for a person who's not a foie gras fan, the portion is just right that the richness of this cuisine will not affect your taste bud for subsequent dishes. This looks a bit charred though.

One more well known secret dish is the XO fried carrot cake. Try it........ and be your own judge.

For photos and more details, see:
http://4-the-love-of-food.blogspot.com/2008/08/taste-paradise-certainly-one-of-best.html

This restaurant was been recommanded by my colleague & i've been there twice for the past 3 months. Meal was been treated by my vendor so i ate for free :P

The pricing is a bit steep but the food & service was excellent. We have ordered their in-house famous appetizer, shark fin, cod fish, lamp, noodle with an abalone & the desert. Refer to the attach pictures.

Overall, thumbs up to this restaurant :)

Went with 7 friends for dinner. Excellent restaurant: high quality fusion food; friendly and efficient service; and quite good value for money. The place to host a "special occasion"dinner and open a bottle or two of one's own wine! (Corkage is charged, but this is waived depending on how much one spends on food).

Best dishes:
Foie Gras, Wasabi Prawn appetizers. (We requested extra order of the Foie Gras in place of the Duck appetizer. Kitchen obliged with a reasonable extra charge).
Chef's special version of Sharks Fin Soup
Lamb Rack

The Lobster with Ramen dish was quite good but not as impressive as the above items. We enjoyed the presentation and taste of the dessert, Or-Ni with young Coconut.

Dislike: Noted a tendency on the wait-staff's part to remove glasses or plates before one has quite finished with the wine or food.

Had dinner at taste Paradise, an upmarket offering by the Paradise Group of Restaurants, which also owns and operates the popular Seafood Paradise at Defu Lane and the Singapore Flyer. Opened less than 2 years ago, it has made it to the Straits Times top 100 restaurants as well as garnered rave reviews from magazines and forums.

Hidden along a row of shophouses along Mosque Street in the traditional Chinatown area, Taste paradise sets itself apart with its classy glass facade. Through the doors onto the lighted walkway that leads up to the dining area, the interior oozes chic in a very subtle way. The dining area is divided into a few sections by means of partitions in which there are a couple of tables and a captain to oversee each section. Heavily carpeted floors coupled with a low ceiling and a rather limited floor area meant that conversation tones had to be kept to a low for fear of disturbing the other customers (not that we did though).

XO Carrot Cake - One of Taste Paradise's signature dishes, the humble XO carrot cake. It honestly wasn't impressive when served, looking more like your usual stir fried rendition from the hawker centre than a $7 plate of carrot cake. But pop a piece into your mouth and you will understand why it is truly one of the signature dishes. Chunky yet smooth and soft carrot cake with a discernible wok hei taste fried with beansprouts, egg, Chinese sausages and other condiments. Lightly spicy and sweet and not to mention fragrant. Nothing short of excellent.

Combination of Pan Seared Foie Gras, Wasabi Mayonnaise Prawn and Slice of Beijing Duck with Condiments - I was actually wondering how did foie gras get onto the menu and initially skeptical if a Chinese restaurant could pull it off. Just for the record, Taste Paradise is a Chinese fusion restaurant, which explains why foie gras is listed on the menu. As for my initial skepticisms, they were unfounded. The foie gras was very good, crisp on the outside yet soft, quivery and smooth on the inside. No overwhelming taste or sediments.
The wasabi mayonnaise prawn was quite good as well, with the wasabi not overpowering and the prawns fresh and crunchy. I personally liked it together with the watermelon as the sweetness from the watermelon permeated through.
The only bummer was the peking duck which didn't seem memorable. Sure the skin was crispy but the crepe tasted bland and limp.

Double Boiled Superior Shark's Fin with Dried Conpoy in Traditional Beijing Broth accompanied with Bacon Onion Roll - Another recommended dish, the shark's fin soup, was served up in a pre heated Japanese stone pot which can remain hot for 20 minutes, thus ensuring that the soup remains hot till the last drop. The fins were decent and plentiful while the soup was flavourful and thick. A little too starchy and heavy on the vinegar though, which made it a little sharp. The bacon and onion roll was crispy but other than the novelty, didn't seem to complement the dish very well. On a side note, there are 3 variations in prices for the shark's fin. $38, $58 and $68 (which isn't on the menu). You get what you pay for. The quality of the fins improve as the prices tend upwards.

Braised Homemade Beancurd with Shredded Scallop and Japanese Mushroom - Tofu has always been a staple at most of my Chinese dinners and this one was no exception. The tofu was very smooth and silky but the skin was a tad too hard and it lacked the smokey savoury taste that I personally like. Even the sauce was rather bland. And for $6 a person, it was 1 piece of tofu each.

Spinach Fried with Garlic - The low point of our meal, the quintessential vegetable dish. Very average tasting but at least the diced garlic was fried till golden brown, which gave the vegetables a nice slightly crunchy texture.

Szechuan Style Roasted Chicken with Homemade Crispy Crumbs - We ordered this on the recommendation of the captain and also because it sounded interesting. Honestly the only interesting part was the crispy crumbs, which I believe were rice crisps. They were coated with a Szechuan sauce which gave them a myriad of flavours - sweet, sour and spicy, all in one tasting. The roasted chicken didn't taste out of the ordinary but the execution was commendable. Crispy skin with moist and tender meat.

Mashed Taro with Almond Cream Served in Fresh Coconut - My dessert and no, it wasn't complimentary (only chilled desserts were accorded that privilege). Its the first time I've seen mashed taro or Orh Nee served up in a coconut and predictably, the coconut smell was very strong. Not that it mattered anyway as there wasn't a hint of coconut taste in both the almond cream and mashed taro. I usually don't like almond cream but this one wasn't too strong on the almond taste which suited me just fine. The mashed taro was smooth and not too sweet but more interestingly, it contained bits of chestnut, which added a nice crunchy texture and is used predominantly used in Teochew cooking. The only gripe was that the taro was a little too sticky and I had problems licking if off my spoon. Oh and there's the almost exorbitant price as well ($6.50).

An excellent dinner for 5 set us back by about $454, which is really quite steep. However I'll be the first to admit that food quality is top notch and so is the personalised service extended by the captain and his team. I can see why Taste Paradise is rated as one of the top restaurants in Singapore. And I agree.

See all my pictures here.

Haha, so long never write a review. Its not as if i havent been eating or anything(heavens forbid...haha). Just that i've been busy with work amongst other stuff. In fact i've been dining so well that i've acquired a new 'fren'. I call him tummy. Watever...moving along.
Celebrated my bdae there in Oct. Here's what we had:

-Peking Duck
-Shark's Fin Soup
-Curry Mayo Prawns
-Cod Fish
-Remainder of the Duck
-Stir-Fried Veg
-Lamb Rack
-Mango Pomelo

Peking Duck. Not bad. Crispy Skin, nice sweet sauce. But then I'd expect nothing less than this for the kind of price I'm paying.

Shark's Fin in Japanese Hot Pot, guranteed to stay hot for at least 20 mins! Their signature dish. They will actually "intro" the soup when they serve it. Niffy eh...That'll impressive ur guest plenty.
"...boiled for more than 12hrs...". The soup falls a little short of its acclaimed fame. The broth seems to be a little lacking in substance but the soup's loaded with fins, abalone and conpoy. So u cant complain they stinge on the ingredients. The accompanying crispy onion bacon roll is an exquiste touch to the dish.

Curry Mayo Prawn. WOW. Their best dish yet. And i tink probably the first chinese restaurant to do. While all the other restaurants are tryin thier best to come out with the "...We do the best wasabi prawns and its totally different from what u can get in other restaurants(NOT!)...", Chef Fung has decided just to do away with wasabi and presto! U got curry mayo prawns. Possibly the first chinese restaurant to do so. Did i mention he uses nice, enormous, succulent prawns for this dish.

Now that they've really got my taste buds goin, i wanted to see how they were goin top their previous dish. Seems impossible huh?? I tot so too, till i tried his Cod fish with teriyaki sauce. I stand corrected. OMG. Really paradise already. The cod was perfectly baked, garnished with a little roe and strands of fibre-like fried garlic.

Lamb rack. I stand corrected again. This is by far Chef Fung best dish of the day. His lamb is very very very nicely done. My knife went thro the lamb like butter. The meat inside was a nice pinkish hue with not a drop of blood. The taste was so tender n smooth I almost tot i was eating the famed marbled beef!(Almost). Imagine finding a chinese restaurant that does its lamb so well, it puts the other westerns/steakhouses to shame. And at $15 per per lamb its surprisingly quite reasonable. He uses 2 racks but removes 1 rib so it's one nicely thick cut, as explained to me by Chef Fung. Pure Paradise.

Mango pomelo. Heh. Seems like every chinese restaurant has it nowadays. While Taste's is not spectacular, it decent enough. Order it even if you're not a big fan cause it comes floating on a bed of mist! How cool is that?!? It even comes with a scoop of coconut ice cream to boot!

This place definately rox! The service was immaculate n impeccable(can i use that in the same sentence??) My plates n my guests' were changed so many times i lost count. Kudos to the management team of Melvin Fan n Pinky Wong. Both are not local(HK if i'm not wrong). Sometimes i wonder, is it only foreigners that noe how to give good service.

Overall, this chinese restaurant in the heart of chinatown is a gem. Chef Fung is an old-schooled trained but new age chef. He keeps himself constant by participating in competitions yet always returns back to the kitchen at the end of the day. Unlike some celebrity chefs that forget how to cook once they attain some sort of fame. A talking chef, Chef Fung is not. You can taste his fusion of food in his dishes. From his "Shark's fin in Japanese Hot Pot" to his inspired "Curry Mayo Prawns" and tantalising "Lamb in reduction". He blends japanese, western, indian and chinese into a symphony of flavours, yet never losing harmony along the way. Owner Eldwin Chua would do good to make sure he doesnt lose his chef. Last I heard, he's opening a new restaurant at the S'pore flyer. Can't wait.


P.S. What can i say? Been back there 3-4 times since. If u're a little bugeted, just stay off the pricier stuff n u shld be fine.($45 per person)