Summer Palace Regent Hotel

Summer Palace is the Chinese restaurant at the Regent Hotel in Cuscaden Road, Singapore. Having read some good reviews about this longstanding Cantonese restaurant, we decided to have dinner there.  The Regent Hotel is not a new hotel but it has been well maintained. Everything still looked sparkling. The entrance to the Summer Palace restaurant was equally impressive. First impressions were good.

The Summer Palace Regent Hotel is a classy looking Chinese restaurant. The main dining is one large square space. There are private dining rooms by the side. Simple elegance are words that come to mind. The restaurant was surprisingly quiet. At 8 pm, we were the last few parties in the restaurant.

The Summer Palace menu was extensive, ranging from fancy items like suckling pig and crocodile palms to common dishes.  We selected the crispy eggplant stiffed with shrimp paste “Bi Feng Tang Style” ($20) as a starter, garouper fillet in claypot ($32) and a scrambled egg with caviar and crabmeat (a signature dish – $38).

No food was served for quite a while. Our reminders to the staff did not get us any substantive sympathy. Finally, the starter arrived 30 minutes later. The crispy egg plant with prawn paste was good. The eggplant and prawn filling were shaped into balls and deep fried with a light batter covering.  The insides remained moist.

Just like waiting for buses, once one arrived, the other dishes also turned up at about the same time. The garoupa fillet was nicely cooked and the taste was good. But being ambushed with all the food in one go did upset our enjoyment of the food.

The final dish of scrambled egg with caviar and crabmeat. We felt disappointed just by looking at the dish.  Blobs of fish eggs on top of a pile of crabmeat and egg white on a sheet of fried egg. It tasted as plain as it looked.

Some complimentary jelly dessert was provided.

Overall, the first two dishes were good and the third was less than good. The overall experience was also not enjoyable. We were basically left to fend for ourselves over the course of the dinner.  Empty wine glasses were not attended to, so it was more or less a self-service affair. To make it worse, a $40 corkage fee was charged and a further 10% service charge was levied on the fee.

Ratings :
Food: 3
Service: 1
Value: 2
Atmosphere: 4
Overall Rating: 2 TOPs 

Summer Palace
Regent Hotel Level 3
1 Cuscaden Road Singapore 249715

Tel: +65 6725 3288

Opening Hours
Lunch: 12:00 – 2:30 p.m. (Monday to Saturday); 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. (Sunday)
Dinner: 6:30 – 10:30 p.m.

Website