Taste Paradise @ Ion Orchard

Hello! Was craving for dim sum so my bf and I decided to visit Taste Paradise last Tuesday because according to Ladyironchef, it's one of the best dim sum restaurant in Singapore. Haha.

We reached at 11.45am and were told that our session would last till 1pm, which is sufficient for us since we are fast eaters. The restaurant is really classy and oriental and the service is really good! The moment we sat down, the waiter came to our table and took our order for drinks and throughout our meal, the waiters and waitresses would refill our tea and iced water without us asking. I think I sound really sua-ku but I think many restaurants are lacking this basic service. Anyway as usual, we ordered way too much but overall, everything we ordered were very delicious so I guess stuffing ourselves silly with all the dim sum was worth it. ^^

Jasmine tea

Deep fried taro puffs

This is the first dish that was served. I really like taro puffs so I really like this! It's crispy and yet not that oily, and there's a lot of fillings inside! I can't remember what's inside and I didn't take note of the name, but I guess it's chicken meat. A must-try especially if you love yam! :)

Char siew puff 

The char siew puff is another must-try! I am not a pork or meat lover, but the char siew inside is really sweet and just different from those you find in cheap char siew puffs! The pastry is also very buttery and flaky I really like it so much!

Taste Paradise famous XO carrot cake

This is the most expensive dish among all those that we've ordered! $7.80 for such a small portion with only around 6-7 rectangular pieces of carrot cake and lots of tau gey and egg is not really worth it in my opinion. However, it is really very tasty! Probably the best carrot cake I've tasted in my life haha. It's really fragrant with the XO sauce and it's very crispy on the outside too. Probably won't order this again but it's worth trying once! :)

Xiao long bao

I didn't try the xiao long baos because I don't really like them, but my bf who ate them said that there was not much soup when he tried the first one. He wasn't really impressed by this I guess but I've read many reviews that raved about this, so I guess he's just unlucky to get the drier ones.

Mini egg tarts

The mini egg tarts are really very yummy! You must order this! It's so flaky and buttery like the char siew puff and everything will just crumble in your mouth. The egg custard is also very "eggy" so I guess it's really worth the price ($3.90 for 3 of them I think) even though they are mini! ^^

What's on our table

Siew mai

I think this siew mai tastes normal? It's like the same as those I usually buy from coffeeshops, so I think I will probably skip this the next time I come.

By this time my stomach was already filled to the brim :/

Yeah, seriously by the time our 5th dish was served, I was really very very full. I think it's because I started my meal with those flaky pastries? :( So yup, try not to eat the taro puffs, char siew puffs and egg tarts first!!

Left: Custard buns; Right: Har gao

Sorry for the blur photo but it's supposed to be a mandatory salted-egg-custard-oozing-out photo! Hahaha

Haha how can anyone having a dim sum feast not order custard buns right? The salted egg custard is sweet yet salty but I felt quite jelat after eating one. Also, I've only tried custard bun once from Kungfu Paradise which is also under the Paradise group, so I guess that explains why I think the custard buns from Taste Paradise were not exactly noteworthy as they taste about the same to me. But it's still yummy and my bf who has never tried those from Kungfu Paradise really loved it. :)

Har gao

I love har gaos but I don't really think this is a must-order from Taste Paradise but then again, I was really full by the time this was served, so maybe that's why I wasn't really interested in this. Anyway the skin is thin and  the prawns in each of them are huge and fresh! I find it a tad too dry though but I think I will still order this again.

Cheong fun with scallop filling

Last dish to arrive, cheong fun with scallop filling. It doesn't really look appealing as compared to the others but it's delicious! I can't taste the scallops, but the cheong fun is really bouncy yet sturdy, instead of those slippery and easily breakable kind from the markets. :)

Okay that's all haha. We ordered 9 dishes because we thought it's not enough, like each dish only has 3 small dim sum but nooooo all of them are so filling we wanted to die from trying to finish them all! In the end we left one har gao, one siew mai and 2 pieces of cheong fun untouched. And like what I've mentioned about the good service, the waiter asked if we want to takeaway the leftovers. :') So nice!

Anyway, I didn't really take note of the prices but most of them are around $4.80 per dish, except for the mini egg tarts ($3.90), scallop cheong fun ($5.50) and XO carrot cake ($7.80). Our bill added up to around $65 which I think is quite reasonable since we ordered 9 dishes with a pot of tea haha. Not really sure if this is the BEST dim sum restaurant as I haven't try the rest but I would definitely be coming back on special occasions or if I'm feeling slightly richer. :)

/edited on 4 May 2013: By the way, Cheryl went recently at around 2pm and some of the things she wanted to try such as the custard buns were out of stock already! Remember to go earlier! :)

Taste Paradise Ion Orchard 
2 Orchard Turn #04-07
ION Orchard
Tel: +65 6509 9660 | http://www.paradisegroup.com.sg/?page_id=131&mn=tp

-Liwee