February 20, 2014

Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant @ Triple One Somerset, Orchard Road



Really grateful to have awesome and understanding friends who patiently waited more than an hour for me to finish my work, so that we can go ahead with our plans to have dinner at Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant. The venue was also partly chosen to accommodate 'swamp-with-work' me, it being situated at Triple One Somerset along Orchard Road which is just 3 minutes away from my office. I literally ran over to meet them. What can I say? I felt very 感动! What can we say? We were all totally famished!!! Let's get hot and steamy! Quick!


A steamboat meal at a commercial establishment can be broadly categorized as either a buffet or ala-carte affair. The former would be ideal when quantity yield higher satisfaction for the bottomless tummy pits, but since we girls are perpetually watching our weight, quality which is usually associated with the latter, triumphs.

Yes, quality food is definitely what we're expecting at this ala-carte steamboat dinner. Afterall, the Imperial Treasure group is notable for serving up authentic fine Chinese cuisine since 2004. I'm sure many of you would have dined at at least one of its 18 restaurants under their name, such as Imperial Treasure Noodle & Congee House, Windows of Hong Kong, La Mian Xiao Long Bao, and of course, the highly popular Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck Restaurant.


As with any respectable steamboat place, Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant features a wide array of fresh ingredients that are of premium grade and selection of ten soup bases for diner to choose from.

Our choice of Sichuan Spicy and Healthy Chicken for our twin-flavor pot can be considered a safe and classic combination to savor two extreme different soup bases in one meal, but they lose out in terms of boldness in flavors when compared to the ones I had at Hai Di Lao. Other offerings ranges from the more interesting Satay, Century Egg & Parsley, Seaweed & Kelp to the comparatively traditional Pork's Bone and Ginseng Chicken.

Instead of having to walk to a counter to concoct our own dipping sauce, a tray of 12 condiments are presented at our table. Not a huge assortment, but suffice with basics like Sichuan chilli, sweet chilli, peanut sauce, chopped garlic and spring onions.


If you are like my friends who are a bit indecisive when it comes to ordering, you could find yourself at the mercy of a server whom my friends thought was quite aggressive in pushing the more expensive items. A plate of 4-pieces luxurious Wagyu Beef goes for $56++, while prices for live seafood such as King Garoupa, Australia Abalone and Boston Lobster starts from $13++ to $22++ per every 100grams.

Other 'common' ingredients such as Vegetables ($3-$8), meat items of USA Kurobuta Pork Belly ($12), Lamb Shoulder ($14), Fresh Chicken ($6) and various Handmade Balls ($8-$10) are more affordable and will fit better into our budget. No one told my friends about the set menu, until I reached the restaurant and saw it on the last page of the menu book.

The Set Menu A at $108++ is good for 2-3 persons, and that's what we decided to go for eventually, as it includes a good mix of meat, seafood and vegetables, with a choice of one soup base (we topped up for a twin-flavor pot). When you don't know what to order, the set would be the easiest and fastest (no need to think so much).


Besides the Deep Fried Fish Skin, Deep Fried Spring Roll, Live Prawns, Sea Clam, Sliced Fish, Four Treasure Ball Platter, Shrimp Dumplings, Assorted Vegetables, Sliced Marble Beef, Kurobuta Pork Belly and Egg Noodle which are included in the set, we had additional orders of Sliced Chicken, Glass Vermicelli, Deep Fried Crispy Salted Beancurd and more balls, dumplings, and vegetables as well!

Funny how the 3 of us (all girls) were whining about gaining weight and discussing the benefits of overnight oats, but gorging ourselves with so much food at the same time! lol!

Usually when going for steamboat, I'd always whack all the meat only as I don't fancy those factory-made balls at all. But the Prawn Ball, Cuttlefish Ball, Canton Dace Fish Ball and Pork Balls at Imperial Treasure are really good. All handmade, with a fresh taste and delightful texture. The balls are a must-order!


The Shrimp Dumplings were excellent too, and surprise of the evening went to the Egg Noodle. We thought it's just another meaningless plate of carbs to fill us up but were wowed by its thin and springy texture which went extremely well with the Sichuan spicy broth.

I wouldn't say Imperial Treasure is my favorite steamboat restaurant, but it's certainly one of the classier ones. Convenience of location is a major plus point, and service is competent (as long as they're not too pushy during ordering). We all agreed that though it's more expensive than the usual, quality is at least there and money spent was worth it.



Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant
Website: http://www.imperialtreasure.com/en

Outlets
Triple One Somerset (Closed)
Address: 301-21/22/23, 111 Somerset Road, Singapore 238164
Contact: +65 67328231
Opening Hours:
Daily Lunch 11am-3pm / Dinner 6pm-3am

ION Orchard
Address: #04-09/10, 2 Orchard Turn, Singapore 238801
Contact: +65 66369339
Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri Lunch 11am-4.30pm / Dinner 6pm-10.30pm
Sat & Sun Lunch 11am-4.30pm / Dinner 6pm-11pm


1 comment:

  1. Actually, I went to the Raffles City Shopping Centre Branch but there was no link to that Branch.

    Extremely RUDE staff and BAD service. We made a reservation the day before for 12:00 noon and reached the restaurant earlier at 11:30am. We are not unreasonable people and we waited patiently for 30 minutes until 12pm. In this 30 minutes, the restaurant manager entertained several groups of customers that had the same number of people as us. These groups were all with queue numbers and did not make any reservations. We asked if he could serve us first and if we need to get the queue number instead, but he said no because we have a reservation at 12pm. Only after waiting until 12pm and after several groups with queue numbers had gone into the restaurant, did he ask us to go in. I asked him politely for an explanation and his reason was because he wanted to get us a sofa seat. But from my observation, clearly the groups before us with queue numbers were also given sofa seats.

    To be honest, is this even logical and does this even make sense??? I politely asked the manager if it is ok if i get a queue number and join the queue instead of waiting for the reservation at 12 because it seems to be faster that way but he insisted to keep me waiting. I understand that the F&B environment can be very demanding and stressful but please also kindly attend to the queries of your customers. We are not that demanding. We just hope the people who serve us can have a bit more common sense and handle things logically.

    I'm deeply disappointed in the services that were provided to me at this particular outlet. After reading the reviews in the other outlets for the Imperial Treasure Group, I'm adamant that such simple service in-competencies did not happpen to only me alone. I'm quite disappointed as I thought the food at Imperial Treasure was good but I don't think I will patronize your outlets again if this sort of service continues.

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