We went to one of our favorite restaurants after I picked up Sofia from
school today, but since it was still early, we couldn't order much, and it served more as a snack.
PARADISE DYNASTY, at the 4th floor of ION shopping mall on Orchard Road, is famous for their flavored Xiao Long Bao (soupy meat dumplings). We love it so much, that I normally don't use any sauce.
The eight flavors (original, crab roe, cheese, ginseng, garlic, sze chuan, foie gras and black truffle) can be ordered in a sampler. The restaurant even suggests the order in which you should eat them. After several visits where we were adventurous, we've decided that our clear favorites are the foie gras (yes, I love everything foie gras) and the black truffle one.
I call this post a 'teaser' because we only ordered 6pcs each of our favorite flavors and yang chow fried rice (which we ended up taking home), and all the pictures here were taken using my iPod touch!
When eating Xiao Long Bao, you need to handle the dumplings with care so the dough doesn't break, then you bite it to make a small hole where you can sip the soup or pour it on the spoon. The flavor makes the soup really tasty. You can actually see foie gras bits in the soup! Sofia likes only the soup and the dough, so my meal normally has less carbs. Hahaha...
The service is so good that when I showed them that 1 dumpling leaked before we touched it, they sent us two dumplings to replace it. Yumyum... Since they did not take the leaker back, we still ate it... Hahaha
This place has so many other yummy dishes available, it deserves a full post in the future, most probably when we have guests again.
The ambiance is nice and the price is quite reasonable. It's much nicer but just slightly more expensive compared to Din Tai Fung, my other favorite Xiao Long Bao place, which we go to for the best traditional Xiao Long Bao and when we're craving for really good fried pork chops that come with really good egg fried rice (topic for another day). For our 2 orders of 6pcs Xiao Long Bao and 1 order fried rice + a miscellaneous charge (to cover water or tea so I ask for both) for three pax, our bill was SG$46.14.
The Paradise Group (yes, they have other yummy restaurants. We've tried the Paradise Inn too and it's also very good) has just recently launched their Paradise Card which you can buy for SG$38. It comes with SG$45 credit that you can immediately use on your first visit, plus other vouchers, so buying the card was a no brainer. I only had to pay $1.15 after the credit was applied, so I saved $6 on a $46 meal. Not too bad! :) Every time you visit, the card entitles you to get 10% of your bill credited to your card which you can accumulate to apply to future bills.
Paradise Dynasty is quite popular so the queue is normally very long during the proper lunch or dinner hour. We normally try to come for a late lunch or an early or late dinner.
What can I say, I'm a sucker for good food and sucker for a good deal... Don't judge! Just saying.
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