Took my family out for lunch one nice Sunday afternoon, and decided to try out Royal China at Raffles Hotel. Heard pretty good things about it, though reviews on Hungrygowhere seemed to be rather mixed.

So we went there, and had a pretty good experience – firstly the ambience and design were really nice, classy and modern with a light blue and white colour scheme – much unlike the usually rowdy, very Chinese type decor. Of course, I’m not saying that the latter isn’t good, but sometimes having the former can be quite refreshing too. Service was pretty normal, though we were kept waiting for pretty long for some orders, as it appeared that they had forgotten them – the chee cheong fun and steamed custard buns.

I usually don’t believe in ordering dishes with shark fins in them to avoid cruelty to sharks, but since  my parents like it… sorry sharks. It was really quite good though! Came with a fresh leafy kailan too, and a flavourful but light broth.

Following that, we had the usual har gao, siew mai and scallop dumpling dim sum baskets. The latter two were pretty unique – the siew mais came with wolfberries and plump mushrooms, and the scallop dumplings with some black roe garnishing. All of these were tasty and firm, and seemed to be of pretty good quality.

We also had some really delicious crabmeat ee-fu noodles, with big, fat juicy pieces of crabmeat. Okay, I’m probably kind of biased because I absolutely adore crab and its slightly sweet yet savoury flavour encased in a springy meat. This was nicely done, as they kept the pieces chunky and the sauce fairly light and not too overpowering. And the meat was placed on top of the noodles, not fried with it, so it was not overcooked. Quite a generous portion too.

And finally, the last two dishes arrived – the Royal China chee cheong fun (1 roll char siew, 1 roll scallop and 1 roll prawn), and the steamed custard bun. The Royal China chee cheong fun was quite nice as the skin was not too powdery or thick. But overall pretty normal though it was nice to have some variety in the filings.

And the steamed custard buns, or also known as liu sha paus, were actually very much a delight! I absolutely love it when the salty and sweet egg yolk custard paste oozes out from the soft, fluffy bun. And oh did this one burst out in joyous song when bit into. The contrast in both texture and favour was just… heavenly.

I would most definitely go back there again. Plus, the prices were pretty reasonable, at an average of $5 per basket. Including some other items not mentioned here like porridge, roast duck, tea, spent about $130 for 4 people.

Great for a lazy Sunday brunch treat for the family!

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Royal China
1 Beach Road
#03-09 Raffles Hotel
Tel: +65 6338 3363