Food Picks: Chinese restaurant Jin Ting Wan at top of Marina Bay Sands offers fine dining with a view
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Baked Taro Tart With Bird’s Nest And Ginkgo Nut.
PHOTO: MARINA BAY SANDS
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SINGAPORE – With the restaurant scene here facing tough times, it seems counter-intuitive to open a fine-dining restaurant. But here is Jin Ting Wan, a fine-dining Chinese restaurant that opened in July on the 55th floor of Marina Bay Sands’ Hotel Tower 1.
It has expansive views of Marina Bay and, on a clear day, one seems able to see forever.
The interior of the 162-seat restaurant is luxe and chic, with touches ranging from jade napkin rings and fine china to plush seating and gorgeous art.
So, this is where whales dine.
This anchovy can have dim sum, and the little dumplings and pastries are ever so fine.
Assorted dim sum at fine-dining Chinese restaurant Jin Ting Wan, which opened in July.
PHOTO: MARINA BAY SANDS
Steamed Crispy Red Rice Roll ($16), cheong fun stuffed with prawns and pork, is excellent. The textural contrast among silky rice noodles, chunky filling and crisp wafers is very pleasing.
Even better is Steamed Minced Beef Ball With Aged Tangerine Peel ($16), apparently hand-chopped, very juicy and with that little jolt from the peel.
Just because it looks irresistible, order the Radish Puff With Chinese Ham In Handbag Shape ($15). A lot of work has gone into making this two-bite pastry. The crisp-tender laminated dough holds the rather saucy radish and ham filling so admirably. Nothing threatens to burst out of the pastry shell or leak through it. This is precision engineering.
Poached Hokkaido Squid With Peanut And Garlic Chilli Oil.
PHOTO: MARINA BAY SANDS
If splurging, consider Poached Hokkaido Squid With Peanut And Garlic Chilli Oil ($98) – pricey to be sure, but the thick slices of squid are cooked perfectly. Whatever chew they might have had has been scared out of them. That peanut and garlic chilli sauce is so good, I eat it by the spoonful. This dish needs a side order of plain noodles or rice.
But then you’d be missing Fried Rice Vermicelli With Crab Meat And Dried Scallop ($48), very fine noodles kissed with wok smoke.
For dessert, the Baked Taro Tart With Bird’s Nest And Ginkgo Nut ($28) has a super-thin pastry shell and is luxurious, of course. You get what you pay for. But I have to say, I am more taken by the Traditional Steamed Red Date Cake ($12). The QQ, mochi-mochi, just-sweet-enough leaf-shaped cakes are the best way to end the meal.
Where: Level 55 Marina Bay Sands Hotel Tower 1, 10 Bayfront Avenue
MRT: Bayfront
Open: 11.30am to 2.30pm (last seating), 5.30 to 9.30pm (last seating) daily
Info: Call 6688-9969 or go to www.marinabaysands.com/restaurants
