Nothing beats having a great meal at 50% discount. Yes, there are such good offers if you own the Palate privilege card. And my most recent “conquer” is Tung Lok’s Heen restaurant at Hotel Michael located within the Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore. Helmed by internationally renowned celebrity chef Susur Lee and veteran TungLok chef Ken Ling, Heen offers a wide range of contemporary and traditional Chinese cuisines.

Since my partner and I were there on a weekend, the privilege is only applicable to the set menu. And we opted for the SG$120++ Opulence 6-course set dinner menu. After placing our food order, we were told that there would be a wait of 30 minutes as the restaurant was rather crowded (about 75%).

The appetiser, Crisp-fried Wagyu Beef accompanied with Garden Salad Greens, is an innovative way of preparing the priced beef. The Wagyu beef is covered with a thin layer of shredded vegetables before being deep fried. The outer vegetable shell is crispy, and the wagyu beef is pinkish and tender. The sweet mustard dressing is not too over-powering and it complements priced beef perfectly.

Most environment activists will boycott the Braised Superior Shark’s Fin with Freshly-peeled Crab Meat served with Winter Melon Soup but I have to admit that the soup is pretty good. The generous amount of crab meat adds another layer of sweetness to the aromatic winter melon soup base.

The Steamed Catch of the Day with Black Garlic and Black Bean Paste is a common dish in most good Chinese restaurants.  The black bean paste’s sweet and salty taste is a perfect match for the freshwater Marbled Goby or Soon Hock (in Hokkien). The snow-white fish meat is fresh, smooth and flaky.

We were given a small glass of Homemade Seasonal Fruits and Green Apple Juice to cleanse our palate before they served us the Braised Boston Lobster in Superior Broth served with Sautéed Egg White (for my partner) and Char-grilled Kurobuta Pork Loin served with Teriyaki Sauce (for me). Cooked with the superior broth, the firm lobster meat and egg white is mouth-watering. Unfortunately, my Kurobuta pork loin is overdone and it came out a tad too dry. It was saved by the sweet teriyaki sauce which managed to camouflage the tough pork loin.

But my favourite has to be the Wok-fried ‘Mee Sua’ with Seafood in Black Peppercorn Sauce. The interesting presentation is noteworthy. The noodles is served in a fried seaweed bowl. The chef manages to balance the distinctive flavours from the various ingredients perfectly. The seafood’s sweetness harmonises nicely with the slightly bitter seaweed and savoury noodles.

However, I dislike the Green Tea Tiramisu stuffed with Bananas accompanied with ‘Mao Tai’ Ice-cream. I find it a little too pretentious, trying to be everything all at one time. To me, I feel that the bananas spoilt the tiramisu. I would have preferred a simpler green tea tiramisu.

Overall, Tung Lok’s Heen is a good but not great restaurant. The service was moving at a snail pace on a Saturday evening. And I cannot understand why I had to wait for 30 minutes before my meal was served when the restaurant was not even full. While I agree that it has some great dishes, it has some gaps to bridge before its food can be described as exquisite and refined.

Tung Lok’s Heen
Hotel Michael, 26 Sentosa Gateway,
#02-142/143, Singapore 098138
www.tunglokheen.com