Lunch at the redecorated Summer Pavilion, Ritz Carlton Singapore

(Updated to show Michelin Star Dinner Menu at end of post) Today, we show you our lunch at the wonderfully redecorated new Summer Pavilion Chinese restaurant at Ritz Carlton Singapore. Ritz Carlton Hotel Singapore has a very plain exterior. Some may even say it looks an office block. But the interiors are a different story. Massive works of art and gigantic glass windows let in tons of light to illuminate the indoor spaces. Their restaurants, Summer Pavilion and the Colony (formerly known as the Greenhouse) re-opened around the end of last year after months of major renovations.

Ritz Carlton-6 — Chihuly Lounge, Ritz Carlton

Ritz Carlton-1 — The Colony Restaurant, Ritz Carlton

The entrance to the Summer Pavilion Chinese restaurant is a grand one. Walk up these black marble steps, turn left to the private dining rooms or turn right, go past the nice display cabinets showing off some tea and tea making apparatus and enter this bright and beautiful restaurant.

The decor of Summer Pavilion is one of effortless elegance. It looked so good without giant chandeliers or other opulent ornaments. Just good quality hardware and an excellent layout which provided different seating options and tables that are not too close to each other. We never thought that big clumps of feather dusters can be so beautiful. Everything counts in large amounts, I guess.

Here are pictures of the Summer Pavilion menu for dim sum, small plates and random pages from the ala carte menu.

We munched on some thinly sliced yam crisps while studying the menu and admiring the attractive tableware. Even the chili saucers were beautiful.

We ordered an assortment of dim sum dishes – prawn dumplings (har kow) ($2 per piece), sea perch dumplings ($3 pp), pan-fried yam and pumpkin ($1.80 pp), bacon puffs ($2 pp).

To cut the story short, all the dim sum items were good. They are among the best in Singapore. The sea perch dumplings were tiny and quite pricey at $3 per piece.

The bacon puffs and the fried yam and pumpkin deserve more special attention as they were not the run of the mill dim sum items. The bacon puffs contained radish and other ingredients, including some traces of citrusy zest (probably yuzu). The deep-fried pastry skin had some bacon taste. An unusual and tasty combination.

The pan-fried shredded yam and pumpkin looked like attractive pieces of cake. We only associate the combined tastes of yam and pumpkin with the Teochew dessert oh-nee, but this fried version also successfully blended the earthy yam taste with the sweet richness of pumpkin.

Small plate, tapas-style dining is the rage these days. We are glad to see that Summer Pavilion has introduced some small plates into their menu. This makes dining at a Chinese restaurant so much more interesting for two or three people. We tried a few items from the small plates menu – seasonal vegetables ($13), honey spare ribs ($10), deep-fried cuttle fish ($10).

The stir fried vegetables were light and simple, providing a good break for the palate in between the other more substantial items.

The deep-fried spare ribs with honey sauce was superb. The ribs had been cut into small cubes, each of which had a nice balance of bone and meat.

The deep-fried cuttle fish with pepper salt will put the regular calamari dishes in Western restaurants to shame. This is the perfect finger food to go with pre-dinner aperitifs.

Finally, we only had space for one item from the ala carte menu and so we selected something that was familiar yet unusual. Crispy chicken with Thai sauce. We had selected a small portion but it was probably enough for a party of six. The sweet and sour sauce had subtle Thai flavours. This was our final dish. We had no space for dessert. Overall, a wonderful lunch in a delightful space with great service. Chinese tea costs $7 per head which is on the high side for a Chinese restaurant, but we had no complaints as the Jasmine tea served was a notch better than those served elsewhere.

Updated 24 July 2016 – Upon receiving the one Michelin Star award, Summer Pavilion has introduced this special set dinner menu to celebrate the occasion.