Hua Ting Revisited @ Orchard Hotel

Online reviews have mostly suggested that standard at Hua Ting has dropped and truth be told, the last visit was hardly stellar for me but the peking duck was hollering so off to lunch there! It surprised me that with a short notice, there were still vacancies for a table of 10, methinks it must be the $25 buffet lunch deal at Sichuan Douhua that robbed some business over. The last visit saw me reserving at least a week in advance.

Tasty braised nuts!

Peking Duck ($76)

Reservations are recommended to reduce the waiting time but the point is, this took almost forever to arrive even then! Might have taken longer? Perhaps. 

The crepes were well done – doughy and well proportioned to wrap onto the crispy skin and condiments. Easy to eat and tasty too! The duck was succulent and not overly marinated – brownie points for that! 

Awesomely droolsome.

Crystal Prawn Dumpling ($1.80 each)

Decent one here.

Custard Bun ($1.40 each)

Unlike the last attempt, this was pretty stellar. Fluffy bun with a molten filling so slurpworthy – consistency was right so was the taste, awesome one Hua Ting! If stomach space and cholesterol levels allowed, I would have headed for seconds or thirds!

Char Siew Pau ($1.40 each)

Pretty good one with a nice combination.

Carrot Cake ($1.40 each)

We had this steamed and fried, the cake consistency was a tad too soft however.

Cheong Fun ($5.60 for 2 rolls)

Chicken and sliced fish were the two different stuffings attempted. I find fish with any dimsum hard to like, it could be the lack of flavour or the texture of meat getting lost in the dish that makes it pretty blah.

Fried Kai Lan ($27)

Nothing to fault with a freshly stir fried plate of veggies. 

On the house for being burnt.

It could really be the dimsum buffet going on that saw the dimsum dishes being served up way faster than ala carte. Overall a pleasant experience. We were served a burnt hor fun dish and while a noob like me thought highly of the smokey fragrance, the more informed knew that it was burnt. Sincere thanks to the kitchen for waiving it from the bill and complimentary parking coupons too! It would have been a pretty good dish with wok hei I say!

Hua Ting
Orchard Hotel