Peony Jade @ Tanjong Pagar

Finished two days of conference here in Amara Hotel and treated everyone in the office to a proper dinner banquet. We simply went down to the second level for a some Cantonese cuisine.

Peony Jade was recommended by Michelin three years in a row for their Keppel Club branch. They were famous for their smoked duck which won the best chef award in international competition. We picked this for logistical ease, and didn’t consider much about the banquet. So we picked the 8-course set menu to save us from ordering everything.

醉鸡卷，海蜇，熏鸭，蜜汁黑叉烧 Drunken Chicken Roll, Marinated Jelly Fish, Smoked Duck, Honey-glazed Kurobuta Pork Char-Siu

The first course is often a cold dish 冷盘 similar to a selection of appetisers or Hassun in kaiseki. It is usually an even number of selection, and tonight we had four different appetisers. They were quite good, especially the drunken chicken roll.

红烧海味四宝羹 Braised Shredded Sea Cucumber, Mushrooms, Conpoy & Fish Lips in a Rich Bouillon

These days, restaurants have stopped serving shark’s fin for conservation purpose. Instead, it was often replaced with sea cucumber and fish lips. I did not miss the shark’s fin soup as this soup was equally good and similar taste.

港蒸龙虎斑 Steamed Garoupa, Japanese Shoyu, Glazed Hot Fragrant Oil

OK eat, the fish was fresh and the steaming was just right.

脆皮烧甘榜鸡 Roasted Crispy Kampong Chicken

This brought back a lot of memories as it was the dish that would always appear in all banquets. I loved the prawn crackers called keropok as a kid and would eat as many as I could because the adults would not usually care during the banquet.

北京烤填鸭 Roasted Beijing Duck with Handmade Chinese Crepes

We added an ala carte item, the Peking Duck, for our foreign guests as this was the dish that everyone knows.

The crispy duck skins were wrapped with handmade flour based wrappers. This was the traditional way to eat the Peking duck, not those rubbish egg crepes that many restaurants replaced with.

What about the rest of the duck? It was chopped up and sautéed with chilli and cashew nuts to make another course – kung pao duck. You can asked stir-fry the meat with noodles, but we already have a main course with the set menu.

蚝皇海参花菇伴时蔬 Braised Sea Cucumber, Mushroom, Premium Oyster Sauce

Cantonese chefs always like to challenge themselves with ingredient that has no taste, like shark’s fin, fish cartilage and sea cucumber. There’s a lot of sea cucumber in this dish. And the oyster sauce was the only flavour as sea cucumber itself has not taste. Combined with shiitake mushrooms and milky bok choy 奶白菜.

紫梨虾球果冻 Crisp-fried Deshelled Prawn with Blueberry Mayonnaise Sauce

Innovative dish with deep fried battered prawns coated with a tangy, sweet blueberry mayonnaise. I enjoyed the chilled watermelon more.

藜麦海鲜炒饭 Healthy Quinoa Fried Rice with Julienned Seafood

The main course was a fried quinoa and rice with seafood. Luckily the rice was much more than the quinoa. And I enjoyed the slight wokhei in the fried rice.

石榴裙中露西米 Chilled Cream of Pink & Green Guava with Sago Pearls

Finally, the dessert, the Achilles heel of Chinese banquets. And this sago-based dessert was disappointing as well. I didn’t want to waste any calories with this one and so I skipped it.

The service was fantastic, the food was OK, but the wine list was poor. Chinese banquets are all about the camaraderie and the relationship building. We had plenty of that.

Peony Jade @ Amara
165 Tanjong Pagar Road, Amara Hotel Level 2, Singapore 088539 
Tel : +65 62769138 / 88868913

Visited Nov 2023

PS: Keppel Club closed and moved to this location; Clarke Quay, where it all started, closed permanently.

Michelin Singapore Guide Bib Gourmand 2016, 2017; Plates 2018, 2019, 2021 (awarded to Keppel Club)