Yan Ting, St Regis

After a less than satisfying lunch at Silk (had more to do with quantity than quality), I was absolutely looking forward to my sister's birthday lunch at Yan Ting.

Our time at Yan Ting was surprisingly good. Well, much is to be expected from a five star hotel but after experiencing some lackluster service from The Supper Club, I kept my expectations in check. That said, service throughout our visit was impeccable and I regret not taking note of the name of our chin-length-bob, early-thirties female server.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my dear sister! You get to keep Russell aka the bub for 48 hours! Just kidding, sweetie. Kinda... 

Some reviews had less than flattering things to say about the food but I thought it ranged from okay-good to really-good.

Though the marinated beef shank was an appetizer, it arrived considerably later than the dim sum, thus getting lost in the wave of steamed and deep-fried goodness. Tasty and tender enough though. 

The roasted duck while tender lacked a crisp skin (the previous offering at Silk was hard to top) while the roasted pork was good but not great as it was too lean. 

Last I remembered, the pan-fried radish cake was reasonably crisp and filled with much turnip. Had to remind myself not to fill up on this. 

The har gow and siew mai were both really really good. Please curb your enthusiasm before you bite into this scaldingly hot hat gow (painful lesson learnt).

The siew mai, a delectable balance of pork, shrimp and black mushrooms... Oh, I would go back just for this!

The steamed cheong fun with shrimp was a real dark horse. Deceptively plain-looking, each roll consisted of plump, crunchy shrimp wrapped in crisp deep-fried lattice layer before being wrapped again in filmy rice paper skin. A wonderful play of textures... Hell yeah, I'll be back for this too.

Steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce - love chewing on the soft bones. 

I liked the crumbly crust of the char siew soh but it was served lukewarm - unlike the piping hot pies that consistently come out of Imperial Treasure's kitchens. Could have been a contender... What a pity!

Steamed chicken claw with black bean sauce - a stalwart for us, a first for our Swedish guest. 

Crispy beancurd roulette with shrimp and seaweed - six pieces, eight of us; two people had to sacrifice, obviously not me when it comes to fried food. 

There were a few dishes - xiao long baos, salted yolk custard buns and mini custard eggs tarts that I didn't snap pictures of; they were decent but not my personal favorites to begin with, thus it's difficult to get excited over them.

The one dish I really didn't enjoy was the braised claypot mutton - an odd-tasting muddle of neither-here-nor-there flavors.

For our carb dish, my sister ordered the KL Hokkien noodles with seafood that was tasty enough with noticeable amounts of pork lard (mmm). There wasn't much of that 'wok hei' aroma that would hurl one off to the backstreets - perhaps to remind you that you were dining at St Regis after all.

For desserts, there were a few orders put in for the mango pudding and mango pomelo soup. I guess they must have been okay-good as no one was raving much about them though they were polished off.

I only had a sip of my mum's almond cream soup (yummy) before succumbing to the the delicious and yes, piping hot red bean and banana fritters.

But of course, I didn't order dessert for one very good reason - my sister's red velvet buttercream cake!

I swear every time I see a red velvet cake, I think to myself, no big deal but every time I tucked into a red velvet cake made by her, I get a mouthful of eat-my-words and foot-in-mouth along with some cake. 

Hugs and kisses before the meltdown...

For some celestial reason, all the men,including the bub, were dressed in checks for lunch.

Check us out, Mummy... Let's make a Scottish quilt!