Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro, Mandarin Hotel Singapore

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Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro is a Chinese restaurant at Mandarin Hotel in Orchard Road. It takes up the space on the 35th floor of the hotel that used to be occupied by the Pine Court restaurant. Shisen Hanten is the first overseas branch of the restaurant chain that is based in Japan. Chef Chen Kentaro is the third generation in a family of culinary exponents. His grandfather was apparently responsible for introducing Szechuan cuisine to Japan and his father is celebrity Iron Chef Chen Kenichi. You can read more about the restaurant on the their website.

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We recently decided to have lunch there. First time visitors like us will probably be over-awed by the large nest of chandeliers in the restaurant. The chandeliers are so distractingly impressive that we did not bother with the views from the 35th floor. We also overlooked the fact that the restaurant was decorated with palm trees, a strange thing to have in a Chinese restaurant. The entrance to the restaurant is classy, dark wood-panelled and serious in tone.

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We decided on a light dim sum lunch. Here are pictures of the dim sum menu, the $42 executive set lunch menu and other random pages.

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We had the cheong fun with char siew ($6), xiao long bao ($5.20), siew mai ($5.20), chives dumplings ($5.20) and char siew soh ($5.20). These are very reasonable prices for dining at such a beautiful place in a 5-star hotel restaurant.

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The dim sum items were quite ordinary except for the chives dumplings which were very good. This was a bit disappointing considering the pedigree of the restaurant and the awards it had received. Still, we are curious enough about the restaurant to want to return to try the spicy Szechuan dishes they are known for rather than the Cantonese style dim sum items.

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