Imperial Treasure Steamboat for Father's Day

My dad is not an easy person to please. Ask him where he would like to go for a meal and he would say, "anything." However, if you suggest something off his invisible radar, be prepared to find yourself in hot soup and on the receiving end of eternal condemnation (cue evil laughter).

The initial plan was to head down to Cocotte for brunch as I had a consolatory 20% discount voucher for participating in their Weekend Brunch Photo Contest. However, my younger sister, who had tried brunch, didn't think much of it so we deftly stitched to Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant (#04-09/10 ION Orchard, Tel 6636 9339) for dad's Father's Day meal.

   

Now tell me, how can this face not win the contest? Such a sweetie poo! We should send him to North Korea to negotiate for peace - that is, unless they find his posterior more delectable than his pout. 

It was nice of the restaurant to offer our party of seven a private room. However, oddly enough, their private rooms aren't wholly private as we could hear whatever our neighbors were talking about, vice versa. No biggie, I guess. We weren't discussing state secrets or religious heresies. 

Anyway, lunch was predictably gooood =) We kicked off the meal with a bunch of dim sum favorites before immersing ourselves in a cyclical routine of of swish, dunk and chew. Oh, we tried their spicy mala soup for the first time too - I liked it!

Although steamboat at home can't be beaten for quality goods, the best-of-both-worlds allure of enjoying steamboat alongside freshly-made dim sum is hard to argue against. By now, it has also become a ritual to take a snapshot of my favorite child among the Imperial Treasure dim sum family - the char siew soh.