Reunion Dinner at Hua Ting @ Orchard Hotel

Hua Ting (華廳)  is an award winning exquisite Chinese restaurant at Orchard Hotel.  Most people may pronunce the Ting as “tíng”  庭 which is more commonly used referring to garden or courtyard, however it actually is “tīng” 廳 or 厅 which refers to hall or central room to entertain guests.

This year, I had an early reunion dinner with my grand at Hua Ting Chinese Restaurant @ Orchard Hotel.  The Chinese New Year decor in the restaurant is much more subtle than the hotel itself.  As we have a private room to ourselves so the atmosphere is more relaxed and cosy.

As with any Chinese New Year meal, we will always start with the Lo Hei.  This is my second Lo Hei for this new year and still counting.  The reason for tossing this salad dish is so that we can have a prosperous year.

Our starters are the roast pork collar, roast duck with mango and jelly fish.  Pork collar is gaining a lot of popularity because it is slightly fatty and does not dry out when cooked for a long time.  I didn’t particularly enjoyed the pork collar because I found it to be too lean for my liking.  Would anytime prefer a fatty char siew.

Today we didn’t have sharkfin soup, instead it is with scallops.  I love this variety as compared to the sharkfins because there is something I can really chew on.  I always prefer a starchy soup like this versus a clear soup because it differentiates from what we have normally during meals and have a very smooth texture.

Next we have prawns and squid in a bed of snow peas.  I love this convenient way to eat prawns because no shelling is involved.  The restaurant served really giant squid because all of us have a really big chunky piece each.  Was slightly disappointing because the snow peas seems to be a little undercooked and tasted raw.

Next, we have three treasures on a bed of chinese lettuce.  This dished was served to us on individual plates.  The three treasures are abalone, deer tendons and a beancurd skin bag filled with preserved oyster, mushroom and fa choi.  Fa Choi is a black hair-liked hair weed that is common during the Chinese New Year.  It basically is tasteless but just sound good so is included into dishes during celebratory occassions.  When I saw this dish, I thought of my previous dinner at Hua Yu Wee.  I prefer their variety which they used inariage (sweeten bean curd skin, japanese style).

Next up is steamed Soon Hock fish, HK style.  The fish tasted fresh and a little chewy.

Chinese dinner always end with a carb.  We had the glutinous rice.  I really loved this rice a lot because it is bursting with the lap cheong (chinese preserved sausage) flavour.  My uncle commented that it is a tad too “grainy” and prefers it is more mushy.  I guess that depends on individual preference.

We had two desserts to end our meal.  One is red bean soup with seasame rice-ball.  Another is complimentary dessert from the restaurant – pan fried water chestnut cake and deep fried nian-gao (sweet rice cake).  I am not a fan of water chestnut cake but the fried nian gao is good though because it is not too sweet and not too sticky.

Overall, the dining experience is positive.  The service staff who was attending to us was very courteous, friendly and attentive to our needs.  The food though was quite average but was made good with the good service and atmosphere.  Still an ideal place for a reunion dinner.

Hua Ting Restaurant is located at 442 Orchard Road, Orchard Hotel, Level 2, Singapore 238879.  Opearating Hours: 11.30am – 2.30pm, 6.30pm – 10.30pm.  Please call (+65) 6739 6666 for reservations.