I love dim sum, as you might be able to tell from this blog so far – a variety of tasty bite-sized morsels of meaty, juicy, crispy or even sweet treats – you name it. And across my many enjoyable experiences of this wonderful Chinese invention, there is one restaurant chain in Singapore that I would like to highlight.
And that is the Imperial Treasure Group. So far, I’ve been to their outlets in Tampines, Great World City, ION Orchard and 111 Somerset for both dim sum and regular Chinese fare, and none have really disappointed me yet. In addition to great dim sum, they also do a mean roast duck, delicious soya sauce chicken, as well as other quality various stir fry dishes and Chinese noodle dishes.
For the dim sum, what really stood out for me was their Char Siew Sou – which I hardly ever order at restaurants because I don’t usually fancy it, as those I had tried before had crust that was too thick and cakey and meat that was not very flavourful – but the one at Imperial Treasure, oh my. It was good stuff. After biting into a light flakey crust bursting with generous and rich tasting char siew chunks inside, I was a convert.
The other dim sum delights (pictures above and below) like the Har Gao (Steamed Prawn Dumplings), Steamed Mushroom Dumplings and Scallop or Prawn Cheong Fun (Rice Rolls) also fared pretty well – I particularly like the scallop rice rolls, with their juicy filling of scallop, smooth rice roll wrapping and lightly salty soy sauce.
The Mushroom Dumplings are really chock full of earthy mushrooms in a thin crystal skin – I’d say it might not be not for everyone though, as the mushroom taste is pretty strong. The Har Gaos were good quality but pretty standard – one thing good was that the skin was pretty thin, allowing the sweet and juicy prawns to shine.
The Fried Carrot Cake was also quite delicious, fried to a tender crisp on the outside but still tender and soft on the inside. The Deep Fried Prawn Dumplings though rather delectable and exquisite, unfortunately lacked the plump and juicy filling that I usually prefer this dish to have. For the steamed Liu Sa Paus (salted egg yolk custard buns), it is a bit hard for me to comment as I’ve usually had them somewhat cold or slightly overcooked (as I requested for it to be left on the steamer to be kept hot) as I must have it only at the end of the meal and my companion prefers it to be served with everything else – but from what I remember, it seemed like it had the potential to be really bursting with warm and smooth liquid and flavour.
Was also rather glad that they provided chilli that was the really rich, fried deep red sambal type, instead of the processed slightly sweet light red type (though I do think the latter can be quite nice too).
For the stir fried dishes, some I’ve tried at the ION branch were the Chicken in Claypot in Clam Sauce (excellent), Kung Po Chicken (quite good), Steamed Fish with Lily Bulbs (excellent – the fish was so smooth and well executed), Seasonal Vegetable with Three Types of Egg (again excellent – the light broth sauce from the eggs was tasty yet not too rich or overpowering), Deep Fried Prawns with Lemon Sauce (not too bad). The roast meats there were rather delicious as well – especially the really tasty and juicy duck!
We also tried a rather interesting noodle dish at the Great World City branch – Flat Egg Noodles (Mee Pok) with Shimeji Mushrooms and Truffle Oil – which was wonderfully truffle-infused without being overpowering, and complemented the light and earthy taste of the mushrooms and the egg-y flat noodles. I really liked it. And they also have some other unique noodle medleys as well.
Their Chinese tea is also enjoyable and goes fabulously with the dim sum – my favourite one to have at Imperial Treasure is Ju-Pu – Chrysanthemum mixed with Pu-er. As for service, it is pretty standard really; although one time when we went to the Great World City branch, some of the wait staff had somehow managed to mess up one or two orders, resulting in some food delays and minor displeasure. But that was the only lapse and it was still tolerable, so I’d definitely go back for the high quality, delicious and reasonably priced food.
And it’s apparently not just me who likes this chain – Imperial Treasure outlets seem to almost always have queues during mealtimes – so I’d suggest you call in advance for seats if you wish to pay them a visit!
I also heard that the Marina Bay Sands branch has a really nice ambience and great food, so going to check that out next.
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Imperial Treasure Cantonese Cuisine
1 Kim Seng Promenade
#02-06 Great World City
Tel: 6681 6424
Imperial Treasure Nan Bei Restaurant
10 Tampines Central 1
#02-04 Tampines 1
Tel: 6484 3323 I
mperial Treasure Noodle & Congee House
2 Orchard Turn
#B3-17 ION Orchard
Tel: 6509 8283
Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant
111 Somerset Road
#02-21/22/23 TripleOne Somerset
Tel: 6732 8231
Ingredients of Happiness 
Actually, I went to the Raffles City Shopping Centre Branch but there was not link to that Branch.
Extremely RUDE staff and BAD service. We made a reservation the day before for 12:00 noon and reached the restaurant earlier at 11:30am. We are not unreasonable people and we waited patiently for 30 minutes until 12pm. In this 30 minutes, the restaurant manager entertained several groups of customers that had the same number of people as us. These groups were all with queue numbers and did not make any reservations. We asked if he could serve us first and if we need to get the queue number instead, but he said no because we have a reservation at 12pm. Only after waiting until 12pm and after several groups with queue numbers had gone into the restaurant, did he ask us to go in. I asked him politely for an explanation and his reason was because he wanted to get us a sofa seat. But from my observation, clearly the groups before us with queue numbers were also given sofa seats.
To be honest, is this even logical and does this even make sense??? I politely asked the manager if it is ok if i get a queue number and join the queue instead of waiting for the reservation at 12 because it seems to be faster that way but he insisted to keep me waiting. I understand that the F&B environment can be very demanding and stressful but please also kindly attend to the queries of your customers. We are not that demanding. We just hope the people who serve us can have a bit more common sense and handle things logically.
I’m deeply disappointed in the services that were provided to me at this particular outlet. After reading the reviews in the other outlets for the Imperial Treasure Group, I’m adamant that such simple service in-competencies did not happpen to only me alone. I’m quite disappointed as I thought the food at Imperial Treasure was good but I don’t think I will patronize your outlets again if this sort of service continues.
Wow hi there I’m so sorry to hear that! I never really experienced something like that at the Imperial Treasure outlets I had visited but it seems they are always busy and so might have some service lapses… many establishments do tend to neglect their customers sometimes, something which really eludes understanding to me but at the end of the day, it’s really a balance of what they offer and how much one can tolerate to get the good/service that one wants…! Anyway all the best should you decide to try it again 🙂
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for the reply 🙂 Usually I’m cool about it but yesterday’s incident just doesn’t make sense to me… Anyways, I’m all good now… Just wanted to rant it off at all the food blogs that I have been following (since I just quietly left the restaurant)… Usually I just read your posts and don’t really comment much… ( this really explains how upset I was yesterday lol)… yeah they were probably short of staff cuz it’s a new outlet but likewise, it still baffers me how such things can actually happen in our F&B industry… Anyways, thanks for the reply… Keep up the good work 🙂
Cheers!