March 8, 2009
Paradise on a budget
Paradise Group's new casual eatery offers Cantonese home-style cooking in a modern teahouse concept
By Wong Ah Yoke
Budgeting is probably on many people's minds these days. So the Paradise Group's latest move in opening a casual eatery is perfectly timed.
The restaurant group already owns the upmarket Taste Paradise, a modern Chinese restaurant in Mosque Street, and two Seafood Paradise outlets in Defu Lane and at The Singapore Flyer, serving local seafood dishes.
Last month, it opened Paradise Inn in Funan DigitaLife Mall and another outlet will open on Saturday at West Coast Plaza.
The new concept combines a largely Cantonese home-styled eatery with a contemporary teahouse. On the menu are traditional Cantonese dishes, sweet soups as well as a range of original floral tea blends and iced teas.
So it works whether you are seeking a place for lunch with colleagues, dinner with family members or a tea-time tete-a-tete over a bowl of red bean soup. And you do not have to spend very much, either.
Budget about $30 to $35 a head for meals and you are well covered. This includes teas, desserts as well as taxes.
If you are just having a snack, $10 is more than enough.
Dishes are those that the Cantonese will find familiar: steamed minced pork with salted fish and water chestnuts ($8), steamed 'Song' fish head with spicy bean sauce ($16) and vermicelli with pig trotter ($12).
The steamed minced pork is excellent, with the meat boasting a rare springy texture despite coming in a thin patty.
It can be achieved only if the meat is not minced too fine, is not from a lean loin and not overcooked, and the version here passes on all three counts. And it does not look fatty, either.
Add to that the sweet crunch of diced water chestnuts and the fragrance of the slice of salted fish on top, and you have a perfect dish to go with steaming rice or porridge.
The pig trotter vermicelli is hard to resist. Many other restaurants use canned trotters to make the dish, but the version here is obviously made in-house.
The difference is in the large chunks of meat and skin which are tender without falling apart when tossed with the rice noodles, as well as the distinctive flavour of the gravy.
The steamed fish head is good too, though I feel the fermented bean sauce could pack a heftier punch. I ordered the spicy version and it was still too mild for me. What worked were the bits of crispy deep-fried lard that were a delight to bite into.
The lighter flavour, however, may please those who want to better savour the fish, which has no hint of the muddy taste that 'Song', a freshwater fish, sometimes has. Be careful of the fine bones embedded in the meat, though.
There are other good dishes too, such as stewed pork belly served with buns ($8.80), hot-plate tofu with seafood ($10) as well as a tasty sea whelk soup with chicken feet ($15.80).
But the double-boiled pig stomach soup with pepper ($13.80) is a bit weak, with not much flavour other than the pepper.
I tried three desserts - stewed egg custard ($2.80), sweet almond paste ($2.80) and sweet taro paste ($3.50) - over two visits and found them decent but not outstanding.
The floral teas, too, are pleasant but more interesting are the chilled teas - especially the lychee mojito iced tea ($4.20).
The eatery also serves an iced milk tea which it brings in from Hong Kong. Now, that is seriously good.
PARADISE INN
02-10/11 Funan DigitaLife Mall, 109 North Bridge Road, tel: 6338-4018
Open: 11.30am to 10pm daily (last order at 9pm)
Food: *** 1/2
Service: ***
Ambience: ***
Price: Budget from $30 a person
MUST TRY
STEAMED MINCED PORK WITH SALTED FISH AND WATER CHESTNUTS ($8)
A simple dish that is rarely done well. This one gets full marks.
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