Then one day while lunching at the outlet in Plaza Singapura, one of the service crew told us the outlet will be closed next week. Before she could finish what she wanted to say, disappointment set in. Luckily, she continued and said the outlet will be closed for renovations only!
And so recently, the newly renovated outlet has re-opened. They have changed their concept slightly. It is no longer serving purely Cantonese favourites like roast meats, congee, noodles and dim sums. They have included an all day buffet steamboat to this outlet on top of the Cantonese favourites.
I was delighted when I was invited to my very first food tasting session (apart from my wedding dinner's food tasting session :P) by Crystal Jade and its PR agency - Pinstripes Communications!
Before dinner commenced, I went to take a look at the buffet bar. I noticed their buffet concept is quite similar to one of my favourite Japanese shabu shabu. Having dined at this shabu shabu outlet countless times, immediately I could see that Crystal Jade's offerings are definitely more value for money. They offered more than 35 types of ingredients, 6 different soup bases and the buffet prices included free flow drinks.
I love steamboats that offer thinly sliced meats. They make chewing so much easier (oh well I'm not an old lady but maybe a lazy one who doesn't like to chew on my food for too long). Meats like these make a good meal for elderly as well as kids.
Besides ingredients for steamboat, there are some fried cooked food items too.
Diners are free to concoct their own sauce with the 12 types of condiments available.
We were introduced to this QQ Rice (mix of glutinous and white rice) and its special homemade sauce of scallion oil and ginger. You are supposed to mix the sauce into the rice to eat. I'm a carbo person and I love glutinous rice. This is a must try and I will let you know of my verdict later.
Soft serve free flow ice cream is also available at the buffet bar.
Free flow of drinks... chilled or hot - your choice!
The newly renovated interior at Plaza Singapura is definitely more modern and lavish looking. The seats are so much more comfortable now. So glue yourself to the seats right away and enjoy the meal!
For a 90 mins dinner session, these are the prices:
Dinner - Weekdays
Adults: $20.90++
Children: $17.90++
Dinner - Weekends
Adults: $26/90++
Children: $23.90++
They do serve lunch time steamboat at very reasonable prices too. Call Crystal Jade to find out more.
The soup bases available are Pork's Bone, Miso, Superior, Fresh Tomato, Curry and Spicy Mala. I'm not a fan of Spicy Mala and Fresh Tomato. So if you are fussy like me, there are other choices that will definitely suit your taste buds. This evening, we had curry and pork's bone. Next visit, I want to try their superior and miso soup bases. :)
The steamboat pot is sitting on an induction cooker. But the induction cooker is not visible. It may not be visible but it produces enough heat to get your food cooked. This is really such a welcoming concept especially if you have young kids dining with you. This will ensure they do not get scalds or burns (kids can have really itchy hands and wants to experiment with everything).
Remember earlier I mentioned that they have changed the concept a little to include steamboat but they are not doing away with their Cantonese favourites? Yes and so we had pre-steamboat 'appetisers'.
The first we had was ha-kau. This is one of the must order item everytime we visit Crystal Jade and it is also one of its signature dish. The ha-kau is really made to perfection with prawns that are fresh and skin not too thick. A basket of 3 ha-kaus cost $4.60.
Deep-fried yam puff with minced meat - I don't normally order fried yam stuff and eat minced meat. Yam when fried tends to absorb the oil and makes it too oily for consumption and as for minced meat, it is just a personal taste bud preference that I don't like it. But surprisingly this combi is awesome! The fried yam is not as oily as I thought it would be. In fact, it was very tasty. The minced meat portion is just nice and not too dry. My mum loves yam and after eating this, I am already planning to bring her to Crystal Jade one day to try this. $4 for this serving is really worth it!!
My hub is a fan of siew mais. I'm more of a ha-kau person. The meat and prawn in the siew mai is fresh and juicy. For a serving of 3 pcs, its $4.20.
This dim sum is very freshing for me! It's actually pan-fried fish cake with radish. I cannot really taste the radish taste but each bite exudes a very nice taste to it. It's crispy on the outside due to the fried wanton skin and I understand that this is actually a very old-school dim sum item in Hong Kong and its rarely found in Singapore. This is also $4/serving of 3 pcs. This will probably be my to-order list when I visit Crystal Jade again.
Crystal Jade was really generous in feeding us. We were served with a platter of their roasted combination consisting of roast duck, roast pork belly and honey barbequed pork. This serving is enough for up to 6 pax and it costs $38.60. If you find this upgraded platter too much for your group, there is always a smaller platter with the same combination at $25.80 which is good for 3-4 pax.
Out of the three meats, I particularly like the roast duck meat. The meat is very tender and flavorful as it is being seasoned with various chinese herbs stuffed in the stomach before being roasted. We were told the ducks are specially selected from Ipoh's duck farm where newborn ducks are raised to 7 weeks.
My second favourite is the roast pork belly. The seasoning of salt and five spice powder is done just nicely and not too salty. I have eaten roast pork belly elsewhere where it tasted like I'm eating salt than the meat.
The honey barbequed pork which is commonly known as char siew is a boneless pork being glazed with a mixture of honey and sauces. The char siew from Crystal Jade is tender and juicy. If you noticed I had mentioned several times in this entry about dry meat. I am a person who dislikes chunky of dry meat because they make swallowing so unpleasant. That is also one reason why I seldom eat char siew because not many places serves nice juicy char siew.
So if you are not a steamboat person, you can always order the usual Cantonese favourites from their ala carte menu.
Like I mentioned, I love steamboat buffets that serves thin slices of meat! These meat are available only upon request as they need to be kept refrigerated to ensure freshness. We tried the chicken, pork and beef slices. My all time favourite is beef and the beef slices at Crystal Jade did not fail. The only discomfort I had was with its pork slices. There is a porky stench if you get what I mean. While I can still accept it, it doesn't make me want to eat more of its pork slices. So I ate more of the beef and chicken slices instead.
The soup base we had was pork bone and curry. Initially I was kinda skeptical about having curry as the soup base. But surprisingly the curry soup base tasted really nice. It's not too spicy and yet not too thick. Had the curry soup base been the thick gravy type I don't think I would have liked it as much. :D
The pork bone soup is sweet. I have no idea how long they took to brew this to get the flavour but it's really nice.
Part of the more than 35 types of ingredients available for steamboat.
The ingredients are very fresh.
One other highlight is the homemade meat pastes (minced pork and minced chicken). Besides the thinly sliced meat, if you prefer a more flavourful meat and texture, these meat pastes are good!
Alright... although I am a carbo person, I did not have too much rice during our visit at Crystal Jade. I need to save my tummy space for other stuff.
I mixed the QQ rice with the scallion oil and the rice immediately smelled so good. The taste is super refreshing too. A little sweet, a little fragrant and the overall taste is just so pleasant. It tasted a little like chicken rice. I love this very much and in fact, I kept thinking about it! Hahaaa I must go back for the steamboat again cos I want to eat this!
Some cooked food are also available. I was told that the deep fried fish skin when dipped into the curry soup base is very good. It really was yummy when I tried. Surprisingly when I dipped the deep fried fish skin into the curry soup, it didn't turn out soggy like I thought it would be. Quite an interesting way of eating but it's really yummy. It was so good that I forgot to snap a picture of it. Haha!!!
To end the meal, I had the chocolate vanilla soft serve ice cream with rainbow chips. I am sure this is going to be my boy's favorite if he was with me. Well, it's ok because I am going to bring my mum and boy to try the steamboat one day. :)
I would also like to comment on the service crew. The Uncle who attended to our table was attentive. He made small jokes with us and was very friendly. Very often, good food is not the only determining factor for returning customers. Good service will bring a restaurant to another level!
This will probably be my new favourite steamboat place. The one that I usually visit, I had introduced to my colleagues and friends before and they all love it. Wait till I share this with them, they will have another choice for steamboat!
The folks at Crystal Jade were really nice. They gave each of us a bottle of their secret blend chilli oil at the end of the dinner to bring home. I normally dip my roast duck noodle with this chilli oil.
I seriously cannot wait to bring my family to visit.
Address:
#02-32, Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road, Singapore 238868
Opening hrs:
Monday to Saturday 11am to 9:45pm and Sunday 10:30am to 9:45pm.
For reservations, call 6336-2833.
Website: http://www.crystaljade.com/
Will I Return to This Outlet: Yes
Got Service: 8/10
