It’s been some time since I last visited Yan Ting at The St Regis Singapore. I was a frequent diner at the Cantonese cuisine restaurant until I got tired of its food and I felt that the food quality was no longer value for money. And if it were not because of Restaurant Week, I wouldn’t have gone back.

Yan Ting offers a 4-course set dinner menu for its Restaurant Week promotion. It includes an appetiser, soup, meat dish and a starch dish.

The Appetiser Trio consists of Deep-Fried Prawn Coated with Salted Egg Yolk, Black Fungus Salad and Crispy Roasted Pork. I can hear the crackling sound of the crispy pork skin while I bite into the succulent pork meat. The black fungus salad tastes great too. The light savoury sauce complements the crunchy black fungus extremely well. The deep-fried prawn is fresh and is nicely coated with the salted egg yolk sauce. Since I’m allergic to crustaceans, I can only trust my companion’s opinion. He said this tastes much better than the other restaurant that we had tried few days ago.

The excellent appetiser really works up my appetite. The Braised Fish Maw Broth with Conpoy came next. The starchy soup has a nice consistency and flavourful taste. Every mouthful is filled with quality ingredients such as fish maw, dried scallops and mushrooms.

Next is the Crispy Roasted Chicken with Black Truffles. This meat dish triumphs the first two dishes totally! The roasted chicken skin is thin and paper crisp while the meat is so tender and juicy. And the black truffles bring the meat dish to the next level. This is the best roasted chicken that I’ve ever had. By now, I’m so impressed with the food that I’m one step closer to gastronomic heaven.

Unfortunately, the noodle dish, which also is the last dish, failed miserably. It is such a let down. The texture of hand-pulled noodles is too dense and thick. Although the pan-seared scallops are good, that alone cannot save the awful noodles. The last dish really threw my companion and I back to earth. The whole experience was ruined by a badly executed noodle dish.

And it is only then, we realised that dessert is not included in the set dinner menu. Hello? Why not? Is this too costly to include a simple dessert to complete the meal and make the dining experience more enjoyable for your guests? And this incident brought back dreadful memories that I have of St Regis Singapore. This property/ management (excluding the spa) likes to stinge on every thing. That penny-pincher attitude really irks me. So far, all the restaurants that I’ve tried during the one-week promotion include dessert in the set menu.

My experience with Yan Ting is a bag of mixed feelings. The Cantonese restaurant obviously has some great dishes but the disappointing finish and miser attitude puts a dent to an otherwise pleasant experience.

P/s. To satisfy my sweet-tooth craving, I ordered and paid for the mango pomelo dessert.

Yan Ting, The St Regis Singapore
29 Tanglin Rd, Singapore 247911