We have been going to the NUSS Guild House for our CNY lunches the last couple of years. Sadly, although I generally find the food at the Guild House quite good, the CNY lunches have been awfully bad. It seems like they couldn’t go Chinese dishes well, or perhaps they couldn’t do big events. So this year, there being a new Guild House, new restaurant, and new celebrity chef (so we’re told), we were wondering if the food would be better. Well, we were quite pleased to find that the food quality is remarkably improved.
Here’s what we had on our menu.
Prosperity Salmon Yu Sheng: For starters, we had the obligatory Yu Sheng. I don’t think this is something that can go wrong. Just make sure everything is fresh, particularly the fish, and that the crackers are crispy. Our waitress, who’s not Chinese, did a remarkably good job of reciting all the Chinese well-wishes. We were all very impressed. Well done!
Braised Shark’s Fin with Crabmeat and Bamboo Pith: Too starchy in my opinion. There’s not much of the shark’s fin itself, plenty of the bamboo pith. I like bamboo pith, so actually having plenty of it is fine with me. But this is a shark’s fin dish, I’d expect more of shark’s fin. Maybe it’s got to do with the price of the menu.
Poach Live Prawns with Chinese Wine and Herbs: These were excellent. The prawns were fresh and juicy. The Chinese wine and herbs went very well with the prawns.
Cantonese Style Roast Chicken: The chicken was good too. I found the chicken pieces flavourful and juicy. Some colleagues thought it was not salty enough, but at least for the piece I got it was quite good.
Deep Fried Soon Hock with Superior Soya Sauce: Rather unusual to find fried fish. Usually it is with steamed fish that you can tell the culinary ability of the chef. But anyhow, the fish was not bad.
Braised Shell Abalone and Bailing Mushroom with Seasonal Vegetables: I thought the dish was quite disappointing. Some colleagues said that the mushrooms were quite nice. However, there were none left by the time the dish came to me (I guess the mushrooms must have been so good they were all finished that quickly).
Braised E-Fu Noodle with Dried Scallop: Nothing spectacular here.
Chilled Mango Cream with Sago: The dessert was quite nice.
Overall, I’d say The Scholar definitely served up a much better CNY lunch than what we ever had at the previous NUSS Guild House.
