Morsels of Délice: Jiang Nan Chun

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Jiang Nan Chun - Opulent

Many years ago, I had dined at Jiang Nan Chun once and was so unimpressed with the food that I wrote a bad review about the place and stopped going to there anymore. However, when I revisited this restaurant recently, due to the change of chef, things had improved remarkably. In fact, after the first recent visit, I went back two more times (though the experience of the one during CNY is not as stellar, more on this later).

As I had always said, I appreciate creativity or twist in dishes without compromising on the essence of the cuisine (meaning that Chinese food should still taste distinctively Chinese) and the new chef had pulled this off very well.

The Peking Duck here is definitely a league above its counterparts. The woody aroma of the roasted meat and skin of Peking Duck is immediately detectable when this dish is served. Paired with raw vegetables, specialty sauce, the oh-so-decadent caviar and thin dough skin, the result is an absolute opulent treat that pampers the senses.

I absolutely love the cod fish pastry which is moist and packed with a multitude of flavours, complemented by the flaky buttery puff dough—definitely one of the dim sum that cannot be found anywhere else. The one with foie gras is good also, but not as good as the cod fish one, and I cannot taste the foie gras at all. The steamed dim sum are decent also due to the use of fresh ingredients.

Avocado cream dessert is another favorite of mine. The creamy avocado cream complements the equally creamy coconut ice cream very well.

Made with quality, fresh ingredients, their regular dim sum items are good too.

I also appreciate their seasonal Hangzhou special, where I get to try several specialties of Hangzhou, since there is hardly any Hangzhou restaurants around here.

However, as with all Chinese restaurants, even the best, Jiang Nan Chun also faced a drop in the standard of food and service during CNY period. The cod fish pastry is not available and the foie gras pastry that came out onto our table looked to be in a sorry state—no puff, too brown, not as wholesome in taste. The service seemed to be still suffering from the hectic workload from the initial CNY days, being less friendly than usual (but is still pretty good, being responsive and polite, and is definitely better than those of a lot of other Chinese restaurants).

My advice for those who only want to try out a Chinese restaurant: Try not to go during CNY period until after the 15th day (where all the original line-up of dishes will be back). The restaurants during this period are more suitable for gatherings and not for benchmarking of the standard.