Min Jiang

Specialising in classic Sichuan and Cantonese cuisine, Min Jiang’s food is conservative but not tedious. It’s an oldie but evergreen goodie, where you’d go to for comforting familiar fare.
We ate:
1) Prosperity Abalone Lo Hei ($ 78 for small): nuanced and balanced. Not too sweet, just the way I like it. We supplemented with Crispy Salmon Skin ($ 22)
2) Crabmeat Tofu ($ 44): Min Jiang uses fresh crabmeat, thankfully, instead of frozen meat. Loved the gravy.
4) Roasted Peking Duck ($ 38 for small): Paper-​crisp skin, with nary a trace of fat, swaddled in soft egg rolls and burnished with sweet hoisin and fresh chives. The prawn crackers was a nice touch, I hardly see that served alongside peking duck anymore.
5) Deep Fried Sea Grouper with Sweet & Sour Sauce ($ 105 at $ 15/​100gm): sparkling fresh, lightly battered and fried to a delectable crisp, served swimming in a pool of sweetly piquant gravy dotted with peppers.
6) Mango Pomelo ($ 8): smooth, creamy and refreshing
7) Ingot Flower Tea ($ 8.80 per glass): kitschily served as a tight coil, which unwinds with the introduction of hot water. Expensive but really lovely tea.

In the Goodwood Park hotel off of Scott’s… Ok, it’s Chinese food — what’s exciting is that it’s good and the setting next to the pool is pleasant. Started with the crispy rice — beautiful broth with succulent chunks if scallops, white fish, and shrimp. Then on to the roasted chicken with slivered almonds paired with the «four treasures» vegetables. There was only two of us but this could of easily fed a family of four. The roast chicken was lovely — nice crispy skin, moist chicken and the slivered almonds are an abundant delight mixed with just the right herbs! The four treasures were broccoli, asparagus, Chinese broccoli and mushrooms — treasures for sure. Felt like authentic main land service — adequate but making you want a bit more. Definitely going back. If you don’t want al fresco you’ll want to make reservations.

The dining room and environment are very nice. You overlook the hotel’s pool, and the dining room itself has a nice welcoming feeling. I came in for the dim sum buffet, so the offering were a bit limited. While the variety wasn’t particularly impressive, all the standard dim sum offerings were there. I thought everything tasted pretty good, but nothing individually stood out. At $ 55 a head it was on the pricey side. Nonetheless I enjoyed the meal, but wasn’t blown away.

I feel like I’m missing out a great part of the Min Jiang experience because the family’s never been there for their Peking duck – when they custom-​build a roasting oven you know they’re hard-​core!
We do like the place for dim sum though, a nice enough range (steamed, fried/​baked, sweets), and a tea menu with 8-​ish choices means there’s something for everyone. You can also order off the ala carte menu too – we did that today because vegetables are unfortunately not a dim sum food! The char siew pastry and the scallop dumplings were standouts; the goldfish dumpling (stuffed with prawn lah) was super adorable.
It wasn’t very crowded when we were there (we had an early seating) so I’m not sure why service was patchy. And some of the dumplings (siew mai, for example), was stuffed with chicken instead of pork. Still, decent dim sum in handsome surroundings.

Min Jiang is a great place to come for dim sum, with a relaxing view of the Goodwood Park Hotel swimming pool. I come with my family several times a year and we’ve always had a great time here. We come for the a la carte dim sum during lunch on weekends. The restaurant usually asks that you leave before 3pm, which is when they start serving a high tea dim sum buffet.
I’ve never tried the buffet as I heard that the standard is not as good when compared to a la carte. I suppose if you’re not very fussy and don’t mind walking to the buffet table to help yourself, then the buffet will suit you fine. Otherwise, the a la carte dim sum is served to you by staff rolling around the carts. Dim sum here is very fresh and not as expensive as you might think it is. I especially like the steamed scallop dumplings, siew mai and fried prawn dumplings. For dessert, try the mango sago.