Canton Paradise (112 Katong)

Canton Paradise is the new dining concept of the Paradise Group. This first outlet in 112 Katong defines Oriental chic with its vibrant design. The restaurant sets out to capture the essence of Hong Kong with its offering of nostalgic Cantonese favourites and an array of Shunde cuisines.

The extensive all-day menu offers an affordable selection of Hong Kong classics, like roast meats, traditional dim sum, congee, wanton noodles, nourishing soups and claypot dishes.

 

One of their highlights in the dim sum menu is the soft Baked BBQ Honey Pork Bun ($4.50), which comes with sweet char siew bits. It looks similar to Tim Ho Wan’s Crispy Char Siew Bun but of course the taste differs.

Fried Pumpkin coated with Salted Egg Yolk & Mixed Nuts ($7.80) is something unique to the palate. The pumpkin is first battered, then deep fried before coated with salted egg.

When we talk about Hong Kong cuisines, we can never miss out the roast meat.

 

I love the Canton Crispy BBQ Pork ($15.80), where pure fatty pork has been slow roasted to perfection for 4 hours. Canton Paradise specially imported an oven to do this. The skin was crispy and the meat was seasoned all the way which gave an explosive burst of flavours.

Another crowd pleaser is the melt-in-the-mouth BBQ Pork Belly with Honey Sauce ($15.80). That bit of fat really gives it just the right amount of texture and juiciness.

The executive chef of Canton Paradise is Chef Hu Shu Sheng, who is a native from Guangzhou in China. He had made many study trips to Guangzhou and Hong Kong to seek inspiration and ideas of the restaurant.

 

Chef Hu has hence created a comforting Shunde-style poulty dish which is the smooth and flavourful Steamed Kampong Chicken in Canton Style ($15 half / $28 whole).  Came from Australia, the free range chicken is steamed for half an hour and served with a dipping bowl of flavoursome chicken jus. No, we aren’t eating any chicken rice with garlic chilli here. It’s traditional Shunde-style Steamed Kampong Chicken!

Canton Paradise’s Spring Water Tofu is prepared using premium soybeans that is full of proteins, and Danone Aqua natural mountain spring water that is rich in minerals. They are finely grinded and filtered 3 times to remove all residue, resulting in smooth and tender texture. The Steamed Lingzhi Tofu in Supreme Soya Sauce ($8.80) we had was very light in taste.

Of course, there is the claypot section featuring the fragrant Wok-fried Pork Belly with Salted Fish ($14.80). Another Shunde cuisine, the pork belly is cooked with a special sauce and chilli, which is very flavoursome!

OH, THIS IS A CHALLENGE. Seriously, not everyone of you will enjoy Poached Sea Bass with Pickled Cabbage in Fish Stock ($28.80). I love to eat chilli but this dish was too much for me.

 

Yes, there is generous silvers of sea bass fish. But the stock iss spiced with fresh green chilli, red chilli, dried chilli and peppercorns. The chef is definitely very generous with all the chilli and it tasted like any other sze chuan soup. Very very very spicy! Only one person in the tasting table managed to finish a small bowl (he was sweating).

From the classic Canton selection, I tried the Wok-fried Bean Sprout with Vermicelli and Salted Fish ($12.80). We usually eat the Hong Kong style wok fried noodles with some bean sprout. But here, the bean sprout became the star while the vermicelli became the accompaniment. There is very good wok hei in this dish.

A truly unique dessert creation is the Custard Glutinous Rice Ball with Grated Oat ($4.80 for 3 pieces). The sweetened custard gives a sweet ending to this meal.

 

I prefer the Chilled Red Bean & Yam Jelly ($4.20) though, because red bean and yam are my favourites. The jelly is very soft and smooth.

Not forgetting the Gula Melaka Milk Tea ($3.80), which was my saviour while I was eating the Poached Sea Bass with Pickled Cabbage in Fish Stock. Similar to Hong Kong milk tea, but the chef used Gula Melaka instead, very creative!

Address: 112 East Coast Road, #B1-15 I12 Katong

Tel: 6344 8201

Website: https://www.paradisegroup.com.sg/outlet-location-9/

 

There are currently 6 other outlets in Singapore. Visit the link above to find out more.