Dim Sum at Kai Duck & Kai Garden

Kai Duck at Takashimaya Shopping Centre in Ngee Ann City is the sister restaurant of Kai Garden at Marina Square. While duck dishes feature prominently on the menus of both establishments, they also serve good dim sum.

We recently had dim sum lunches at both Kai Duck & Kai Garden, restaurants that we had visited previously. Kai Duck is a more casual venue; it is often busy and can get rather noisy. However, the lively atmosphere adds to its charm. Kai Garden, by contrast, is a more upmarket Cantonese restaurant, elegantly decorated and with a notably refined ambience. Both establishments charge similar prices. With dim sum now costing around $10 per basket, this appears to have become the norm in Singapore.

Kai Duck at Ngee Ann City

Kai Duck, located on the fifth level of Ngee Ann City, has a contemporary Chinese diner-style interior. It offers a pleasant dining environment with the relaxed atmosphere typical of a casual Hong Kong dim sum restaurant.

Kai Duck Menu

The menu at Kai Duck covers much more than duck dishes. There is a wide variety of dishes available – from signature Peking Duck to Cod Fish in Teriyaki Sauce and French Style Wok-fried Diced Beef. Below are pictures of pages from the Kai Duck Menu.

Below are screeshots of the digital menu showing dim sum items.

Dim Sum at Kai Duck

We ordered a variety of dim sum items – Cheong Fun with Radish ($10.80), Pork Bun with Scallion ($10.80), Fish Shaped Eggplant Salted Dumpling ($9.80) and Deep Fried Yam & Pumpkin ($9.80).

The Cheong Fun with Radish was a refined variation of the classic Cantonese rice noodle roll. The skin was smooth and slippery and the savoury radish filling was a nice change from the more common char siew or prawn filling. It was a well balanced dish, offering both comfort and a subtle complexity.

The Pork Bun with Scallion had juicy minced pork wrapped in a soft bun with parts pan-fried to a golden crisp. The filling, seasoned with soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine and other ingredients, was flavourful and fragrant. It was an enjoyable version of pork bun.

We thought the “Fish Shaped Eggplant Salted Dumpling” was shaped like an eggplant rather than a fish. It just tasted like dumplings with slightly chewy skin.

The Deep Fried Yam & Pumpkin was a delightful sweet-savoury combination of texture and flavour.

Overall, we thought the quality of dim sum at Kai Duck was very good. We enjoyed the items we tried.

Kai Garden at Marina Square

Kai Garden is a Chinese restaurant in Marina Square that can accommodate around 200 diners. The restaurant features an elegant interior, with one section offering views of the Marina Bay skyline. There is also a more casual seating area outside the restaurant, along the walkway of Marina Square Mall, to accommodate additional guests.

Kai Garden Menu

The menu at Kai Garden is extensive, covering the full range of dishes typically found in Chinese restaurants. It also offers a variety of dim sum. Below are pictures of the dim sum menu.

Kai Garden has a menu for Chinese teas. The restaurant has found a new way to charge diners for pickles and paper towels. If you order tea, you will be charged per person. The price of the tea will include pickles and towels, whether you want them or not. The cheapest version of Chinese tea was $6.80 per person.

Dim Sum at Kai Garden

We ordered Steamed Xiao Long Bao ($9.80), Baked BBQ Pork Pastry ($9.80), Deep Fried Bean Curd with Prawns ($9.80) and Brown Rice Congee ($10.80).

The Steamed Xiao Long Bao was of the expected good standard, comparable to those served at popular restaurants specialising in Xiao Long Bao.

The Baked BBQ Pork Pastry and Deep-Fried Beancurd with Prawns were familiar dim sum dishes we would typically order. While the versions at Kai Garden were enjoyable, they did not quite surpass those from our other favourite Cantonese restaurants

The Brown Rice Congee with Pork was a wholesome twist on a classic comfort dish. Made with nutritious brown rice, it traditional pork congee with a heartier texture and added health benefits.

Overall, we enjoyed our dim sum lunch at Kai Garden, though we were not particularly fond of the rather steep charge for the bundle of tea, pickles, and paper towels.