Big Roy

Lei Garden @ CHIJMES

Was invited for a press lunch the other day at Lei Garden @ CHIJMES. As we all might know that Lei Garden group of restaurants started from Hong Kong and expanded to Singapore and China. Of late, I’ve been reading a lot of complains and bad reviews online about their service and food at the outlet at Orchard Shoppping Centre. Hence this invitation came timely to taste t for myself.   

Lei Garden @ CHIJMES underwent a brand new S$5m renovation and to top it off, another S$2m was spent on furnishings. The whole restaurant has a very Victorian (On Victoria Street!) ambience and very relaxing and comfy while you dine on their revamped menu! Check them out below:   

Private Dining Suites. Check out the Victorian paintings on the wall matched with the lovely furnishings. Open Hall Dining - Dining in comfort
Open Hall Dining
Reception Counter - Every ready waiting attendants are always there to open the doors for you. Stairs leading up to the private dining suites
Nostalgic pictures of the old towns all around Singapore.
Press lunch menu
My cuppa orange juice with very nice table floral deco in the background
A special concoction of grape juice, lemon, lime and something else... sour is the word but interesting though.
Speech given by the Chairman of Lei Garden Restaurant Group, Mr SK Chan
The meaning of 2 pairs of chopsticks. The outer pair is for taking food from the dishes from the centre of the table. The inner ones are used for your personal consumption. I suspect the ends are gold plated... and yes, pretty heavy...
Appetisers (From left to right) - Sea Blubber in vinegar sauce and sesame sauce, Chilled Sea Whelk with wasabi and sour sauce, Beancurd with seaweed and Chilled shredded Chicken in spicy sauce. Very good, but they are not good measures of what is to come next... 🙂

Double Boiled Dried Abalone With Fish MAw In Deluxe Clear Soup - When I first sipped the soup, I almost shouted WAH LAU!!!! It's really damn good and the whole piece of abalone made it better! ;P I emptied the whole mini claypot of soup...but of course. 🙂 Other stuff found in the soup - Sea Cucumber, Fish Maw & Cordycep!
Live Alaskan King Crab - Steamed Crab with chinese wine and Baked Claw with salt and butter. A lot of people thought the one on the right is You Tiao... When bite down, the shell of the crab will shock them... hehe 🙂
The steamed portion of the crab. Yummy!
The baked part... It was nice but portion is a little though.
To prove that it's LIVE, they brought out the crab model... 🙂
Stir Fried Shark's Fin with Fresh Crab Meat Served With Superior Stock - Portioning for this one is a lot. The art of eating this is to put the fin on the spoon, then dip it into the soup stock that comes with it, and then put the whole spoon in your mouth... It's a total different dining experience... very very tasty.
Braised Sea Whelk With Abalone Sauce - Instead of the usual abalone, the chefs tried on this sea whelk braised to perfect tenderness, topped with thick abalone sauce. Big portion but it's so good that anyone would finish it.
Steamed Sea Grouper Fillet With Preserved Vegetable and Egg White - The fish is really tender, not fishy, fresh tasting, topped with 'Chye Por' and finely shredded ginger. Lovely. The egg white at the bottom, is so well done, I thought it was soya bean curd! Very interesting dish and kids now will take fish because of the egg white 'pudding'!
Braised Ox Tongue With Red Wine - At first, I thought this is a deep fried dish with the deep fried netting. But I was wrong...
There it is... very tender and didn't feel like the tongue...

Poached 2 Kinds of Veg with Drumstick & Silver Mushroom. The white pieces are beancurds. Very nice as they are made in-house.
Dessert - Deep Fried Pastry with Fresh Crab Meat, Bacon & Onion in Black Pepper and Soft Pastry with Strawberry Paste. Both desserts are really nice...
Chilled Guava Juice With Water Chestnut Cubes - This dessert is so refreshing! The fragrance from the young guavas make this dessert a popular one!
Fresh Fruits Platter ended our exquisite lunch.
Followed by a shot of pure lemon juice which is good for digestion and detoxification.
Bidding our farewells to the man who hosted us to such a priviledge lunch.
A signage shot before I left. 🙂

Rating: 5/5. After trying the food and experiencing the service, I realise that we can only believe 50% of the feedbacks you read online. the other 50% is to try it for yourself. As competition is tough out there among restaurants and eateries, there are many malicious people who would just wanna bring you down just because of 1 bad experience. I felt the staff eager to please and serve while I was there, nothing fake.  

Portion: Portioning is good throughout except the Alaskan Crab… I reckon it’s expensive. 🙂  

Taste: One of the freshest tasting food I’ve ever tried. MSG very minimal ‘cos you won’t feel thirsty after that. Food quality is excellent. Soup stocks are made daily from 5am.  

RTE: If I’m feeling rich, I definitely would!!!  

Location: 30 Victoria Street #01-24 CHIJMES

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