Dimsum Buffet @ Hai Tien Lo, Pan Pacific Hotel

Up and up and up...not for the acrophobic. 37 storeys up! 2 weeks in advance our booking was made, perpetually packed they are and I went to suss out the fuss about Hai Tien Lo.

There we are, at the doors of Hai Tien Lo.

View from the table.

Marina Bay Sands from afar!

Table set for gluttony.

Teapot doubling up as a vase.

Chopsticks for success.

Chopsticks set for success...the menu booklet had enough choice to make the ravenous green eyed.

Chef's Signature (One Serving of Two Choices)

Braised Coral Clams with Garlic in Abalone Sauce

Truth be told, had I known it would end up a vegetable dish, I would not have wasted my one serving and headed for Soft Shell Crab instead!

Norwegian Salmon Sashimi

Sliced too thick, these pieces were hard to chew.

One serving

Braised Shark's Fin with Crab Meat

Chockfuls of Shark's Fin, quite a decent effort by the kitchen I say!

My choice of Mini "Buddha Jumps Over The Wall".

Their generosity with ingredients touched the heart greatly...a plump mushroom, scallops, shark's fin, baby abalone...

Upclose of the expensive in the pot of delicious soup, if they did not limit..all I really needed was just two bowls of this to offset the price of the buffet!


Dim Sum

Deepfried Beancurd Sheet stuffed with Chives and Prawn Paste

One crispy affair with fishcake paste.

Deepfried Vegetarian Springrolls

I'm super thankful this was not dripping in oil, pretty ordinary otherwise.

Steamed Pork Dumpling with Fish Roe

Not the best, not the worse...it's just one of those must orders.

Steamed Vegetarian Dumplings with Water Chestnut and Mushroom
Steamed Shrimp Dumplings

Fresh prawns in the shrimp dumplings though I was irked by the flimsy-thin skin. The vegetarian dumplings were plain soon kueh fillings in a delicately shaped dumpling.

Steamed Carrot Cake with Preserved Meat

A light one which would be better with more radish and seasoning!

Steamed Barbequed Pork Bun was all fluffy!

Served piping hot, these were delightfully delicious.

Pan Fried Rice Flour Rolls with Crispy Conpoy in Homemade X.O. Sauce

Had it not been for the X.O. sauce, these would have been way too bland, even my toothless Grandma would not have approved of.

Barbequed Pork Pastry

Taken from the dessert-appetizer table, painfully cold. I could not bear to finish this.

Barbequed Selections

Honey-glazed Barbequed Pork Loin
Sliced Marinated Pork Knuckle
Marinated Jelly Fish with Fragrant Onions and Sesame Oil

A first eating Pork Knuckle done Oriental style! This had not much of  a taste and resembled kway chap. The rest were perfect ingredients for Cold Dish.

Appetizers

Fruit Salad with Diced Mock Chicken

Out of boredom and curiosity, I ordered this vegetarian item. Fried beancurd sheets tossed in an oh-so-familiar wasabi mayo sauce (almost an overkill!) and out of the can fruits. Clearly not a favourite.

Sweetened preserved Century Egg and Ginger

If this appeared at Yung Kee's in Hongkong, they would have been sued.

Seafood

Egg Omelette with Crab Meat and Preserved Radish

Like Chye Poh Egg but with crab meat, nothing to rave or scream about.

Poached Live Prawns

Finger licking fresh and succulent, pity they did not have a dish to wash the fingers.

Fried Prawn tossed in Wasabi Mayonaise

Served warm, these fried prawn fritters were not too bad, just did not wow even with the sprinkling of bonito flakes and candied walnuts.

Steamed Cod Fillet with Minced Black Bean Sauce

Finally a dish that was worthy of double mention, firm, fresh, succulent...cod never tasted this yummy.

Meat & Poultry

Sweet and Sour Pork

Crispy fried pork cubes doused in sweet-sour sauce, I had a craving but somehow the sauce was a put off. The balance was tilted more towards the sour side.

Spare Ribs with BBQ Sauce

These were so much better than Sweet and Sour Pork! Tastier and meatier.

Sauteed Sliced Ostrich with Honey Pepper Sauce

Nothing impressionable save for the fact that by now the snow peas were getting a tad annoying, they seemed to be accompanying every single dish!

Tofu & Vegetables

Braised Homemade Beancurd with Bai Ling Mushrooms

I liked how the crispy layer revealed a smooth beancurd.

Stir Fried Honey Beans with Wolf Berries and Pine Mushrooms

By now, I was picking off the mushrooms and avoiding the greens totally.

Porridge, Rice & Noodles


Boiled Porridge with Minced Lean Pork and Century Egg

Bland, boring....bleach.

Braised Fish Paste Noodles with Aubergine in Homemade X.O. Chilli Sauce

The first attempt at fish paste noodles was at Li Bai, I was not blown away then but Hai Tien Lo dished up a decent one with enough wok hei. Tasty oodles of noodles with an awesome bite, much better than fishcakes. Loved how the chilli sauce was tossed into the noodles giving it a beautiful spicy finish. Very slurpworthy.

Dessert

A separate dessert station set up to end the meal off sweetly. I spied a familiar set up used just floors below at Global Kitchen too! Desserts seemed to be generally the same across the restaurants in Pan Pac.

Strawberries that got one and all excited with one table clearing out most of them! Neither juicy nor sweet, these were strawberries in name.

Sweetened Cheng Tng deserves some attention, possibly the most decent from the dessert table that I reached for seconds.

Pear Cake
Pineapple Jelly
Coffee Eclair

I've said it before, I'll say it again...do not bother with these deceiving lil bites that leave you most bewildered.

Cold egg tarts worth just one bite.

Selection of fruits (Grapes, Dragonfruit, Honeydew)

Great for indigestion if any.

Dimsum Buffet Lunch, especially on a weekend particularly Sunday spells chinese dishes rather than dimsum. As far as the proportion goes, the focus of Hai Tien Lo seems to be proper chinese dishes and not dimsum as I would have expected from a Dim Sum buffet lunch. Misses surpasses the hits though the crowds point to a different conclusion. If I may put it harshly, I'll probably only return to Pan Pacific for Zambuca or the highly raved about Keyaki...their buffets are not quite worth the while.

That being said, service is attentive and Hai Tien Lo's probably one of the few buffet restaurants that does not forget most of your orders!

Some of my other reviews of Pan Pac restaurants;

Crab Buffet @ Global Kitchen
Sunday Champagne Brunch @ Global Kitchen
Dinner @ Zambuca
High Tea Set @ Atrium
Happy Hour @ Keyaki Bar

$52++

Hai Tien Lo
Pan Pacific