Level 2, Hotel Intercontinental 80 Middle Road
Tel: 6825 1962 / 6228 7600
Operating Hours: Lunch: 11.30am – 3pm Dinner: 6pm – 10.30pm

While this classic Cantonese restaurant slops out the obligatory, bog-standard range of extortionate ‘delicacies’ such as bird’s nest, abalone and shark’s fin, this is another example of somewhere where it’s smart to go for the humbler, homier dishes. I went for the sea perch: it was pan-fried until translucent and yielding and topped with a pungent garlic-almond puree – simple, inexpensive and delicious. A spicy mango and lobster salad was lifted by sprigs of bitter frisee. These touches take these dishes far beyond their more expensive neighbours: one of the most outstanding dishes here was the soft, fork-tender pork ribs, finished off with smooth, aged Zhen Jiang vinegar. If you are desperate for shark, go for the poached vegetables in shark’s bone cartilage soup, served with a sprinkling of wolfberries: it combines the freshness of the vegetables with the richness of the seafood stock beautifully – beats swift spittle any day.