Some friends were visiting from overseas and I thought it’d be good to have them try the multi-coloured xiaolongbaos at Paradise Dynasty. OK, a little gimmicky, but we’re falling for it nonetheless. A bamboo basket of 8, each of a different flavour, costs S$13.80. Since all four of us wanted to try all the flavours, we ordered four of these baskets.


According to the instructions, you’re supposed to start with the original flavour and end with the Sichuan flavour. I, however, decided I’d go for the ones that I thought would test best as I wanted to eat them as fresh as possible. So I actually started with the Black truffle, foie gras and Sichuan ones. :p
My favourites were the Black Truffle and Sichuan xiaolongbaos. One of my friends said the Black Truffle xiaolongbao reminded him of Chinese mushrooms. Bite into the xiaolongbao and one can indeed smell, taste and see the black specks of truffle in the broth. The Sichuan xiaolongbao tingles your palate with its slightly spicy and delicious broth. If and when I return to eat here, I’m only going to order these two flavours.
The rest – original, garlic, ginseng, foie gras, cheesy and crab roe – were, to me, not bad but not mind-blowing. The ginseng might not be popular with people who don’t enjoy a herbal tang. In addition, I had a plate of egg fried rice to fill my carbohydrate quota. Short grain rice was used and it tasted OK. Not fantastic but edible.
Service was good with prompt refills with our tea cups. There are two waiters skilled in pouring tea with the teapots with extremely long spouts. I’ve seen such tea pots used in China but they are still a novelty in Singapore. God knows how long it takes to perfect the skill of pouring from such tea pots!
So my conclusion is that it’s a good place to take overseas visitors for the xiaolongbaos’ novelty factor, not to mention the fact that it’s also conveniently located. I believe I’ll be back if I need a xiaolongbao fix.
Paradise Dynasty
Ion Orchard #04-12A
Tel: 6509 9118