I first dined at Royal China in London years ago and have been to Royal China at Raffles Hotel Singapore several times. This lovely restaurant never disappoints. Although they’ve pulled out the original fittings to recreate a muted and more ethereal dining spot with a colour scheme sporting lots of white, baby blue and grey, service and the quality of food has remained the same.
Steaming buns of charsiew pau which oozes abundance of sweet charsiew sauce upon first bite, hargau (prawn dumplings) sit in light translucent wrappers, so fresh you want to feel them for a heartbeat.
I’d also recommend ordering a plate of their fried ee-fu meen. I have to admit that I have so much to learn about ordering the right dishes at Chinese restaurants, but growing up in a Cantonese household, it’s the only cuisine where I have confidence to say that I do a pretty decent job placing orders. It also makes me extra happy when the waitstaff speak Cantonese, taking the dim sum restaurant’s authenticity up a notch.
Fried Taro on the Cantonese menu as wutaukok. It’s a yam dish, deliciously deep fried, crusty, heavy and oh-so-tasty.
If you’re a big party, I suggest ordering every possible variation of the chee cheong fun. I believe the mastery lies in the perfect texture. The xiaolongbaos at Royal China are good, but when you’ve been spoilt in China, the xiaolongbaos elsewhere in the world simply don’t measure up.
Royal China Singapore
328 North Bridge Road
#03-09 Raffles Hotel Shopping Arcade, Singapore, 188719,
Tel: 6338 3363
