All-day dim sum at Canton Paradise Star Vista

Considering that more than 70% of Singapore residents are Chinese, it is a bit surprising to see that Chinese cuisine is so under-represented at the Star Vista mall. This is a mall which is mostly a dining destination as many of the tenants are  restaurants and food outlets. As far as we can recall, Canton Paradise is the only full service Chinese restaurant here, not counting the similar-to-Chinese styled Hong Kong cafe and the Taiwanese restaurant. In contrast, there must be close to ten Japanese restaurants and so many more other restaurants serving ‘international’ cuisines.  Which may explain why we noticed that Canton Paradise Star Vista was always crowded, sometimes all the way till closing time.

Canton Paradise Star Vista is decorated in a simple modern style with Oriental motifs. It was three-quarters full when we were there. The restaurant serves the Hong Kong restaurant kind of food.  We were pleasantly surprised to find out that they serve dim sum all day.   We ordered some dim sum items and a simple noodle dish.  The average price of  the dim sum items is about $5 each.

The cheong fun (rice roll) with char siew had a pleasant translucent skin but the contents were quite bland. We can feel the contents inside but they were mushy and did not have any distinctive taste.

The Teochew dumpling looked attractive tasted quite ordinary. In contrast,  the prawn and chive dumplings were quite good as the fillings were tasty and crunchy.

Our last dish, the fried egg noodles ($8.80) was a disappointment. It was untidily presented and had no particular taste.  It reminded us of the vegetarian bee hoon that you buy at food centres for breakfast.

Our experience at Canton Paradise Star Vista was mixed. Initially we were happy to discover that unlike many restaurants, dim sum is served all day, even outside the regular lunch hours.  But the tastes of the items were mostly below expectations. Only one of the dumpling selection was quite good. Perhaps we might have ordered the wrong items as the constant stream of patrons into this restaurant suggests that they must be doing something right.

Ratings:
Food: 2
Service: 3
Value: 2
Atmosphere: 3
Overall Rating: 2 TOPs

Canton Paradise – Star Vista
1 Vista Exchange Green
#B1-45/46, The Star Vista
Singapore 138617

Tel: 6694 2915