Dim Sum at Majestic Restaurant 大華 (relocated to Marina One)

Housed within the New Majestic Hotel, the Majestic Restaurant 大華 in Bukit Pasoh features Cantonese cuisine by award-winning owner-chef Yong Bing Ngen. It is another restaurant of the Unlisted Collection – the umbrella brand that comprises boutique hotels and restaurants in Singapore. Majestic Restaurant has been around for sometime and is well known for their signature dishes such as wasabi prawns, stewed lobster noodles and Peking duck with foie gras. We visited the restaurant recently and found that, while the hip factor might have faded, their food was still good.

The New Majestic Hotel is a chic boutique hotel and the lobby’s decor is a quirky mix of contemporary edgy design and local heritage elements. The decor of the Majestic Restaurant on the lobby level of the hotel was considered a radical departure from the typical decor of Chinese restaurants when Majestic Restaurant first opened. By current standards, we would not think that Majestic Restaurant was especially hip or stylish. It still looks nice but it does not stand out from the crowd anymore.

Majestic Restaurant still have a couple of noteworthy points in its favour. First, they serve all their dishes on its own collection of handmade and customized chinaware. Thus, while you wait for your food you can admire their tableware.

Secondly, the bright round spots on the ceiling are not some fancy ceiling lamps but actually potholes. New Majestic Hotel’s swimming pool has three porthole windows in the pool floor above the restaurant. So if you look up you can see people swimming – look at your own risk though!

The Majestic Restaurant has a full menu which is fairly typical of a modern Cantonese restaurant. There are quite a number of items where traditional dishes have been given a modern interpretation.

We went there for lunch and ordered the crispy prawn roll with prawn paste, mango and cheese ($6 for 2 pieces), siew mai ($5.40 for 3 pieces), lotus leaf glutinous rice ($3.60 for 2 pieces) and pan fried chilli crab buns ($6 for 3 pieces).

Things got off to a good start when the tidbits served were not the usual pickles or peanuts but wasabi chips – thin and crisp chips with a mild wasabi taste.

The first dim sum item served was the crispy prawn roll. The dish did not look very interesting notwithstanding the pretty little flower in the wasabi sauce. Luckily, the taste was better than the look. The prawn roll was light and crispy and the prawn paste, mango, cheese and wasabi somehow combined quite well.

The siew mais were very good with fresh plump filling which had excellent texture and taste. The lotus leaf glutinous rice was of the expected standard. It had good consistency and was tasty.

The pan-fried Chilli Crab Bun had a light pastry topped with sesame seeds. The chilli crab filling was rich and delicious. It was a good local interpretation of dim sum.

On the whole it was an enjoyable dim sum lunch at the Majestic Restaurant. We got to savour good traditional dim sum items as well dim sum given an interesting local interpretation. The space of the Majestic Restaurant may have a slightly tired look but we are glad that the food is still same old same old – well made and delicious.