Monday, December 19, 2011

Imperial Treasure (Marina Bay Sands)

I haven't eaten Imperial Treasure in a long time. The last time I ate was probably more than two years ago at Crowne Plaza. Anyway, we went to the branch at Marina Bay Sands because we wanted to go have a look at the casino.

Assuming you are as stingy as I am, spending $100 on food is more worth it than paying the $100 levy if you just want to take a look at the casino. From Imperial Treasure, you will be able to have a good view of what's happening below at the casino.

The decor of this place is pretty traditional, infused with some new elements at some spots- leather seats with two cushions per person. Now, before you conjure a warm and fuzzy image while eating, the only thing floating in my mind was how often they washed these cushions.


We ordered Peking duck, three types of egg with spinach, salt and pepper tofu, and scallop with veggies.

The Peking Duck ($78) has a non-egg skin as wrapper which was kept warm in the dim sum bamboo thingy. I like how every person has an individual sweet sauce + sugar platter. As we chose not to include the duck meat in other food items like noodles, the chef left the skin on the duck meat. I would have very much preferred, though, if the skin and meat were separated. I think it's not worth it for this price, unless you don't mind paying for the platter with the duck head.


The Three egg dish with spinach ($16) was homely. Homely, in this instance, means that anybody is capable of whipping this dish in the kitchen and that you shouldn't be paying so much to eat it in a restaurant. It was century egg, salted egg and normal egg.


The Salt and pepper tofu ($18) had some minced prawn on top, probably to make it seem more exquisite than plain old tofu. I pretty much liked this dish, just that I think they could have added more of those deep fried stuff to give it more flavour and a crunchier texture.

Here's the Scallop with vegetable ($30). The scallop-eating experience was pretty interesting. I have never eaten a grilled scallop. It tastes like BBQed scallop. I'm not sure if I like BBQ tasting scallops that much and I would rather fresh scallops just to savour the just-out-of-the-sea taste. But in any case, the scallops were huge and juicy despite being grilled, so no complaints about that.


Service wise, there was a range of standards. Servers who were pleasant, and servers who looked like we were their servants. The waiter who wrote down what we wanted to eat, had a condescending look and was very ya ya (refer to Singlish dictionary for meaning).

In all, I would rather go somewhere else for my Chinese food. To me, Imperial Treasure is something of the past. Look at their website where the web page looks kind of tasteless and the links are not updated. Compare this to Paradise Group. You may say, don't judge a book by its cover. But after you have tasted their food and made your comparisons, how can a book with missing pages and outdated facts give you a complete story?


Imperial Treasure (Marina Bay Sands) 
Marina Bay Sands
10 Bayfront Avenue
#02-04
Tel: 6 688 7788

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