Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant

When it comes to dim sum, I am always on the lookout for new experiences and locations, so when I found out that Si Chuan Dou Hua did high tea dim sum, I booked a table so I could bring my mum for the experience

Located on the 60th floor of UOB Plaza, the restaurant offers panoramic views of the Singapore skyline

A popular choice for business lunch and dinners, the restaurant has many private rooms, and each table is well spread out from the others to offer its customers the privacy for business conversations. They were running a promotion for parents’ day, so I quickly made a reservation

The parents’ day imperial high tea set at SGD 48 (before tax) comes with one tea or coffee and a welcome cocktail. The cocktail drink has osmanthus rice wine. For the tea, you can choose between pu’er, longjing, dahongpao, huang ya and dian hong. The tea is served in an individual small glass pot with its own warmer stove

The first course was the steamed dim sum, which included steamed siew mai with organic turnips, steamed organic mushroom dumpling and steamed shrimp and minced meat dumpling with wormwood. The turnips were overflowing but quite bland in flavour, and the best item in this trio was the prawn dumplings, which had a good amount of soup paired with the tender meat and thin skin

The next set being served is the fried items, which include a curry puff and a deep-fried radish pastry with dried scallops. This group of items were stronger in flavours and paired with the crispy pastry skin, and by the time the fried courses are done, we were half full

The next dishes were the boiled cabbage dumpling and organic spinach noodles with minced meat in a superior broth. The broth was clear and refreshing without being too salty. It was a rather simple bowl of comforting noodles without being too complicated, while the dumplings were pretty normal

For desserts, there was the homemade beancurd with wolfberries in syrup. The beancurd was smooth, and you could taste the light bean flavours. This was a nice dessert to end the meal, and easy on the stomach since it was not too sweet

The last dessert was a sweet bun shaped like a green apple, with a nice, chewy skin and a sweet filling. There was no surprise for the bun, but the skin was smooth and soft

Overall, the restaurant was more atmospheric than having overly fantastic dishes. It might just be the set, which was quite a let-down, but the cooked dishes might be their forte

Address: 80 Raffles Place #60-01, #1 UOB Plaza, 048624

Opening hours: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm and 6.30 pm to 10.30 pm