Summer Pavilion

I took my mum out for lunch on Saturday. It had been a while since we last had a mother-daughter “date”, so it was nice. We decided on a light dim sum lunch at Summer Pavilion in the Ritz Carlton.

If you are looking for classy, elegant and refined Cantonese cooking, and budget is no objective, Summer Pavilion is among the top choices in town. Over the years, its food has remained consistently good and its service is always impeccable.

The restaurant is well-appointed. Housed in a glass pavilion that is offset from the main hotel building, it looks out on one side into a lovely cobbled courtyard fringed with flowering shrubs and bamboo plants, and on the other side it overlooks a tranquil feature pond with gently flowing waters. On this visit, we were seated next to the courtyard. It was very pleasant to be able to enjoy the bright sunshine and watch the rustling leaves, while staying in air-conditioned comfort, away from the stifling heat and humidity.

The ambience inside the restaurant is equally lovely – spacious, elegant and mellow, it is very different from the usual noisy hustle and bustle of a Chinese restaurant. It speaks of quiet yet casual refinement. A perfect place for intimate conversation, while tucking into sumptuous culinary creations.

I suppose the food at Summer Pavilion can best be described as modern Cantonese. Modern in the sense that the Chef is not afraid to use ingredients that are unconventional to Chinese cuisine, such as goose liver. Yet, the cooking style is most definitely Cantonese. Flavors are light, with the emphasis on using the freshest and best ingredients available, and letting the natural flavors and textures of the ingredients take center stage. The food is restrained, elegant and refined.

The dim sum menu offers a decent selection. And on weekends and public holidays, the regular dim sum menu is supplemented by an adjunct menu of more involved dishes, served in small dim sum sized portions.

At Summer Pavilion, one will not find the usual dim sum items like har kow (steamed prawn dumplings), siew mai (steamed meat and prawn dumplings) or wu kok (deep fried yam dumplings). No, it doesn’t serve any of the ubiquitous dim sum offerings that are rolled out at every other Chinese restaurant. It sets itself apart with its distinct offerings.

Given that there were only the two of us, and both of us wanting to eat light, it was a hard task to narrow down the choices. There were so many options which tempted us. As we perused the menu, and mulled over what we wanted to eat, our palates were nicely occupied with sipping Tie Guan Yin (literally translated as “Iron Goddess of Mercy”) tea and munching on the amuse bouche of deep fried yam crisps.

These were wafer-thin, translucent shavings of yam that have been deep fried. It was crispy with no greasy feel on either the fingers or the palate. I really liked the very pretty effect of the root vegetable’s natural purple patterning.

We finally settled on just six options, out of the many whose descriptions tantalized our imagination.

The first was “steamed scallop dumplings with asparagus and Lin Zhi Mushrooms in XO sauce”.

This was exquisite. The skin was so thin and translucent we could see the ingredients inside with their different colors and textures. And yet it was supple enough that it didn’t break when the dumpling was lifted with the chopsticks. It was satiny smooth with a beautiful glossy sheen. The texture was gorgeous – soft yet not mushy, meltingly tender with just enough bite. I was bowled over by the skin. The skin of this dumpling alone spoke volumes about the skills and talent of the Chef.

Each dumpling came prettily served on a scallop shell.

Inside, it was chock-full of ingredients. Small cubes of well-marinated, super fresh, very tasty scallops mixed with diced fresh vegetables. The woody earthy flavors of the mushrooms melded nicely with the light fresh taste of the scallops, while some chopped coriander added the right amount of aroma. It was a very finely tuned balance of flavors, with the XO sauce providing just enough piquancy to the dumpling. This was a perfect start to the meal.

“Poached chicken dumplings with mushrooms, chives and preserved vegetable in a hot and sour sauce”.

This was also competently executed. The skin of the dumpling was of a thicker and firmer variety than the earlier dish, and also very well made. Smooth and soft, yet supple with nice bite and very good mouth-feel. There were no chewy edges like those quite often found on other dumplings.

Coming as it did after the scintillating scallop dumplings, the filling of these chicken dumplings didn’t excite us as much as that of the previous dish. It was quite flavorful but the combination of ingredients was rather unbalanced, with the chives taking on a more central role than the chicken. The chives were of a chunkier size and texture than were usual for dumplings, and with only a few small dices of meat interspersed among the greenery, the taste of the chives came across too dominantly. I don’t think I saw or tasted any mushrooms or preserved vegetables.

However, the tasty sauce lifted the performance of the dumpling and saved the day. It was nicely tangy and piquant with no jarring notes. The flavors were very delicately balanced and did not overwhelm the dumplings. The minced garlic, chopped spring onions, chopped shallots and slivers of red chilli lent beautiful color, texture and flavor to the sauce.

The menu called this “steamed vegetarian rice rolls with assorted mushrooms”. It is essentially mushroom cheong fun. Again here, it was the gorgeous rice flour skin that stole show. It was silky smooth, soft and meltingly tender. The mushroom filling was very generous and delicious. Dried Chinese mushrooms and fresh shitakes were cooked in a tasty soy sauce-based gravy, before being wrapped in the thin sheets of dough.

Instead of the simple sesame oil and soy sauce dressing that is usually poured over cheong fun, here the rice rolls were served with a flavorful broth-like sauce.

This was one of the dishes from the supplementary weekend dim sum menu – “braised beef brisket with turnip”. Classic Cantonese-style simmered ngau lam.

This was another winner. We really enjoyed this dish. The slow-cooking process produced a meat and gravy that were richly and intensely flavored. The beef was very, very tender, with an almost melt-in-the-mouth texture, and yet retained its meaty texture and had enough bite. There was a generous amount of tendons – the best part of the dish, and what this dish is all about. These were so exquisitely tender they literally melted in the mouth. Gorgeous soft gelatinous texture. This is the way an excellent ngau lam should feel and taste, in our opinion. Sublime.

The chunks of white radish or turnip were equally tender and flavorful. And we liked the pieces of soft, cooked-down ginger. The whole dish was superbly balanced. Instead of the robust or rustic feel that braised ngau lam usually have, this version had a rather refined, elegant, smooth edge to its taste. Sublime, again.

The menu listed but only a handful of the more common dim sum items that are regularly found on dim sum menus, and this was one of them. Yet, even their version of char siew (BBQ pork) pau came with a twist. This was described on the menu as “steamed BBQ pork buns with preserved vegetable and onion”. The preserved vegetable in this case referred to “mei cai” in Mandarin or "mui choy" in Cantonese, which technically speaking is actually more a wind-dried vegetable (dried xiao bai cai) than a preserved vegetable. That aside, this was an interesting variant of the standard version.

I liked half of the pau. The dough half. It was a Hong Kong (or Cantonese) style dough, and it was beautifully made – soft, fluffy, with a very tender and smooth crumb.

I was somewhat less enthusiastic about the filling. I liked the fact that the pork was cooked Hong Kong style, without color additives, but with just sugar, light soy sauce, perhaps a dash of dark soy sauce and either zhu hou jiang or the Chef’s own proprietary concoction. I liked the tenderness of the pork. I liked the addition of dried vegetable and onions, which made for a pleasant change in the taste and mouth-feel of the meat filling. I really liked the color and texture of the gravy. But I found the filling as a whole a tad too sweet. I suspect this could be due to a sweet, rather than salty, variety of mui choy being used. I would also have preferred more generosity when it came to filling the paus. The picture belies the scantiness of the filling. Still, because I was enjoying the fluffy bun so much, the rest didn’t seem to matter too much.

Finally, we rounded off the meal with one of my favorite dim sum items…

Baked mini egg tarts. I love dan ta. But only the ones with the Hong Kong-style puff pastry crust. I’m usually not too keen on the local shortcrust pastry version.

That day the tarts were made rather unevenly. Some had crusts that were thicker than normal. Usually, a thick crust disrupts the overall taste of the tart too much. However, because the pastry in this instance was so well made, it didn’t really matter. Unlike the usual oily crusts, this was beautifully free of any greasy feel. It also had a superb soft, tender flaky texture. And the best part about the crust, and by which I generally assess a successful egg tart, was the perfectly done bottom layer of pastry…

The crust at the bottom of the tart was wonderfully thin, without a layer of soggy, undercooked pastry that is so common. It was evenly crispy and golden brown throughout. Very nice.

The egg custard filling was nicely smooth and less sweet than the usual versions. In fact, I would have preferred it a tad sweeter. I think a sweeter custard would have balanced out the crust a lot better.

And it is in the little elegant touches that Summer Pavilion excels. I liked the small egg crepe “mat” upon which the egg tarts sat. I also liked the use of small fresh edible flowers as garnish and plate decoration. Simple touches they may be but they lifted a very common dim sum item onto a whole new level.

Overall, it was a delicious and satisfying lunch. The food was great. The company even better. Quite a perfect Saturday lunch.

As always, the service was impeccable. One of the best you can find in a Chinese restaurant here. The staff were attentive and watchful, but never obtrusive, moving quietly and gracefully to meet and often to pre-empt our every need.

On a side note, the deep fried dim sum dishes at Summer Pavilion are also very good – gorgeous to look at and scrumptious to eat. There are some interesting options on the menu such as the deep fried goose liver rolls. The deep fried lobster roll wrapped in rice vermicelli is a beauty and is highly popular.

As both my mother and myself had decided to eat light that day, we had to forego (with some difficulty) all the mouth-watering deep fried creations. Those will have to wait for our next visit.

Outside of dim sum, the rest of the food at Summer Palace are also consistently excellent. Most of the dishes are executed with a deft and sure hand, with great class, elegance and refinement. Given the high-end nature of the prices, and the delicate portion sizes, this is not the place for hearty Chinese feasting. Rather it is about the celebration of Chinese cuisine at its finest and most elegant. It is about Cantonese fine-dining.

Summer Pavilion
The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore
7 Raffles Avenue
Singapore 039799

Tel: 6337 8888

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
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