I was asking my colleagues for suggestions on places for dinner at Ion and one of them recommended me to try Paradise Dynasty which supposedly serves very interesting/colourful Xiao Long Bao. I was actually more keen on Taste Paradise after reading some rave reviews on it but unfortunately, as I didn’t make a reservation, we couldn’t get a table and had to be placed on the waiting list. In the end, we decided to opt for Paradise Dynasty (its sister restaurant) which was just a few units away on Level 4 of Ion Orchard, with high expectations that the food should not disappoint.

We were ushered to a table that was just opposite the visible kitchen where we could enjoy a busy scene of chefs at work. Every chef was a master of his own speciality – certainly no Jack of all trades here.

We started off with an appetizer of chilled Drunken Chicken. The strong fragrant taste of Shaoxing wine lingered on our tongues as we took a bite of the chicken pieces. Defiinitely one of the better drunken chickens I’d ever eaten. At least, they did use ‘undiluted’ wine.

Their signature dish would be this that came in 8 colours and flavours – original, ginseng, foie gras, black truffle, cheesy, crab roe, garlic and szechuan. Each customer would also receive a little slip of paper which indicates the sequence of devouring these little morsels so that the strongest flavoured one is to be eaten last. Though the creative idea had excited me, the taste had failed to delight me. The original and garlic ones were not too bad though.

Luckily these buns came in moderate sizes so I wouldn’t be overloading on carbs again. The base was slightly pan-fried. Skin of bun was a bit too thick but overall, it was ok. I’d prefer the pan-fried bun from Pu Tien to this.

I enjoyed the garlic, chilli and spring onions but the meat was a little tough and the flavour didn’t really go into the meat. Plus, it was oily and I got sick of it after having only one piece. The rest went untouched.

We had expected this to be something like the Cantonese carrot cake but to our dismay, it was just tasteless radish (all whitish looking and the chef probably forgot the salt) wrapped with pastry. Failed.

The paste was not too sweet which was good but the crust was a bit too thick and hard and tasted like the crust of a curry puff. It was a pity the dessert had failed to wrap up the meal. We paid and left the restaurant, feeling totally dissatisfied. What a disappointing meal indeed.