Restaurant Week 2015 – Shisen Hanten 四川饭馆 @ Mandarin Orchard
Restaurant Week (RW) is back again and we are off to our very first dinner and the first tasting for this period! Off we go to Shisen Hanten at Mandarin Orchard and worries are uncalled for if you are worried like me that this will be one very Japanese restaurant and sashimi will be served here. There is nothing Japanese about this place other than maybe the chef, the chawamushi that was served or the Japanese wordings on the menu 😛
Restaurant Week Poster at the entrance
Dress Code for this Shisen Hanten – Smart Casual
The long flight of stairs that lead to the restaurant
Peek of part of the restaurant from the staircase
Full view of the restaurant upon reaching the base of the flight of stairs
Very grand and beautifu chandeliers.
A cosy area that is perfect for private function or even a wedding 🙂
The hazy view of the exterior from where we sat
Lovely Orchid on the table
The Restaurant Week Menu
About the restaurant.
This restaurant is about the third generation of Chen Kenmin, Chen Kentaro, continuing his family legacy of preserving and introducing Japan’s best love Szechwan Restaurant to audience in Singapore.
The October Specials that you can try. Prices look pretty OK but we do not know how big each portion is.
XO chilli and green cut chilli on the table.
Our pot of Chinese Tea – Tie Guan Yin 铁观音 at the side table.
In the background is the flight of stairs where we came down.
The chinese tea is chargable at $6++ per pax which we found to be a little too expensive.
Since the menu has already been fixed, we just waited for our first course to be served and we did not have to wait for long.
Top veiw of the Seafood and Bamoboo Pith Broth with Chawamushi 海鲜竹笙蛋糕汤
Digging in and scooping up spoonfuls of soft, fluffy steamed egg buried beneath the broth. We found the broth a little salty and the portion a tad small.
My soup after adding some vingear to cut the saltiness.
Our Second Course – Stir-fried Pork and Autumn Mushrooms with Szechwan Chilli Pepper 宫保秋菇黑猪肉
Close up of the dish
Pushing apart the ingredients.
There were 4 slices of pork in the plate, some lotus roots, autumn mushrooms, some spring onions and plenty of the dried chilli. Be careful not to bite into the sze chuan peppercorns for it will numb your tongue for a while. 😛
Close up of the Sze Chuan peppercorn and the dried chillis.
Finally, the last course for the RW Menu.
Alaska Crabmeat and Crab Roe Sauce with Ee-fu Noodle 蟹肉蟹黄焖伊面
Close up of the dish.
We were a little surprised at the portion and ingredients in it.
There were just a few mouthfuls in the bowl and the guys finished it in less than 2 minutes! (maybe it was 1!)
The noodle taste pretty bland after the strong flavours from the second course and I had to prep it up with the XO sauce on the table.
Gone in a few mouths!
We finished the 3-course dinner in record time less than 3omin! Something that totally surprised me as well for I am a slow eater! As we had a friend trying out Restaurant week for the first time, it was pretty embarrassing as the portions were considered small to me so I do not know which part of his stomach the food will be swimming in! LOL.
We took a browse of the main menu and I saw this executive set lunch menu (minimum of 2 person to dine) costing $42++(one main dish)/$50++ (2 main dishes) which looks way better than our RW dinner.
Dessert menu
PB mentioned that there is 50% discount for desserts specially for RW diners and since we had more than enough room in our stomach and the prices were pretty decent, we went for it.
We ordered the Chilled Mango Purée with Sago and Pomelo topped with Sherbet 杨枝甘露, $6++, a familiar dessert to all Singaporeans.
Ingredients in the Chilled Mango Purée with Sago and Pomelo.
The fragrant ball of sherbet
The puree had this weird fizzy feel to it and we were debating if it was because soda water was added to it, the fragrant sherbet had melted or worst case scenario, the puree had gone rancid? Paused for a while and finally decided to check with the service staff since there was no sight of the pomelo too (part of the reason why I ordered this dessert!).
The replaced bowl of dessert (the boys had already polished off theirs by this time!)
A check with the kitchen revealed that the pomelo was out of stock and a replaced bowl of dessert did not have the fizzy feel. :O
Our bill for 3 came up to $226(!!!) after factoring in our additional tea and dessert, 10% service charge and 7% GST, a price which all of us agreed would have been better spent had we ordered the ala carte dishes! For a restaurant of this class, it would have been expected of the staff to inform us that the ingredients are out-of-stock and whether we want to continue to order the item. It should not be what we experienced, somewhat having to accept item on a discount with missing ingredients.
Not too great a start to our RW Week. Keeping fingers crossed that my week will not carry on on this note 😛
Shisen Hanten 四川饭馆
Level 35, Orchard Wing
Mandarin Orchard Singapore 新加坡文华大酒店
333 Orchard Road
Singapore 238867
Tel: 6831 6262/6831 6266
Opening Hours:
Lunch: 12pm to 3pm, last order at 2.30pm
Dinner: 6pm to 10pm, last order at 9.45pm
Website: http://www.shisenhanten.com.sg/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shisenhanten
For more about restaurant week, refer to the below:
http://www.restaurantweek.sg/
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiningCitySG
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